CONWAY — Countless women and men go about their everyday lives hiding the physical bruises and mental pain of domestic abuse, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
The Women’s Shelter of Central Arkansas in Conway is bringing domestic violence to people’s attention through Risen From Silence. The third annual event will take place from 6-8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 516 E. Sixth St.
The evening will include heavy hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction and a keynote speaker, domestic-
violence survivor Brandi Smith of Conway. Tickets, which are $50 each, are still available on eventbrite.com by searching for Risen From Silence 2018, or by contacting the shelter office at (501) 358-6219. A table for eight can be purchased for $375; sponsorships are $500.
Carrie Curtis, executive director of the Women’s Shelter of Central Arkansas, said the name Risen From Silence is symbolic of women, or victims, “taking back their lives.”
She said the purpose of the event is twofold.
“We wanted to do something for awareness — not that we don’t fundraise — but we also wanted to do something where we intimately talked to the community about the reality of domestic violence,” she said.
Here’s the reality: One in three women and one in four men have experienced some form of violence by an intimate partner, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
A visual reminder of the impact of domestic violence will be on display at the event through Silent Witness, life-size cutouts of women, men and children who have been killed.
Also, the keynote speaker, Smith, is “very inspiring,” Curtis said.
Smith made comments at last year’s event, but since then, “she’s got her grounding on what she wants to do out of this experience, which is to help empower women. She wants to start an advocacy group. Just the growth in her the past year has been amazing, to endure all she did,” Curtis said.
Smith said she has undergone 15 surgeries since a September 2016 incident in which her now ex-husband, Steve Perry, allegedly beat her — including trying to pull her eye out of its socket and kicking her teeth out, and dragging her alongside a car, according to police reports. Perry is in a Tennessee jail in lieu of $350,000 bond, charged with two counts of attempted first-degree murder, one count of aggravated assault and two counts of “especially aggravated kidnapping,” according to the Shelby County District Attorney General’s Office in Memphis.
Smith said that although she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, she is healing.
“Physically for sure, and mentally, I’m doing so much better,” Smith said. “I still go to therapy. I’m also going to go around to tell my story and tell about sexual violence and domestic violence.”
She said even if the abuser is incarcerated or dead, the effects linger.
“We are still victimized. … We still have the emotional burdens,” she said.
Her plan is to start a support group, Bringing Out Strong Survivors, or BOSS, to give women a place to have fun and make friends with women who have been through similar situations.
“I’ve been working on it for a while,” Smith said. “I just know this is my purpose, so I’m excited.”
Smith said she also wants to help the Women’s Shelter of Central Arkansas raise money.
Barbara Jackson, chairwoman of Risen From Silence, said it takes $100 a day to run the shelter, “to feed [each resident], clothe them, house them.” Services offered include counseling and support-group meetings.
“One thing that hinders us,” Jackson said, is that unlike other organizations, “we don’t have a flashy facility to show people. It is an undisclosed location.”
Thursday’s silent auction will include a variety of items, including restaurant gift certificates and jewelry.
She said donations and volunteers are needed to provide what the women at the shelter need, “and they may show up in the middle of the night and need some care and need that helping hand.”
The shelter’s crisis hotline is (866) 358-2265.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.