Join Us and Allstate Foundation Purple Purse to Fight Domestic Violence

Today, we’re excited to announce our participation in a very important cause. Megs and PurseBlog are part of the 2015 AllState Foundation Purple Purse PURSEonal Voices network, which means we’re one of a handful of sites supporting the campaign’s efforts to spread awareness and assist victims of domestic violence and financial abuse.

Every day, we talk about handbags as physical things, but the reason they’re so easy to obsess over is because they also hold a lot of symbolic value for the people who use them. We carry our whole lives in our handbags, and they’re small, constant touchstones of the kind of daily stability most of us take for granted, but that some women risk their lives every day to regain from their abusers.

You may not have heard of financial abuse, but it’s a factor in 98% of domestic violence situations. The abusive partner wields the threat of financial ruin as a manipulative tool to keep his victim from escaping, whether that means ruining her credit so she can’t sign a lease without him or harassing her at work until she loses her job and any last measure of independence. When people ask why a victim “doesn’t just leave,” it’s often because financial abuse has made the mechanics of leaving dangerous, of not impossible.

One in four women will experience domestic violence in their lives, which is more than those who will be afflicted by breast, lung and ovarian cancer combined. The Allstate Foundation Purple Purse has dedicated ten years and $43 million to spreading awareness of financial abuse and providing financial education and services to survivors, and we’ve joined in to help make 2015 its most impactful year yet, along with the campaign’s ambassador, Kerry Washington.

Kerry designed this year’s Allstate Foundation Purple Purse for the second year in a row, which will be unveiled at The Plaza Hotel on September 24th. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be bringing you even more ways to support Allstate Foundation Purple Purse, including getting the bag charm above, but for now, head to PurplePurse.com for resources and information on financial abuse and domestic violence; even if you’re not a victim, you may know someone who needs help.

If you’d like to follow along with Allstate Foundation Purple Purse at the unveiling tonight, make sure to tune in at 7 p.m. ET on the @PurplePurse Periscope channel.