Island high school students and well-known community members have lent their likenesses to posters going up around Vashon and Vashon High School in an effort to raise awareness about domestic violence.

The posters are part of a national campaign called NO MORE that was launched three years ago with the intent to raise public awareness of domestic violence and sexual assault. Through posters featuring the faces of celebrities, paired with the phrase “NO MORE” and a common excuse used to dismiss acts of domestic violence, the national campaign is hoping to increase awareness about the issue and how to prevent it.

NO MORE’s website states that the purpose of the campaign is to “drive awareness and break down the barriers of stigma, silence and shame that keep people from talking about these issues and taking action to prevent them.”

This year, the campaign introduced its NO MORE action week, from March 6 to 12, and made the poster’s design and template available to domestic violence prevention organizations throughout the United States. Vashon’s DoVE Project is taking advantage if the week and giving the effort a local take.

“It’s national, grassroots activism supporting local, community agencies,” DoVE Executive Director Betsey Archambault said. “It’s really fantastic, really dramatic and impactful.”

Featured on the posters are Vashon High School (VHS) students and community members such as VHS principal Danny Rock, Voice of Vashon KVSH station manager Susan McCabe, basketball coach Ty Cunningham, hairdresser and mother Sarah St. Germain and school district board member Zabette Macomber.

The posters were placed around the high school and in town this week, and a short film is being shown before movies at the Vashon Theatre.

Archambault said that the effort is perfect for Vashon because of its small population and tight-knit community.

“It’s so much more impactful if you see someone that you know saying, ‘No, this won’t stand,’” Archambault said. “We can do that really well on Vashon just because of the size of the community.”

The Vashon Alliance to Reduce Substance Abuse (VARSA) has also joined the effort and partnered with DoVE. VARSA chair Lisa MacLeod said that the organization decided to join the campaign because there is a link between underage drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

“There’s a really clear link there, so we want to support any kind of education in those areas,” MacLeod said. “There is no consent once drugs and alcohol are present, and there are some people, especially teens, who still don’t understand that.”

The two organizations took to the Grand Hall of VHS recently to spread the word about the campaign and provide faces for the posters. MacLeod said that a photo booth was set up at lunch and students could come and ask questions or have their photo taken.

Dozens of students had their photos snapped with a common domestic violence excuse that was provided, or they had the opportunity to come up with their own. MacLeod’s son, Lucas, is one of the student faces featured on the poster. MacLeod said he came up with his saying, “That doesn’t happen at my school,” because he felt it was an excuse that many make.

The DoVE Project’s Tracy McLaren said that the high school students’ involvement in the campaign is crucial to make the issue known to teens.

“We decided to coordinate this campaign with the school and ask teens to be a part of it to make it relevant for them,” McLaren said.

She also said that students received the campaign well.

“What was really refreshing is that there were as many male students as females participating. A lot of them read the messages and would start nodding their heads. A lot also realized that it’s not just a women’s issue and that it can happen to men as well. They were definitely engaged, and a lot were putting photos on Instagram, which is great that they were willing to stand up and say, ‘I’m behind this.’”

While his students were taking part in the campaign, VHS principal Rock, who has his face featured on a poster, also joined in and said his involvement in the awareness week is based on his interest in increasing the health of the island’s community.

“In working with young people, it is clear that patterns of co-dependence, controlling behaviors and relational abuse start early in life,” Rock said in an email last week. “As students enter into their initial relationships, we want healthy practices to be there from the start.”

But the campaign is just part of DoVE’s larger effort to bring its prevention education to island schools. For the past few months, the organization has been visiting VHS every other Friday and McMurray Middle School every other Wednesday to talk about the importance of healthy relationships and how to foster them. Every week focuses on a new topic, and McLaren said that the NO MORE week was the most recent discussion.

The posters will hang at the school and throughout town this week, but organizers say they would like to see the awareness continue past NO MORE week.

“We’ve just started working with McMurray Middle School (and) … it’s been really well-received,” McLaren said. “That’s where it all starts, with conversations around consent, even with friendships.”

Archambault said that the work being done at McMurray Middle School is an accessible and “back-to-basics” approach to talking about prevention that is well-timed with current events and movies such as the Oscar-winning “Room,” addressing the issue.

“It’s out there, and you have these huge people talking about it. I’m excited,” Archambault said.