Dear Friends,

I hope you felt the love of family and friends on Valentine's Day. Silent Witness thinks of you all as our Valentines. I continue to be amazed at the generosity and collaboration within this network. Thanks for modeling that behavior. Together we will heal this country of domestic violence.

Today I highlight the Mississippi Model of DV Prevention, one of the Results Projects. It is targeted towards African American adolescent males and is housed within a church setting which reinforces its success in that community. Thanks to Dr. Patricia Ann Davenport and all those who have made this program such a success.


WELCOME NEW EMAIL CORRESPONDENTS:
Wendy von Oech (poet, California), Bob Heskett (Massachusetts, new email address), Ann Zhou, Madame Wang Xingjuan (Maple Women's Psychological Counseling Center, Beijing, China), Sharon McNulty (Director of Counseling Services, College of St. Elizabeth, new SW exhibit, Morristown, NJ), Cheryl Sherman (Safehouse, Arkansas, new email address), Battered Women's Justice Project (Minneapolis, MN, new email address), Lisa Leibig (New Jersey, new email address), Molly (Ft. Lauderdale, FL), Lani Dupret (Coordinator of Volunteer Services, Stand Against DV, Concord, CA), Kelly Preslar (Student, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, possible new SW exhibit), Jess Dee (Student, St. Joseph's College of Maine), Judy Moody (Domestic Violence Agency, N. Bend, OR), Cathy Salser (Artist, Founder, A Window Between Worlds, Venice, CA), Katy Hanson (Nevada Coalition, new email address), Claire/Tom Sheppard (Ashland, VA, new email address), Ericka Tyner (Student, Converse College, Spartanburg, SC), Diane Adair (Minneapolis, MN)


NEWS FROM THE STATES/COUNTRIES:

California:
Tina Campbell of the Victim Compensation Board writes about their SW activities: 

I wanted to let you know that the Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board will be participating in the March on the Capitol on April 23rd. In addition to the March we will be staffing a booth, displaying the Silent Witness Exhibit and providing Victim Compensation Program information. The point of contact for the March on the Capitol is Debbie Rollins, her telephone number is (916) 340-3676. Also to further recognize Victims Rights Week (April 21-27, 2002), the Board will display our Silent Witness Exhibit and staff a booth to raise awareness and answer questions, at 7th and K Streets in downtown Sacramento, one day that week. I am the contact for this event (916) 324-9303.

*Thank you Tina, for this schedule. The SW exhibit is making a lot of progress in a short time in Sacramento. Thanks for your hard work.


China:
We are pleased to welcome our friends from the Maple Women's Psychological Counseling Center to our network. I hope we can work closely together to eliminate domestic violence in our two countries. Lois Herman, our international contact person describes the program.


Madame Wang Xingjuan, Beijing, Director, The Maple Women's Psychological Counseling Center, The Women's Hotline Superintendent

I met with Madame Wang and staff in Beijing last week. This program is so exciting, including multidimensional support for women and FOUR WOMEN'S HOTLINES. Madame Wang authored the Domestic Violence In China chapter of the book, Breaking The Silence: Violence Against Women In Asia. Maple Women's Center is involved in a project for the FIRST WOMEN'S SHELTER IN CHINA.

I gave Madame Wang a Silent Witness video and Silent Witness Story Book. I am forwarding to her a copy of our last Silent Witness Newsletter now. I have explained to Madame Wang that Silent Witness has seen excellent results against domestic violence homicides throughout the United States and in many foreign countries.

*Thanks, Lois for this outstanding contact and welcome to our network Madame Xingjuan.


North Carolina:
This news comes from Eli Moore, our SW Coordinator in North Carolina:

Duke University Contact: Shannon Johnson, Duke's Women Center, (919) 684.3897
The Silent Witnesses are on display, February 4-15 at tabling events for V-Day. Also they will be displayed in the lobby of Page Auditorium for both performances of the Vagina Monologues, February 14 & 15, 8 p.m. show. 

Community Production, V-Day Chapel Hill Contact: Vana Pruitt, (919) 967.5726
The Silent Witnesses are on display at the Green Tara art gallery in Chapel Hill, a fund-raiser/awareness campaign for V-Day, from February 16th (Opening 6-8) through February 28th. 

V-Day Durham Contact: Vana Pruitt, (919) 967.5726
The Silent Witnesses are on display at the performance of the Vagina Monologues, March 1st, Eno River Unitarian Church, Durham.

*These will be great events, Eli. Please let us know how it goes. 


NEWS FROM WORLDWIDE HEADQUARTERS:

Colleges who've made contact with SW recently:
These are the colleges who have contacted us recently to use or create a Silent Witness presence on their campus. It is so exciting to have young people involved, and they are so enthusiastic.

Colby-Sawyer College, New London, NH; Marshall University, Huntington, WV; College of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ; Bradley University, Peoria, IL; University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN; St. Joseph's College of Maine, Standish, Maine, Converse College, Spartanburg, SC.


Our help is needed!! A note from Adreena Harley
Adreena writes: Approximately six months ago, you sent out a request for me to the Silent Witness mailing group to see if anyone had a play or drama related to domestic violence. One of the members did send me a play called "A cry for help" about Marie and Sam's relationship. In my many file transfers, I lost the name of the original author.

We did host the interactive drama several times last month and the response was awesome. Very easy to present but very dramatic effect. A facilitator reads the history of Marie and Sam's relationship. There are 15 scenario cards of how different members of the community who respond to Marie's cry for help (family, school teacher, EC physician, police, courts, etc). Each person who attends the play is given a scenario card to read. As each unhelpful response is read, a sheet is draped over the victim (laying in the center of the room). By the end of the first half of the drama, there are 15 sheets, or layers over the victim, each representing the cumulative effect of unhelpful responses/barriers for help or another nail in her coffin. The scenario is replayed with helpful responses. As each scenario card is read, a sheet is lifted off the victim. Very dramatic!

Is it possible to add a note to your next publication to ask for the author? I am assuming the author was Canadian or British because of the spelling of words. Would like to be able to give credit where it is due.

Adreena Harley Women's and Family Health Services Phone 248-828-6281 Interim Manager, Education Phone 248-828-6257


Janet Hagberg's Web Site
Many of you do not know that I work on Silent Witness activities primarily as a volunteer. My other work is public speaking and writing and my most requested topic is Soul Leadership. I just developed a web site describing my work and it gave me an idea. If any of you are members of organizations that hire speakers at the state or national level for conferences or conventions I would be willing to lower my speaker's fee as a favor to you and then come and visit the Silent Witness coordinators and activists in the area as part of the trip. I think that way everyone would win. My new web site is www.janethagberg.com There is even a quiet page on the site where you can go and rest, listen to beautiful music and light a candle. Enjoy.

Part of the way I help fund Silent Witness is through a network of people I have developed who teach my material. I give them everything I've developed (training guides, overheads, handouts) for no fee. In return I ask them to give a voluntary tax deductible contribution to Silent Witness annually. All non-profits need creative funding ideas and this is my way of helping to multiply our efforts. 
If you can think of other creative funding sources please let me know.


8th National/1st International Conference on Abuse of Children and Adults with Disabilities
The Conference will be held: Monday Feb 25 thru Wednesday Feb 27 Riverside Convention Center Mission Inn & Holiday Inn Select
Vickie Folster 909 688 5141 Website: http://disability-abuse.com/cando/conf/ 


2nd WORLDWIDE ROAD TO RECOVERY CONFERENCE August 8-11, 2002 Ramada Plaza Hotel, Hollywood Fl. 33020
Hosting organization: Sharlene's Angels On Earth Inc. This conference is for survivors of violence/abuse and all those who are 
concerned about victims/survivors and ending this crime. To find out more log onto http://conference2.tripod.com/DV or contact Sharlene at: 954-981-5616 or email at roadtorecoveryconference@consultant.com


Silent Witness Homicide Data Collection:
Good news for our data collection project. We will now supplement our FBI state-wide data on intimate homicides with additional data. We have had suggestions that, along with the women who were murdered by intimate partners, we include the other people who were murdered along with them, like friends, other family members etc. So if you keep this data and would like to send us the names and relationship of the bystander to the woman, we will supplement your state's data on our web site. Thanks for this help.


Silent Witness Organizations Web sites:
Dorothy Lemmey and Ken Schmidt designed this place on our web site to highlight the countries and states who have designed Silent Witness web sites.. Go to the home page and click Photos or use the link below and see the great photos from the web sites of Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Montana. There is even a pregnant SW figure. And Ken has designed a plan for you to create a FREE web site for your state. All the information is in this new part of our site.

Here's how the introduction to the site reads:
In order to add richness to the Silent Witness International project this web site was designed to share visual ideas, feature individual work, add interest and validate the old cliché of "a picture is worth a thousand words." You can access the page from the home page or click on: Photos, check out web page photos of organizations Go> Or go to http://www.silentwitness.net/sub/org_web_page_photo.htm

This page includes national and international web pages that feature pictures of production, set up, display and media coverage of their exhibit. If you have a web site set up with pictures please email a web page address with a short description of your project to dotlemmey@aol.com . If you don't have a web page and would like to set one up with your organization's description and photos there is a step-by-step description on the web page identified by the line: To learn how to create your own silent witness web site for free click here 


Silent Witness Remembrance Candle Page:
This new page on our web site is so moving you will have a hard time leaving it. We are honoring and remembering the women and men who were murdered in domestic violence by naming them and lighting a candle in their memory. Or you can just light a candle for yourself and remember them. We will post the names of the people whom you honor and remember. What an incredible way to remember what we are all about; zero domestic homicides by the year 2010.. We are 40% of the way there and we have a lot to do, but we are doing it. Go to www.silentwitness.net/sub/candle.htm or access it from our home page: light a candle.


RESULTS PROJECT: 

MISSISSIPPI MODEL: Preparing Our Sons for Manhood

Involves the church in the prevention of alienation in African-American adolescent males

Issues Addressed:

* Lack of church involvement in domestic violence prevention 
* Alienation of African-American adolescent males

Results:

98% of the 200 young men who entered this program completed it successfully. They became more aware of the issues of domestic violence and the dangers of pre-marital sex. They also experienced an increase in self-esteem and in their ability to bond in relationships.

Mission of the Mississippi Model:

Preparing Our Sons for Manhood: Salvaging the Seeds is the program that Silent Witness has identified as the Mississippi Model. The program's mission is to provide positive role models, cultivate self-esteem, and improve self-awareness (particularly in avoiding violent behavior) in adolescent males. It helps young African-American males identify goals and solutions and offers practical training in life skills. The program endeavors to bring an end to social and domestic violence in the African-American community and society at large.

Description:

Originally developed by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, this program and its principles were adapted by Our House, Inc., an organization dedicated to offering various means for people to achieve violence-free living, in conjunction with New Life Church, Inc. Preparing Our Sons for Manhood is a male mentoring program that works through churches and schools. The program deals with the prevention of child sexual abuse and dating violence, encourages abstinence in young males, and educates youth on the dangers of pre-marital sex. The program is based on principles of love, respect, responsibility, guidance and spirituality, and on a time-honored tradition in the African-American community: "It takes an entire village to raise a child." It embraces the idea that all children are the collective responsibility of the community and the cornerstone of the future.

Program Detail:

* Hosting rap sessions with sixth-grade male students at elementary schools. These sessions reach 35-50 adolescent males between ages 11-13 each year.
* Providing public awareness programs to male youth between ages of 13-18 at local high schools, or at Our House, Inc.'s community awareness programs in churches.
* Mentoring male youth from five counties.
Our House, Inc., also conducts one major conference each year for 400 junior and senior high school male students. Conference topics include having a good time without sex, decreasing youth violence (gangs, etc.), relationships, and learning to build self-confidence.

Other Services of Our House, Inc.:
* MASH - Men Against Spousal Harm, a behavioral modification program for court-ordered domestic violence abusers. Reports of successful outcomes ranged from 75% to 90%.
* LOVE - Let Our Violence End, a program that provides services for victims of domestic violence.
* Rural Communities Public Awareness Program, delivered through schools and churches. Teens' Intimate Partners Violence Prevention Program, a three-yearresearch project for ninth-grade students.
* Survival United, which provides emotional support to surviving family members in homicide cases.
* Advocacy and Training Program.

Cities that Currently Use the Mississippi Model

* Greenville, MS
* Cleveland, MS

Contacts:

Originator: Dr. Patricia Ann Davenport (Silent Witness Mississippi Mentor),
Our House, Inc., PO Box 3956, Greenville, MS 38704 662 334-6873 Fax: 662 334-6875 ourhouse@tecinfo.com
New Life Church, Inc. (Partnering Agency) Contact: Dr. Roderick Mitchell 662-846-LIFE (5433) Fax: 662-843-6103 newlife@tecinfo.com

Resources:

Descriptive brochures and speakers. Training manual available soon.


In honor of Black History Month in the US, I leave you today with a quote by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr:

Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men and women willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. 


Cheers,

Janet
jhagberg@mn.rr.com 


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