H(us)H Campaign launched by Saint Mary’s students

A purple wall of sticky notes outside of Noble Family dining Hall served as a visual representation of the H(us)H campaign. H(us)H, a project created by students in professor Terri Russ’s Public Communication class, is aimed to be a “dynamic and impactful domestic violence awareness campaign” to bring awareness to the ongoing violence and foster a community of change.

Russ was assisted by senior Teagan Thomas in creating the assignment, and she offered insight to the mission of H(us)H.

“H(us)H is a community campaign that seeks to empower individuals, raise awareness and drive collective action to break the cycle of abuse,” Thomas said.

Thomas explained the acronym stands for “Help (us) Heal.”

“With this campaign we are trying to bring awareness to the issue and help survivors of domestic violence heal,” Thomas said.

H(us)H is involved with both the community on campus and the South Bend community, Thomas said. She explained the significance of the wall outside of the dining hall and how the class is working to combat domestic violence locally.

“We provided resources for those who are being affected and had a two day event in the student center at Saint Mary’s,” Thomas said. “We were creating a purple wall. Purple is the official color of domestic violence awareness, and we had purple sticky notes available to the students and faculty to write their stories or words of encouragement to those affected.”

Russ gave her class a lot of creative liberty when designing this campaign, Thomas said.

“The students were assigned to create a campaign about domestic violence. It was a community campaign that would bring attention to the cause as well as support the efforts of the YWCA in South Bend,” she explained.

The assignment was driven by the students, and H(us)H fostered community in the classroom due to how reliant the students were on one another for the project, Thomas said.

“We gave the students the tools on how to create a campaign and let them do the rest.” she said.

Thomas said the group spent time bouncing ideas off of each other during classes while they were waiting for an idea they all liked.

“One class, a particular student came in with this idea and the whole class had a collective ‘ah ha.’ It was the spark of inspiration we were all looking for,” Thomas said.

Thomas discussed what it means to be a part of Russ’s class and to have assisted with the H(us)H campaign.

“It is so much more than just your average class. It is being a part of something greater and knowing that you are doing good work for women in the community and everywhere,” Thomas said. “It makes going to your class worth it when you are creating such an impactful campaign that is helping so many.”