Black Dot Campaign; Speaking Volumes Without Saying a Word

The campaign was launched on Facebook on September 8, 2015 at 1:16pm with the posting of a picture of a single black dot.

It’s certainly now widely known: the campaign page has racked up 40,000 likes, with many of its posts shared even more widely that that, and the founder says Facebook’s statistics indicate it’s been seen by millions.

A social media campaign offering a simple way for victims of domestic abuse to ask for help has gone viral online.

Tredgett responded to this critique by noting that any idea of help in the realm of domestic violence is risky.

Many Facebook users have been quick to identify obvious flaws.

“Those who are abusers are going to possibly find out pretty soon, and they are going to be watching for the dot themselves”, Barry Feaker, Director of the Topeka Rescue Mission.

The campaign’s page wants to point out that “professional bodies have not been advised or trained in the Black Dot, what it symbolises and what it means” but that the initiative had the intention of enabling ‘a victim to put a dot on their hand around someone they trusted to enable a conversation to start, so they could open that door and hopefully start a process of seeking professional help’. “As a victim, you know what triggers your abuser”, she says. “A lot of survivors are putting their dots on their hand, but that’s not what the original idea was”, she says.

The founder says she’s also received hundreds of messages from people who say they’ve been helped since the campaign began.

Danielle Tredgett, the woman behind the campaign, wrote that when she was a victim of abuse she, “felt so alone with nobody to talk to”.

The campaign has now spread – and women across the world are drawing black dots on their palms to show they are survivors of abuse.

‘She came round today and said hi XXXXX we need to update your records about the black dot, you know your health, would you like me to do that today.

Polly Neate from Women’s Aid told The Huffington Post: “It can be very hard and unsafe for victims of domestic abuse to speak out about what is happening to them, due to fear of what the perpetrator will do, and fear of not being believed”.