A multi-disciplinary team works together throughout the year to raise awareness of domestic violence, help support victims and work for change in the community. Front row, from left, are Elwood Anderson, First Covenant Church; Tara Trudgeon, Heather Strauss and Marti Swisher, Caring House; Robert Sault, Caring House Board of Directors; Cheryl O’Neil, Caring House; Carla Anderson, Caring House Board of Directors; Connie Larson, Dickinson County prosecutor’s office; the Rev. Steve Lehmann; Judge Thomas Slagle, Dickinson County Probate Court; Donna Fayas-Johnson, Caring House; and Dickinson County Sheriff Scott Rutter. In back are Norway Police Chief James Shafer; Ed Mattson, Iron Mountain Police and Fire Services director; Lt. Tom Bolda, Kingsford Public Safety; Henry Mann, community leader; Michigan State Police Troopers Geno Basanese and Jason Sleeter; Judge Christopher Ninomiya, Dickinson County Circuit Court; Mellisa Lanto, Caring House; Kristen Kass, Dickinson County prosecutor’s office; Heidi VanSlooten, Dickinson-Iron County Friend of the Court; Alex Siminski, Dickinson County prosecutor’s office; and Lt. Commander Paul Campbell, Michigan State Police. (Chris Tomassucci/Daily News photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — This month is set aside to give a voice to survivors of domestic violence. However, not all who experience abuse survive.

Each year throughout the month of October, Caring House puts up a display of crosses representing the number of deaths each year from domestic violence in Michigan.

This display gives our community the opportunity to not only remember the lives lost, but search for answers and raise awareness so domestic violence is no longer tolerated in the community.

Statistics from the National Network to End Domestic Violence report that three women are murdered every day by a current or former male partner in the United States. One in four women and one in seven men will be victims of severe violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

A woman is 70 times more likely to be murdered within a few weeks after leaving her abusive partner than at any other time in the relationship. Domestic violence is the third-leading cause of homelessness for families.