CLEVELAND — October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The National Domestic Violence Hotline said that one in four women and one in seven men will encounter severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

What You Need To Know

  • October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

  • One in four women and one in seven men will encounter severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline

  • Resources like the nonprofit organization Love Doesn't Shove are there to help 

In 2019, Kenzie Vining became one of the statistics. Vining explained that she got into a relationship that would change her life forever.

“At first he was great and really lovey dovey,” Vining said.

She explained that things began to change.

“At first it was just like really emotional abuse, you know calling mean names, commenting on my body, more so negatively than anything,” Vining said.

Vining recalled one of the first physically traumatic experiences she had while in the relationship, that lasted about three years.

“He had done something, and I pushed back on it and I think I tried to break up with him that time, and he would not let me. I was sitting there doing dishes, he stood there screaming at me and then he started taking each dish that I had finished cleaning and started throwing it at me and I was like 'what are you doing'? And then I tried to walk away, and then he pinned me up against the wall and I was like 'what are you doing'? and then it escalated,” Vining said.

Vining said the police eventually got involved.

“There’s so many people that are like 'why didn’t you just leave'? And I tried to, I couldn’t. It wasn’t until I got a restraining order that I could like actually leave and that’s because he legally had to leave me alone,” Vining said.

She has since started working with a domestic violence nonprofit organization called Love Doesn’t Shove.

“I just wanted to give back in a way because I did get out, and I am so much happier and healthier, and I want people to know that are in those situations that like it can get better,” Vining said.

The organization was started by Gabriella Kreuz, who’s known around Cleveland because of her role as a Cleveland Guardians in-game host, among other endeavors. 

“I started this organization due to my own experiences of violence and truthfully the help that I got afterwards,” Kreuz said.

Kreuz said the goal of the organization is to educate younger people about domestic violence.

“A lot of the research is telling us the earlier the better. I’m working with young, malleable minds who maybe haven’t incorporated all of their habits that, you know, they’re going to have for a lifetime, right? So I have a better chance of reaching those young people and having this valuable conversation and planting a seed early,” Kreuz said.

Vining expressed her hopes to help others who have or will experience what she has.

“Leaving was almost as hard as being it, but it was worth it and I want people to know that it’s possible,” Vining said.