Crime Victim Care of Allen County has forward us information about the activities of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week. For more information visit their website at http://cvcin.org.
View or download the …
Does an evening of fun, friends, and food sound good to you? What if we add in a discussion of the nonviolent lifestyle? And then cap it off with some great music by Jessica Crew?
OK, one more thing – you aren’t required to bring a dish to share, but you are certainly welcome to show off your culinary skills if you like. We will absolutely eat up whatever you’d like to bring!
Please RSVP to Maureene. See you there!
One Billion Rising is an important moment for the city of Fort Wayne. As a community, we are standing together to celebrate those who have survived violence, while saying with a unified voice that enough is enough. For this reason, YWCA Northeast Indiana is proud to stand by the One Billion Rising Fort Wayne movement as a Resource Partner.
Women come to YWCA Northeast Indiana in times of crisis, because of domestic violence. Annually, our Crisis Line receives over 4,000 calls and we provide services to over 1,500 women and children. These women come for emotional support and empowerment. They come for help in finding childcare, job training, and a better education. They come for a variety of reasons. But they come. And they leave with a renewed spirit, new skills, and stronger lives.
Our entire community is affected by domestic violence and the community benefits derived from our services are both immediate and long-term. We are committed to reducing the number of domestic violence incidents in our community and to improving the future of the women, men, and children exposed to it.
That is why YWCA Northeast Indiana is proud to strike, dance, and rise up with the rest of the Fort Wayne community to show that we are serious about ending violence against women. We look forward to seeing you on February 14!
Learn more about YWCA Northeast Indiana by visiting www.ywca.org/NEIN or by calling (260) 424-4908. Our Crisis Line can also be reached 24/7 at (260) 447-7233 or (800) 441-4073.
Short Answer: to Promote Love and Respect for Women and Children
So why do we work with men who abuse women? Because they are men that we all know, they are our fathers, brothers, uncles, they are men we attend church with, or we buy our groceries from. These are men who become involved in intimate relationships with that people that we care about. We work with them and we live along side of them. They date our friends our daughters and they raise the next generation. Ignoring them (these men) means to turn our back on all the people who will cross paths with them throughout the rest of their lives.
It is rather astounding that boys in our society are expected to learn about all of the mysteries of business, industry and sport, but are not even asked to learn about the mind of a woman or the cause-and-effect of a good intimate relationship. Boys are taught all of the fine points of team-building. Boys are encouraged to learn how engines work and how to take care of an automobile. Boys learn that a car must be washed and waxed not just once, but regularly, and that the oil must be changed over and over. However, boys are not systematically taught to understand how women think. Boys are seldom encouraged to consider the maintenance of a life-long marriage. Boys think girls are emotional, idealistic and romantic; yet boys turn into men who believe, idealistically, that relationships magically happen, that a woman can continue to love a man for a lifetime, even if he remains silent, unresponsive, emotionally illiterate, and, in some cases, abusive.
One of our programs introduces men to the notion that a relationship requires at least as much effort to maintain as an automobile. The fact that women and children are living beings with free will does not take away from the reality that there are certain predictable outcomes in relationships based upon our behavior. It matters whether we try hard to nurture and honor relationships, or whether we neglect and despise them. “Love and respect” is not a gift that descends upon us without effort. I am responsible for bringing love into my own home and for offering unconditional respect to my family. It is hopelessly romantic of me to believe I am entitled to love if I’m unwilling to give respect. The presence of “love and respect” is, in part, a man-made creation.
To achieve this creation, there is work and effort involved that the Center bases on our definition of nonviolence. We define nonviolence in two ways: “ A lifestyle based on love, truth and community, and speaking up for the truth in ways that do not hurt or control others.”
- by John Beams and the Center for Nonviolence
The Center for Nonviolence provides services to men, women, and youth who have used violence as well as support services for women and children who have been victims of violence or abuse. For more information, please visit http://www.centerfornv.org or call 260-456-4112.
Crime Victim Care of Allen County works with diverse populations. This makes it necessary to understand abuse in other cultures.
CVC has found and provided a wonderful resource on their website for a better understanding of abuse of immigrant women. In an article, entitled Immigrants find new legal paths out of abuse from The Washington Post, a wonderful perspective is given of immigrant women who fear deportation if they speak up against abuse. Within this article are great resources from Women’s Health for information about violence against women.
We cannot stand by and let these women suffer in silence!
- Jordan Crouch, Crime Victim Care of Allen County
Links:
Four well known local organizations have signed on to participate in One Billion Rising Fort Wayne to raise awareness for this collective issue that affects the lives of so many residents.
“In 2012 over 4000 calls were received at the YWCA Northeast Indiana from women, men and children in crisis due to domestic violence,” said Mary Jo Hardiman, Director of Community Programs, YWCA of Northeast Indiana.
One Billion Rising Fort Wayne attendees will receive resources and educational materials focused on preventing violence, treating victims and healing survivors.
Read or download the complete press release: One Billion Rising Fort Wayne press release