MASON CITY, IA- A display at North Iowa Area Community College is revealing the faces and stories of domestic violence survivors in Iowa.

Cathy Lee Simon was on her way from class when pictures of ordinary women drew her attention to a display about domestic violence survivors at NIACC.

Simon says, "these women basically let you know that you don't have to live with the abuse and I had to come to that conclusion several years ago."

After having her own personal story, she found herself relating to many of the women.

Simon adds, "I find it empowering that there's other individuals that found what help they needed to get out of a bad situation"

That is creator Katie Thompson's hope, with her "31 Voices Tour."

She wants to create an awareness about violence and prompt conversation about the problem.

Thompson says, "everyday I have this exhibit I have someone come up to me, look at the exhibit and say that's my story, that happened to me, so that's hard to see but it lets me know it's a good thing to be doing."

As a domestic violence survivor herself, Thompson decided to share the stories of survivors throughout Iowa and let them know they're not alone and it's okay to talk about it.

31 is the number of personal domestic violence stories that Thompson has collected; one for each day in the month of october."

She photographs each survivor in their personal surrounding to put a face with their story.

Thompson adds,"these are women that are normal, these are women that you know, and they still have these stories behind them, inside them that you may not know about."

Katie Thompson has a book coming out in May called, "31: Surviving Domestic Violence in America's Heartland."

It will tell each survivor's story in more detail