Carbondale marks Women’s History Month with Dinner & Dialogue event
FOX23 News at 9 p.m
CARBONDALE, Ill. (KBSI) — Carbondale’s “At the Table” Dinner and Dialogue series marked Women’s History Month Tuesday night by connecting decades of women’s advocacy to the realities survivors of gender-based violence face in Southern Illinois today.
The City of Carbondale partnered with the Survivor Empowerment Center to host the community discussion at the Carbondale Civic Center. This month’s theme, “Strength, Survival and Solidarity,” focused on historic movements while highlighting local support services available to survivors.
Angela Odom, executive director of the Survivor Empowerment Center, said the theme reflects the organization’s daily work.
“So tonight is about strength, survival and solidarity,” Odom said. “That’s the work that we do at Survivor Empowerment Center. We help people find their strength to survive the violence they have been subjected to, and then we move forward together in solidarity.”
The Survivor Empowerment Center serves eight counties across Southern Illinois, providing emergency shelter, counseling, legal and medical advocacy, prevention education and transitional housing for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
Odom said rural communities can face additional challenges when it comes to accessing help.
“In southern Illinois, one of the biggest challenges we see are barriers to receiving services because people live in rural areas or don’t have immediate access to hospitals or law enforcement,” Odom said.
Community members who attended said conversations like Tuesday’s event create space for understanding and engagement.
“I think conversations like this matter because a lot of people deserve their voices to be heard,” attendee Madalyn Parrish said. “The more events like this you have, the better — it gives people something to reach toward and learn from each other.”
Odom said community dialogue plays a role in prevention efforts.
“When we have conversations like this, that can lead us to solutions and really to reducing violence in our communities,” she said.
The “At the Table” Dinner and Dialogue series continues on the first Tuesday of each month through June.
