LEXINGTON, Ky. — As Green Dot’s Bystander Awareness Action Week comes to an end, the program is gearing up for its first ever in-person bystander training. 

What You Need To Know

  • Green Dot is an initiative that advocates for the prevention of power-based violence

  • Dawn Runyon is the Green Dot Lexington program specialist and coordinator

  • Local businesses are partnering with Green Dot for their Bystander Awareness Action Week, placing Green Dot stickers and prevention information in their stores.

  • August is national Bystander Awareness month

Green Dot program specialist Dawn Runyon has spent the last week prepping for September’s first ever in-person prevention training. Green Dot is the violence prevention strategy that helps bystanders respond to acts of power-based violence like sexual violence, intimate partner violence, child and elderly abuse and other acts of aggression.

Runyon believes it takes a lot of willing people to make a difference. This week, businesses around Lexington are partnering with the program to host its Bystander Awareness Action Week. 

“We need a critical mass of people who are all doing one small thing to make it clear that violence won’t be tolerated, and that everybody should be doing their part to help stop intimate partner violence and child abuse in our community.”

According to the World Population Review, Kentucky has one of the highest domestic violence rates in the U.S. 2022. 

The Lexington Jewelers is one of the businesses to take the pledge. Marketing manager of the shop Rebecca Clements was familiar with the program’s efforts.

“I actually got involved with Green Dot or heard about it for the first time when my sorority Alpha Chi Omega at the University of Kentucky, we were volunteers at Greenhouse17.”

Clements says guests are sometimes open to chat and hopes to spread Green Dots strategies. Like the Lexington Jewelers, many of the businesses taking part in Green Dot week can be found in Lexington’s Julietta Market in the Greyline station. 

Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton declared August Bystander Awareness Month. (Green Dot Lexington/Dawn Runyon)

“It’s important for us to get as many people as we can that are thinking and discussing and sharing this idea of Green Dot.” 

Kicking-off their annual week of action, Runyon and Green Dot supporters partnered with the Lexington Legends for their Superhero Sunday in which she and her team threw the first few pitches of the game.

Green Dot Lexington encourages everyone to use the “three D’s of intervening,” which are to be direct, distracting if possible and delegating a responsible person in situations that might escalate. 

In 2021, Lexington mayor Linda Gorton declared August as Bystander Awareness Month for the city. 

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