With planning just getting underway for the second annual Purple Ribbon Campaign in April, organizers are taking a look at the success of last year's in order to build on it.

Last spring's inaugural campaign was designed to raise awareness about domestic violence and was backed by various groups, organizations and local government.

Heather Ney, executive director of the Comox Valley Transition Society (CVTS), said the campaign was a success that lasted longer than the three weeks it ran for.

"There was a lot of positive engagement with the issue throughout the campaign period, and it continued on — just a heightened awareness in general of the issue and of the services (available)," said Ney.

Comox Valley RCMP domestic violence section Const. Tanya Vandermolen said there were a handful of victims that came forward to report abusive situations as a direct response to the campaign shortly after it happened.

While she said she's unsure if it's directly related to the campaign, she has seen an increased awareness and knowledge of the community's victim services.

"I think that there's a general increase in the familiarity with the community resources, or just the knowledge that there actually is community resources," said Vandermolen, adding that referrals between victim service organizations is also on the rise. "I've noticed greater partnerships among the community agencies involved."

As to whether the campaign actually reduced the number of domestic violence incidents in the Comox Valley, Ney said it's hard to say for a couple of different reasons. First of all, domestic violence incidents are under-reported.

"There's a lot of fear associated with reporting, you know, 'there'll be consequences if you involve the police' from the abusing partner, so that's why it goes so under-reported," explained Ney.

Also, some domestic violence statistics from the Comox Valley RCMP are up for 2011 and some are down. While parent/child disputes are down to 33 in 2011 from 50 in 2010, spousal/partner disputes are up to 248 for 2011 from 209 in 2010.

Ney said the rise could be due to a higher comfort level with the issue.

"An increase could indicate a comfort level and a confidence in our police detachment, or that they'll be protected or safe if they do report," said Ney.

Jennifer Woods, a Community Based Victim Services domestic violence worker based at the Comox Valley Family Services Association, points out that statistics can be hard to measure because it depends on how cases are categorized during filing.

However, her case load is on the increase. In 2010 she had 123 criminal charge files and 211 non-criminal charge files. In 2011 she had 140 criminal charge files and 222 non-criminal charge files.

She agrees that the campaign was successful in generating awareness of the issue but suggests more awareness of funding issues for victim services in the Comox Valley is needed.

"I think that there could be awareness that these services need more financial support whether it's from the government, or the City or donations," said Woods, adding that she hasn't seen an increase in base funding from government for over seven years.

"If they could focus the campaign as well to talk about the lack of funding to support women and children that are needing these services, that would be a good thing." She also mentioned that some men told her they felt left out of the campaign and suggested men's victim services be addressed as its own issue.

Last year's campaign was spearheaded by past Courtenay Mayor Greg Phelps. As Phelps was not re-elected Ney said CVTS has taken over as the main organizer.

While Phelps said he won't be involved in this year's Purple Ribbon Campaign from a City standpoint, he would be happy to help out as a Comox Valley citizen, and he hopes the City will again contribute to the initiative.

"I had tried to ensure that future councils would at least budget for it for the next two years, and possibly even longer, so I'm hoping it will continue again this year," said Phelps.

Courtenay Mayor Larry Jangula said he is meeting with organizers soon and while the City hasn't passed the budget yet, it will "most likely" contribute the same amount as last year, which was $3,500.

This year, the campaign will run for two weeks from April 15 to 21 during Prevention of Violence Against Women Week, and April 22 to 28 during National Victims of Crime Awareness Week and BC Victims of Crime Awareness Week, according to Ney.

Anyone who would like to sponsor a banner, has a place to put a banner or poster, would like purple ribbons for their staff or clientele, or would like to volunteer with distribution of campaign materials is asked to contact Heather Ney at 250-897-0511 or cvts-ed@shaw.ca.

She said she hopes even more of the community will get involved this year.

"We're hoping that we'll see more of our citizens more of the members of our community donning a purple ribbon or lapel pin, indicating they're taking a stand against family violence or violence against women," said Ney.

writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com