The Latest:
Dear Friends,
It is such a joy to put these newsletters together because I just imagine
all of you printing them out and then reading them over lunch or in a
comfortable chair, marking the things you want to remember or follow up
on, and being pleased when something your state has done is highlighted.
It feels like a life line between us and a way to be supportive of each
other in this sometimes difficult but always rewarding work.
I am so excited about my upcoming trips to see you all, state by state. I
have now been to Wyoming, Arizona, Texas in the last three months and will
be going to Ohio, Montana, Rhode Island and Illinois in the next few
months. I would love to visit your state, so please let me know of your
interest and we'll set up a trip. You need not have an event while I am
there. I just want to meet everyone and support your work. I want to see
the faces that are bringing so much joy to my life.
JOIN IN THE SPIRIT OF THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF SILENT WITNESS:
I'm planning to have a small celebration in September honoring the
founding mothers and the board of Silent Witness. I would like all of them
to know from you just how much Silent Witness has meant to you and what
has happened as a result of their vision so long ago. Please email me your
thoughts or feelings about Silent Witness, what it has meant to you, a
memory of some event or the march or a change that you have seen as a
result of this work. Anything will do. It need not be polished, just from your heart. I'll put
these all in an informal notebook and read excerpts of them at the
celebration. Send pictures of yourself or the Witnesses if you would like
to. If you could do this by August 20, I would really
appreciate it. hagbe003@tc.umn.edu Hagberg
7 Sheridan Av. So. Mpls, MN 55405 fax
612-374-3956.
STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING AND TRAINING: MONTANA OCTOBER 24-27.
Mark your calendars. More details to follow. Steering Committee Tuesday,
Oct 24 (evening) and Wednesday, Oct. 25. Montana Silent Witness Committee
two-day Training in Results Projects, October 26-27 (Thursday, Friday
until early afternoon). Come and learn how to revolutionize your state.
WELCOME NEW EMAIL CORRESPONDENTS:
Jim Grace (DV Program Coordinator, Governor's Office, Kentucky), Joanne
Patterson (Volunteer Coordinator/Public Relations, CASA, Myrtle
Beach, SC),. Colette De Troy (Co-ordinator of Policy Action Centre on
Violence Against Women, European Women's Lobby, Brussels, Belgium), Maria
Ortiz Rivera (Domestic violence specialist, government of Puerto Rico),
Sharon Cherkasky (Isreal Women's Network), Nicky Niles Arguello (new email
address), Judy Miller (SW administrator "data hound"
Minneapolis), Mona Hawkinson (Producer: SW Slide Show, General MIlls, Mpls),
Judy Nelson (Jr. League, St. Paul)
NEWS FROM THE STATE/COUNTRIES
ARIZONA:
Diane Peterson, our SW coordinator is planning to attend Stosny Treatment
training in Pennsylvania this fall so she can bring this program to
Arizona. She is working hard to incorporate SW there as a separate
non-profit organization and to work with other groups to collaborate on
Results Projects for Arizona. She is a real trooper and is doing much of
this in memory of John, her husband, and our dear friend.
*Diane, our thoughts, prayers and energy are with you as you carve out
this new endeavor in Arizona.
ENGLAND:
Sarah Follen of the Jr. League of London wrote to say that they are going
ahead with their new Silent Witness project. And she had a wonderful idea.
She asked to be connected with a mentor who has more experience with
Silent Witness. I think this would be particularly helpful for our
international contacts, so if you are interested in a mentor or two to
help you move forward, just let me know. The two that I asked to work with
Sarah responded with absolute glee. That's the kind of energy that has made Silent Witness
so fun to be a part of. So thanks Nancy Rafi and Joanne Coghill for taking
on this important role and thanks to Sarah for asking!!
*Great idea, Sarah. Keep those ideas flowing.
MINNESOTA:
The Jr. League of St. Paul is planning a large event on October 18, 2000,
to help celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Silent Witness. They are
congregating on the steps of the state capitol in St. Paul, where the
Silent Witnesses were first displayed. The keynoter will speak from there.
Then they will escort the Witnesses inside to the rotunda of the capitol
for several talks by people who have been involved with domestic violence
in Minnesota. What a marvelous way to commemorate the anniversary of
Silent Witness. Thanks to Judy Nelson and her committee for their
outstanding work. Also the Mall of America has asked them to return again
for the annual Silent Witness display and program in the Macy's Court. It
is very positively received. This is highly unusual, for a mall to invite
a domestic violence program to display there.
*Kudos to the Jr. League of St. Paul who have been so faithful in working
with Silent Witness for several years and doing so many innovative things.
MONTANA:
Montana is planning a two day training session in conjunction with the
Silent Witness steering committee meeting in October. They will bring
Results Programs to share with all of you so please consider this
training. The dates are October 24-25 for Steering Committee and October
25-26 for training. You will get experience with at least three of the
Results
Projects so you can bring them back to your state. Mark your
calendars. More details to come.
*Montana is one of our most active states in bringing Results Projects to
their state. Great work Jerri, Vickie, Tracy and company. Thanks.
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Lauren, at A Safe Place, in New Hampshire wrote that they are planning to
make one figure this year and then add a figure each year. This is the
second exhibit in New Hampshire.
*What remarkable people you all are. There are many more states now with
multiple exhibits and we are thrilled.
OHIO:
Ohio is opening it arms to greet me (Janet) as I tour the state and all
the Silent Witness activists there in mid-August. The trip includes stops
in Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus and Dayton. I will attend DV Task Force
meetings, VAWA meetings, Adalente, the Jr. League, a women's
center, Choices in Columbus, and visit with activists/video producers in
Dayton.
More on the details as the trip unfolds. This will be very exciting.
*Thank you Ohio, for being so receptive to this trip. It will be so fun to
see everyone.
TEXAS:
The DV Coalition in Laredo Texas had money donated to them for an exhibit
and they will ask the high school shop classes to make the figures. Then
their sister city of New Laredo, Mexico will probably make an exhibit for
women in their city as well. This will be the first exhibit in Mexico
which is very exciting. Many thanks to Vicki Garcia at Texas A &M for
her leadership in this new endeavor.
*What an exciting venture, to partner with another city to create Silent
Witness exhibits. Yes.
NEWS FROM NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
RAISE YOUR HANDS IF YOU ARE HAVING A SW EVENT IN OCTOBER:
We have asked volunteers to call every state again this year to encourage
everyone to have some event or display for their Silent Witnesses this
October. It is a special year because it is the 10th Anniversary of the
founding of Silent Witness here in Minnesota.
It would help us all a lot if those of you who are planning events would
email me to let me know about them, even if you haven't done all the
planning yet. That will save us a lot of time and effort, even though we
love to talk to all of you. So far we know that these states are planning
events in October or November: Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Rhode Island,
Florida and Wyoming.
We also know that several states (11 so far) are planning to debut their
Murder Meters this fall. Please let us know if you are planning to do that
as well. There were a lot of states who ordered the plans and we'd like to
know who will be following up on that. Thanks for all the effort. We do
appreciate all that you do and we love you too!!
REVISIONS TO THE WEB SITE:
In the next month we are revising our web site, making it easier to
navigate and easier for you to get to the key information that you might
want. So be patient with us as we bring you a newer, fresher look. It's
because of all your support of our web site that we are rated among the
top 15% of web sites visited. We're still at
www.silentwitness.net
NEW SILENT WITNESS EXHIBITS:
These are the states/cities who have ordered Silent Witness start-up
materials or have decided to start new Silent Witness exhibits recently.
What a wonderful new group. We are thrilled with all these new efforts to
advance the cause of healing.
Jr. League/NCJW, Austin, Texas
YWCA of Albuquerque
A Safe Place, New Hampshire sea coast
Domestic Violence Coalition, Laredo Texas
Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
New Brunswick, Canada
Singapore
Guatamala
Portland, Oregon
Rose Advocates Shelter, Weiser Idaho
Glasgow, Montana
Newport News, Virginia
Shelter, Bloomington, Indiana
Black Hawk County DV Coalition, Waterloo, Iowa
Women's Association of Hmong and Lao, St. Paul, MN
Southeast Spouse Abuse Program
Atlanta, Georgia
INFORMATION ON DATA COLLECTION BY STATE:
There is a web site that lists the people in each state who collect the
homicide data from the law enforcement jurisdictions. If you are
interested in getting this information directly from that person you might
want to call them and see if that is possible. They are so useful as data
collectors and we are so pleased to have these people in each state. The
web address for
these folks is www.asucrp.org/membership/index.html
THE CORPORATE ALLIANCE TO END PARTNER VIOLENCE ALERTS US TO NEW DATA
REGARDING RAPE AND DOMESTIC ASSAULT:
STUDY FINDS WOMEN EXPERIENCE MORE INTIMATE VIOLENCE
In a report released on July 13, 2000, the Justice Department and Centers
for Disease Control found that nearly 25 percent of women, and about 7
percent of men say they have been raped or assaulted by a current or
former partner.
The survey of a nationally representative sample of 8,000 men and 8,000
women found that 1.5 percent of women and 0.9 percent of men were raped or
physically assaulted by their partner in the last twelve months. According
to the estimates, approximately 1.5 million American women and over
800,000 men are raped or assaulted by an intimate partner annually. (It
is important to note that many victims are assaulted more than once, thus
the
number of intimate partner attacks exceeds the number of intimate partner
victims each year.)
Figures for intimate violence in different types of relationships varied.
Reported rates of incidents of assault or stalking are as follows:
30 percent of women living with male partners
15 percent of men living with male partners
11 percent of women living with female partners
7.7 percent of men living with female partners
The study also found that of those assaulted, 41 percent of women reported
injuries, while 20 percent of men were injured by assaults from intimates.
The report also states that having a verbally abusive partner was the
variable "most likely" to predict that a woman would be
victimized by an intimate partner. As relates to stalking, the report
showed that spousal
stalking is more widespread than previously thought, with almost five
percent of women, and 0.6 percent of men saying they've been stalked by a
current or former partner at some time in their life. This
translates to an estimate of 503,485 women and 185,496 men stalked by an
intimate partner annually in this country.
The study also found differences among racial backgrounds.
African-American, American Indian and native Alaskan women and men
reported higher rates of partner violence than people from other
backgrounds. Asian reported lower rates.Despite the rate of
attacks, most incidents are not reported to police, the survey found. Only
one-fifth of rapes, one quarter of physical assaults, and one half of
stalking incidents were reported to police by female victims. The
report rate was even lower for male victims.(The full report, Extent,
Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, is available on the
National Institute of Justice web site, <www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/welcome.html>. Click
on "What's New" and then "Publications.")
I leave you today with a quote that comes along with a picture that you
will have to imagine of a young girl about to slide down a long curvy
slide for the first time. The young girl (or boy) is each one of us. She
is speaking to herself.
"Whether to sit here and look pretty or to risk casualty. Whether to
hold on to stability or let go and slide into the unknown. Whether to
remain in control or to slide into the mystery of pure
abandonment..."
"I think I will slide, because....if I stay where I am....I will
never know the excitement of the full extent of the emotional,
physiological, psychological, theological and spiritual ramifications of
the existence of the slide and me."
"If I slide, can I count on you to be behind me?"
Cheers, and P.S. Yes, you can count on
me to be behind you!!!
Janet
