About New Horizons Life & Family Services

April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month!

We encourage you to wear teal every Tuesday in April to show your support of sexual assault survivors and to help bring awareness to end sexual assault.

To enter our contest, take a picture of yourself or your group wearing teal on a Tuesday. Photo entries should be submitted to our email womenfolkunlimited@yahoo.com or through our Facebook page by April 29th, 2025. 

We will do a drawing for the winner on our Facebook page on April 30th, 2025, in order to receive a gift basket full of goodies!

Thank you for participating! 

New Horizons strives to break the silence and end the violence of sexual assault. We're here to let victims know they're not alone and stand by them on their journey. 

National Sexual Assault Hotline:

1-800-656-4673

New Horizons Life and Family Services 24hr Hotline: 910-997-4840

April is National Sexual Assault Awareness Month!

April is dedicated to spreading awareness and honoring victims of sexual assault. 

New Horizons Annual Sexual Assault Awareness Walk: Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at 12:00pm. Please join us at Harrington Square Fountain to help us support victims who choose to be silent no more. 

A light lunch will be provided to participants who pre-register by calling our office or responding to the event on our Facebook page. 

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Sexual Assault Statistics:

• Every 68 seconds an American is sexually assaulted
• Every 9 minutes that victim is a child
• Only 25 out of every 100 perpetrators will end up in prison
• 1 out of 6 women have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime
• 1 out of 10 rape victims are male
• Most sexual assault victims knew their perpetrator
• Nationally, 54% of women and 46% of men experience sexual violence 

New Horizons strives to break the silence and end the violence of sexual assault. We're here to let victims know they're not alone and stand by them on their journey. 

National Sexual Assault Hotline:

1-800-656-4673

New Horizons Life and Family Services 24hr Hotline: 910-997-4840

February is Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month!

Dating abuse is a pattern of violent behavior - physical, emotional, or sexual - by one partner in a dating relationship toward the other person.

Dating abuse may be....

Physical: 

• Pinching, shoving, slapping, grabbing, etc. 
• Intimidation (blocking doors, throwing things)
• Use of weapons

Emotional/Verbal: 

• Put-downs, insults, & rumors
• Threats
• Possessiveness 
• Overdependence
• Huge Mood Swings
• Humiliation
• Accusations
• Withdraw of Attention
• Isolation from friends or activities 

Sexual: 

• Unwanted touching
• Forced sexual acts
• Pressure to have sex
• Threatens to find someone else who will do what he or she wants sexually. 

Dating Abuse Statistics:

• 1 in 11 teens report being a victim of physical abuse each year
• 1 in 4 teens report verbal, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse yearly
• 1 in 5 teens report being a victim of emotional abuse
• 1 in 3 high school students have been or will be involved in an abusive relationship
• Teen dating violence often takes place in the home of one of the partners
• Nearly 80% of girls who have been abused continue to date their abuser
• 1 in 5 college females will experience some form of dating violence

National Domestic Violence Hotline: 

1-800-799-7233

New Horizons Life and Family Services 24hr Hotline: 910-997-4840

Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Month takes places every October. This month is dedicated to spreading awareness and honoring lives lost due to domestic violence. 

New Horizons Annual DV Vigil: Tuesday, October 22, 2024, at 5:30pm. 

Please join us in our 1 mile walk to show your support and build awareness of domestic violence in our community.

Honoring Victims & Survivors of Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence Statistics:

• Domestic violence can happen to any gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. 
• An average of 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States - more than 12 million women and men over the course of a single year. 
• Nearly 3 in 10 women (29%) and 1 in 10 men (10%) in the United States have experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner and reported it having a related impact on their functioning. 
• 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men aged 18 and older in the United States have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. 
• Intimate partner violence alone affects more than 12 million people every year. 

National Domestic Violence Hotline: 

1-800-799-7233

New Horizons Life and Family Services 24hr Hotline: 910-997-4840

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month!

Show your support of Domestic Violence Awareness Month by wearing purple every Thursday this month! 

Enter by taking a photo of yourself or group wearing purple BEFORE Thursday, October 31st. Winner will be announced on Friday, November 1st! 

Photo entries should be submitted to New Horizons at: womenfolkunlimited@yahoo.com or through our Facebook page! 

If you have any questions, please call us during office hours Monday-Thursday 8:00am-4:00pm or Friday 8:00am-1:00pm at 910-997-4840

Suicide Prevention Month: Month takes place every September. This month is dedicated to spreading awareness of suicide prevention and remembering those who have lost their lives due to suicide. 

World Suicide Prevention Day: September 10th

Suicide & Criss Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Call. Text. Chat.: 988

National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI): 800-950-6264

MYTH VS FACT REGARDING SUICIDE

MYTH: If you ask someone about suicide, you'll give them the idea.

FACT: If you're concerned enough to ask, then it's important to check in. No one asking about it is going to give them the idea or push them to do it. 

MYTH: If you ask someone about suicide, they'll be mad at you.

FACT:   People are often relieved that someone asked, and it gives them a chance to talk about their struggles and possibly get help. If they do get mad, it might not feel good, but that’s okay. Many times, more vulnerable uncomfortable feelings can lie beneath anger.  

MYTH: Most people who die by suicide are selfish and take the easy way out. 

FACT:  People who attempt or die by suicide are in intense pain and want to end their suffering. Suicide can result from not seeing any way out of mental illness, difficult life circumstances, or feelings of hopeless, helpless, or shame. In some cases, people who die by suicide see themselves as a burden and believe that things would better for others if they were gone. 

Suicide Statistics

• Over 49,000 people died of suicide in 2022. That's 1 death every 11 minutes. 
• 13.2 million people seriously thought about suicide.
• 3.8 million people made a plan for suicide.
• 1.6 million people attempted suicide.
• in 2022, males accounted for 68.46% of suicide deaths.
• In 2022, firearms accounted for 54.64% of all suicide deaths. 

Teen dating violence affects millions of young people in the United States.  Dating violence can take place in person, online, or through technology. It is a type of intimate partner violence that can include the following types of behavior: 

• Physical violence is when a person hurts or tries to hurt a partner by hitting, kicking, or using another type of physical force.
• Sexual violence is forcing or attempting to force a partner to take part in a sex act and or sexual touching when the partner does not consent or is unable to consent or refuse. It also includes non-physical sexual behaviors like posting or sharing sexual pictures of a partner without their consent or sexting someone without their consent.
• Psychological aggression is the use of verbal and non-verbal communication with the intent to harm a partner mentally or emotionally and exert control over a partner.
• Stalking is a pattern of repeated, unwanted attention and contact by a current or former partner that causes fear or safety concern for an individual victim or someone close to the victim.

Teen dating violence profoundly impacts lifelong health, opportunity, and wellbeing. Unhealthy relationships can start early and last a lifetime. The good news is violence is preventable, and we can all help young people grow up violence-free.

Teen dating violence is common. Data from CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey in 2019 indicate that among U.S. high school students who reported dating during the 12 months before the survey:

• About 1 in 12 experienced physical dating violence.
• About 1 in 12 experienced sexual dating violence.

Human Trafficking Prevention Month takes place every January. This month is designed to educate the public about human trafficking and their involvement in preventing and responding to it.

NATIONAL STATISTICS

• The number of persons convicted of a federal human trafficking offense increased from 2011 (464 persons) to 2019 (837 persons), before falling in 2020 (658 persons).
•  At yearend 2020, for the 47 states that reported data, 1,564 persons were in the custody of a state prison serving a sentence for a human trafficking offense.
•  392 state prison admissions were for a human trafficking offense. 
•  In 2022, more than 115,000 victims of human trafficking were identified worldwide. This is 25,000 more than in the previous year, and the second highest during the period of consideration. The number of human trafficking victims has significantly increased in the past decade. 

In April, Sexual Assault Awareness Month is recognized. During this month, victim advocates, related professionals, survivors of abuse, their loved ones, and members of the surrounding community come together to raise public awareness about sexual assault and educate communities and individuals about sexual violence prevention.

NATIONAL STATISTICS

• One in five women in the United States experienced completed or attempted rape during their lifetime.
•  Nearly a quarter (24.8%) of men in the U.S. experienced some form of contact sexual violence in their lifetime. 
•  Nationwide, 81% of women and 43% of men reported experiencing some form of sexual harassment and/or assault in their lifetime. 
•  One in three female victims of completed or attempted rape experienced it for the first time between the ages of 11 and 17.  
•  The prevalence of false reporting for sexual assault crimes is low — between two percent and 10 percent. 

Domestic Violence Awareness Month takes place in October. During this month, victim advocates, related professionals, survivors of abuse, their loved ones, and the surrounding community gather to honor the lives lost to domestic violence, the survivors of it, and to educate others on the importance of spreading awareness.  

NATIONAL STATISTICS

• On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. 
•  1 in 3 women and 1 in 4 men is a victim of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner during their lifetimes. 
• Almost half of intimate partner homicides are committed by dating partners. 
• Slightly more than half of intimate partner physical violence is reported to law enforcement.
• 1 in 3 female murder victims and 1 in 20 male murder victims are killed by intimate partners.