For domestic violence awareness month, Serena Williams has teamed up with Purple Purse, Allstate Foundation’s program dedicated to helping survivors.
Williams designed a handbag, the Purple Purse, for the organization’s fundraiser campaign in which 300 non profits organization supporting the cause will compete to receive grants from Allstate Foundation to help survivors.
Serena Williams who has always spoken up about issues like women empowerment and equality in an interview with Elle said her 13 month old daughter had changed her outlook on life. Williams said it pained her knowing that her daughter Olympia could be in a situation like that when she was watching Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony in the Brett Kavanaugh case.
“There’s a lot of other women out there that could be my daughter or my sister that are in an [abusive] situation…You never know… Sometimes you meet a person and they’re amazing and a week later or a month later or a couple years later they turn out to be something different, and it’s not [your] fault.”
Williams is especially keen on Financial abuse, a type of domestic abuse whereby an abuser is in control of the finances preventing the other person from leaving.
“[Victims] can’t leave their situation[s], because they cannot financially afford to. We want to make them aware that’s not okay… and provide victims a safe way out of violence through financial tools and resources.”
