In May 2010, Yeardley Love was a senior lacrosse player with a promising future at the University of Virginia. Just three weeks before she was set to graduate, she was beaten to death by her ex-boyfriend. This shocked nobody more than her mother, Sharon Love.
A few weeks after her daughter was killed, a group of people approached Sharon about the possibility of starting an educational foundation in Yeardley’s name. The foundation would be aimed at spreading awareness for domestic abuse among young women from ages 16 to 24, a population three times more likely to be victims. It took nearly two years, but Love finally agreed and the One Love Foundation was formed.
The group travels the country, presenting workshops to students and others, and advocates for victims of relationship violence. Love and two representatives from the foundation, Emily Lloyd and Melinda Caltabiano, along with the UW-Madison One Love chapter, presented their Escalation Workshop to students and interested community members Monday.
The presentation was based upon the film that was shown at the event, "Escalation," that described the warning signs of an abusive relationship and “creating a safe zone for discussing an all-too-common problem” according to the UW-Madison group.
Speakers in a panel discussion following the screening, stressed the importance of being both able to identify abusive relationships and making sure that those affected find the help they so desperately require.
Lloyd, while explaining their part in creating online content as a resource, said, “We do excellent work to make people aware of healthy and unhealthy relationships.”
One Love has various national and local resources listed on their website, along with a series called “That’s Not Love,” which is aimed at educating young people about what is and is not normal. Love noted that awareness and empowerment will lead to the biggest change in statistics, that “this is what to look for and if you see this, get out, get away, because this is what it could lead to.”
“We hope when you walk away you are more empowered to take this issue on and do something about it,” Love said.
The UW-Madison One Love group has goals to reach every student organization on campus, present 20 more Escalation workshops and have 1,600 trained facilitators in the next few years, according to information given at the event. All of these efforts would contribute to the group’s movement toward increased education, empowering the community to make a change, to live safer and to save lives.
