It's a sad fact in this year of the United Nations Women's Conference in Beijing, the brutal murder of Rochelle Marcia West last January by her estranged husband and the OJ Simpson circus in the US, that some people still need reminding of the seriousness and pervasiveness of domestic violence, but that doesn't mean it's not true.

"While those issues have indeed brought the whole dynamics of domestic violence to the fore of the public's consciousness, the fact remains that there has still been a significant increase in the number of people who have sought our help over the past year,'' Miss Toni Daniels, chairman of the Women's Resource Centre, told Community recently.

"I don't think,'' she subsequently added, "that it's because we have an increase in domestic violence per se -- although society itself is in fact becoming more violent -- but because people are becoming more aware of and more educated about the issue.'' Even so, said Miss Daniels, who will soon be marking her one-year anniversary as head of the Resource Centre, there remain those people who continue to think of domestic violence almost exclusively as a woman's issue, or a private family affair -- when in fact, she said, "it is really an issue that affects all of society, and people from all walks of life.'' "It is all,'' she said, "about awareness. People must come to understand that (domestic violence) affects them even if it doesn't do so directly. It affects everyone.'' That is why, moreover, efforts are being stepped up this month, which has been declared Domestic Violence Month both in Bermuda and abroad, to once again focus the attention of both the public and the media on the issue of violence in the home.

As part of Domestic Violence Month, some of the agencies that work on the frontlines of the problem -- including the Women's Resource Centre, the Physical Abuse Centre and the Police -- will be collaborating on various educational and fund-raising activities in the area of domestic violence.

Some of the planned activities include: Newspaper ads to increase the public's awareness of the problem.

The operation of a public information stall at this weekend's CultureFest at Dockyard.

The donation of proceeds from the raffling of a queen-sized quilt at next week's Patchwork and Quilt Show at Verdmont to the Women's Resource Centre.

More important in the long term than some of these one-off efforts, however, are the many backstage activities that have taken place over the past year to address the issue concretely.

According to Miss Daniels, for instance, the relationship between organisations such as her own and the Bermuda Police Service have "improved one-hundredfold'' in the past 12 months, with the Women's Resource Centre offering training services to incoming cadets on the issue and the Police in turn (under the leadership and apparent commitment of Chief Inspector Jonathan Smith) taking a more active stance on domestic violence generally.

"I feel very positive,'' Miss Daniels said of their teamwork, "about the things that we have been doing.'' On the legislative front, meanwhile, the Domestic Violence Act that was proposed under Human Affairs Minister the Hon. Jerome Dill is also expected to be picked up and possibly introduced to the House of Assembly during its next session by new Women's Issues Minister the Hon. Lynda Milligan-Whyte.

Both the Police and the Physical Abuse Centre, Miss Daniels told Community, were instrumental in the development of the Act, which is believed to have borrowed elements from similar legislation in Canada, Barbados and Quincy, Massachusetts.

"I know there is a draft copy in existence,'' Miss Daniels said last week.

"In that regard, Government has taken great strides in really addressing the issue.'' Stating that her own organisation would soon be hiring more clinicians to counsel abuse victims as well as an executive director to more effectively manage the Centre, she added: "I am very encouraged right now -- more encouraged, in fact, than I have been for a long time.'' On that note, perhaps, it may not be such a long time before so-called Domestic Violence Months are a thing of the troubled past.

COMMITTED -- Chief Insp. Jonathan Smith.

CONCERNED -- WRC chairman Toni Daniels.