YWCA Week Without Violence: Marching with a mission

Friday marked the end of the Week Without Violence campaign for the YWCA. While the campaign came to an end, the mission continues.

The campaign is geared towards raising awareness around abuse.

Governor Laura Kelly and Topeka Public School Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Anderson led the way down Topeka Blvd. with a message to stop abuse.

“Awareness. How much this goes on and how much we need to do,” Gov. Kelly said.

The YWCA campaign is designed to help raise the awareness that more needs to be done to stop the violence. Be it in our homes, in the streets, and now - even more so - in schools.

“Over 20%, whether you’re looking at high school or college, will experience some level of violence that age range, from hitting to raping to all other kinds of violence on the spectrum attributed to dating,” Dr. Anderson pointed out.

The goal of raising awareness also comes with prevention programs. Gov. Kelly, who also has a background in early childhood development, said it’s also about teaching children at an early age.

“If we were to invest heavily in early childhood, we could mitigate a lot of these issues. Catch them before they happen,” said Kelly.

The YWCA has already started a lot of programs within schools to help children better understand the difference between right and wrong.

“They were talking about boundaries and safety. Safe touches and they said we were so impressed the young people already knew what boundaries were,” said Dr. Anderson remembering a presentation in one school.

While the YWCA continues their mission with the youth of Kansas, they also say it’s up to everyone to stop the violence, and that there is help available for anyone who needs it.

“All people. All ages. All races. All socioeconomic backgrounds we know are affected by this issues. So if they are, we want them to know to come and utilize our services,” said Michelle McCormick with the YWCA.

To learn more about the YWCA’s programs, you can visit their website at