Taylor Wilson
Healthy Relationships Week is Feb. 10 through Feb. 14, just in time for Valentine’s Day. The week is meant to bring awareness to what a healthy relationship is, as well as taking a stand against domestic violence and sexual assault.
This week holds an important place in the hearts of the sorority women affiliated with Alpha Chi Omega. Their philanthropy involves domestic violence and sexual assault prevention, so the organization will be promoting healthy relationships and doing their part for a cause they are passionate about.
Quinn Lightfoot, former VP of Recruitment Information and current PACE Chair for Alpha Chi Omega spoke on the topic. She helps run all of the organization’s tabling events – including healthy relationships week.
The sorority will be tabling on Feb. 5, to promote the week and bring awareness around campus. Info will be provided regarding how to identify a healthy relationship from an unhealthy one, domestic and dating violence statistics and trivia and treats for everyone who attends.
“Every year Alpha Chi Headquarters will announce a topic to focus on for the year,” Lightfoot said. “This year the focus is on healthy communication, so we want to spread awareness on what is healthy versus unhealthy communication in relationships.”
Lightfoot is a woman who leads by example and is in a healthy relationship herself.
“I personally am in a healthy relationship with my boyfriend and to be completely honest what makes us work so well and keeps it so healthy is that we both are always super honest with each other and trust each other,” Lightfoot said.
“It’s okay to have a couple things that you enjoy, that the other person doesn’t,” Alpha Chi’s Vice President of Philanthropy Kat Spencer said. “Spending every second with a person can become a little unhealthy. Should you be with someone/friends with someone that you can see yourself spending everyday with? Yeah, of course. It’s a good goal. But if you can’t have that alone time, that’s a sign of dependency.”
The members of Alpha Chi Omega promote healthy relationships on campus to help in keeping people safe from possible violence and abuse. As humans, we are bound to form relationships, and these are vital to our mental and emotional wellbeing, but also our survival.
Northwestern Medicine regards that healthy relationships can be crucial to one’s health. Some benefits they provide include lessened stress, better healing ability, overall healthier behaviors, a greater sense of purpose among individuals and can lead to a longer life.
“My tips would be to always be upfront and honest with whoever your relationship is with, whether it be your parents, siblings, friends or significant other,” Lightfoot said. “It doesn’t matter who your relationship is with, if you aren’t honest and upfront about what you want out of the relationship it’s never going to be healthy.”
Spencer also discussed her thoughts on what a healthy relationship is, along with providing signs that you might be in an unhealthy relationship.
“I think it’s different for every relationship,” Spencer said. “However, I feel like whether that relationship is romantic or platonic it should have emotional stability, trust in yourself [and] each other [communication] and should be healthily supportive.”
To continue to bring awareness to the importance of healthy relationships, Spencer also provided some signs that point to an unhealthy relationship. These include: if your partner shows any signs of aggression, if your partner is not willing to hear your feelings, if they make you feel inferior, if they make false accusations about you, if they are over possessive or if they are extremely jealous or insecure.
“I think that unhealthy patterns can be broken,” Spencer said. “I think that communication is the hammer that shatters the glass. I think it’s about time that people speak up. Don’t stay silent, because your voice has more power than you’ll ever know.”
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