We're Halfway There!

Congratulations to our 2014 TCS NYC Marathon team for collectively raising over 50% of the team fundraising goal! They have 5 weeks left to raise the remaining 50% -- let's get to work!

October Breakfast Artist: Jovan Martinez

We are honored to have Jovan Martinez speak and perform at our October Breakfast! Jovan is a poet and former Relationship Abuse Prevention Program peer leader. Jovan won the 2012 Rap 4 RAPP contest to raise awareness about our Teen RAPP program.

Come see Jovan at Transforming Lives Through the Arts!

In the meantime, watch her winning Rap 4 RAPP:

Remembering Why We Run

On November 2nd, the CADV Marathon team will run a combined 131 miles in the TCS NYC Marathon. For our team, this is more than just a race -- each runner has committed to fundraise $3,000 for the Center's Relationships Are Elementary program.

Learn more about the team and support them here.

We'd like to stop and reflect on why our runners have spent these past months working so hard. While training to complete 26.2 miles next Sunday, our runners simultaneously raised funds to support the Center's Relationships Are Elementary program.

RAE arms third, fourth, and fifth graders with the tools they need to avoid becoming victims or perpetrators of teen relationship abuse and bullying.  The earlier we reach students, from both violent and non-violent homes, the better chance we have for laying the groundwork for healthy relationships.

We run because we believe that youth-based prevention programs are the solution to stop domestic violence in the future. We hope you'll support our marathon runners in solidarity with that belief. 

October Breakfast Artist & Panelist: Ewa Grochowska

We're very grateful to have Ewa Grochowska participating in our October breakfast! Ewa will be featured on our panel and her pottery will also be on display.

A potter, sculptor, and domestic violence awareness activist, Ewa is committed to helping others achieve a life free from abuse. Her organization, Freedom4Ewa, donates time and supplies to children living in domestic violence shelters. Proceeds from her pottery support these endeavors.

Ewa says,

"Creating art allows children to express their emotions in a positive way. It gives them control of something in their life, and it gives them something to be proud of." 

Come learn about Ewa's work and see her beauitful pieces at Transforming Lives Through the Arts!

Click here to learn more about Ewa. 

October Breakfast Artist: Sue Rock Originals

We're thrilled to have Sue Rock Originals at our October Breakfast! Sue Rock Originals will display textile arts and photos of Center participants.

Sue Rock Originals provides sewing and textile arts workshops for the survivors in the Center's Spanish Speaking Support Group. Sue explains,

"Women come to our textile arts studio and learn to sew, knit, embroider, crochet, and create their own clothing. The women obtain wonderful skills, but more importantly, a sense of hope."

Come see Sue Rock Originals' textile arts at Transforming Lives Through the Arts!

Read more about Sue Rock Originals here.

Last Chance for Early Bird Tickets - October Breakfsat

We have a limited number of Early Bird Tickets available through this Tuesday, September 23rd. 

The ticket includes a buffet breakfast and general seating access to the panel discussion. All proceeds from ticket sales support the Center's life saving work. We hope to see you there - get your ticket today!

Click Here to purchase tickets. 

Click Here to learn more about the breakfast.

Back to School with Backpacks from Saving Angels

Fall is here, and the children living in our shelters are heading back to school. The families fleeing violent homes arrive at our shelters with next to nothing; most children lack backpacks and basic school supplies. 

We are deeply grateful for Jennifer Lee and Saving Angels for donating backpacks (filled with school supplies!) to the children living at our shelters. Thank you, Jennifer, for ensuring these children are ready for school! 

Purple Purse Challenge Update

Thank you for your generosity and enthusiasm over these first few weeks of the Purple Purse challenge!

We've already raised a few thousand dollars to support our life saving services. The Center operates three full-service shelters for survivors and their children, provides survivor advocacy and outreach to the greater NYC community, and develops and runs groundbreaking anti-dating violence and anti-bullying education programs for NYC elementary through high school students.

Every donation makes a difference, no matter how small. 

The Allstate Foundation Purple Purse Challenge is a fundraising campaign to end domestic violence. Allstate will donate $500,000 to ignite public awareness and fundraising for charities benefiting domestic violence survivors. The amount of money we raise determines how much we receive from Allstate.

To help now, please Click Here and give whatever you can. 

If you want to go one step further, Go Here and click 'Fundraise for This Campaign.' In seconds, you'll have your own fundraiser that you can share with all of your family and friends so that you can raise money for our cause too. 

Healing Domestic Violence Through the Arts

In July, Women’s Second Start shelter staff performed a domestic violence awareness recital for residents from all three of our shelters. Shelter Director Earla Lloyd, LCSW, uses creative movement performances by staff to help domestic violence survivors understand, discuss, and heal from their experiences.

The recital is one way that Lloyd uses creative movement to help residents heal. Lloyd will discuss this staff performance, as well as weekly group therapy movement sessions, at the Center’s October Breakfast, Transforming Lives Through the Arts. We invite you to join us on Thursday, October 23^rd for breakfast and a panel discussion about domestic violence and the healing power of art.

The video “La Bella y La Bestia” (Beauty and the Beast) and songs like Leona Lewis’s “Bleeding Love” and Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter” were used to tell a story, demonstrating the realities of domestic violence from the beginning of an abusive relationship through the survivor’s empowerment.  This event demonstrated that violence occurs in all cultures, and that children are victims too.   

As the movement pieces showed the emergence of the empowered survivor, the audience’s mood changed.  Teary eyes were dried and the shelter residents began to cheer on the performers; the residents recognized their own transformation from victims to survivors in the dancers’ journey. The recital ended with the audience joining staff on stage in celebration of freedom from abuse.

Click here for more information about the October Breakfast.

Why Survivors Remain in Abusive Relationships

One of the most frustrating and disheartening aspects of the Ray Rice domestic violence situation is the media and individuals on social media asking Janay Rice, "Why don't you just leave?" Unfortunately, this type of questioning and blaming domestic violence survivors happens all the time.

Below are some reasons why survivors remain in abusive relationships. Usually there is not one specific reason, but a combination. Reasons often include:

·        Fear that leaving will precipitate even more violent incidents of abuse directed toward themselves or their children;

·        Emotional dependency on the relationship, accompanied by feelings of low self-esteem and self-blame;

·        Lack of financial resources and employment income necessary to establish and maintain an independent household;

·        Concern about the effects of separation or divorce on the children (i.e., a “broken” home will jeopardize the children’s future);

·        Concern about the loss of economic security and benefits, such as retirement income and health insurance;

·        Feelings of love toward the abusive partner, coupled with the hopes that the relationship will improve and the violence will cease;

·        Denial of the potential for severe abuse, rationalizations and excuses for the abuser’s behavior, as well as the inability to assess accurately the risk of the situation.

(Adapted from C.K. Ragan).

Statement from CEO Judy Kahan on the Ray Rice Domestic Violence Situation

It’s been impossible to avoid the Ray Rice domestic violence story.  My deepest sympathy goes out to Janay Rice and all people affected by domestic abuse.

One out of four women will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime, making it an issue we desperately need to talk about and work to end. I am grateful for the awareness such a story brings to the issue of domestic violence.

It is the Center Against Domestic Violence’s mission to end domestic violence in our communities. In the midst  of the spotlight the Ray Rice case shines on domestic violence, I want to highlight and remind you of one of the Center’s core beliefs: abuse is a learned behavior and, with education, all people can lead lives filled with healthy, meaningful relationships. This is why we field so many prevention and education programs.

Our Relationship Abuse Prevention Program (RAPP) reaches 27,000 intermediate and high school students on 15 NYC public school campuses. Through workshops, individual and group counseling, and peer leadership training, RAPP works to stop teen dating violence now and prevent domestic violence in the future. The Center pilots Relationships Are Elementary, a healthy relationship education program for elementary school children. Focusing our efforts on younger children creates a better opportunity to break the cycle of violence. The earlier we reach students, from both violent and non violent homes, the better chance we have for laying the ground work for healthy relationships.

Let us concentrate on what we can do to prevent and stop domestic violence in the future. Everyone deserves a safe, violence-free life.  

Meet the Panelists of Transforming Lives Through the Arts

On Thursday, October 23rd, the Center will host its annual Domestic Violence Awareness breakfast. We're excited to welcome a diverse group of panelists who will discuss art's healing power for domestic violence survivors. Here's an introduction to our expert and inspiring panelists:

• Marcella Goheen wrote and starred in The Maria Project, an acclaimed, one woman, Off-Broadway play that tells the story of Maria Salazar, Goheen’s grandmother who was murdered by her grandfather. Ms. Goheen has since founded the Brooklyn-based Maria Project, whose mission is to dispel the myth, create awareness, and alleviate the shame around domestic violence and sexual assault. The Maria Project’s “Maria’s Voice Featuring Savion Glover” will begin its North America tour in October 2014.
   
• Ewa Grochowska is a potter/sculptor and domestic violence awareness activist, helping other survivors along their journey to build a life free from abuse. To accomplish this, she donates her time and supplies to provide art programs to children living in domestic violence shelters.
   
• Rachel Hass is a Licensed Social Worker and Play Group Therapist at Bank Street College of Education for the Center for Emotionally Responsive Practice, where she facilitates trauma-based interventions for children, teachers and families in early childhood centers throughout the city. Hass previously facilitated the Art Enrichment Program at the Center Against Domestic Violence.
   
• Earla Lloyd, LCSW, is Director at the Center’s Women’s Second Start shelter. Lloyd developed the shelter’s ExpressIt and Creative Movement program to help her residents heal from domestic violence and other traumas. The program has two components: ExpressIt movement pieces performed for shelter residents by staff and Creative Movement expressive sessions for shelter residents. Lloyd believes that movement is a key communication tool and a catalyst for healing.
   
• Terri Muuss (moderator)  is an actor, director, teacher, motivational speaker, life coach and social worker who specializes in the use of the arts as a healing mechanism for trauma survivors. She teaches a course at Rutgers University to social workers entitled Youth Development Through the Written Arts and her poetry has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Her poetic memoir Over Exposed (JB Stillwater, 2013) was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and her one-woman show Anatomy of a Doll  was named the “Best Theatre: Critics’ Pick of the Week” by the New York Daily News and has been performed throughout the US and Canada since 1998. www.terrimuuss.com

Click here for more information and to purchase tickets to the breakfast.


We hope to see you there!

We're Out to Get $100,000 to End Domestic Violence

Announcing CADV's Participation in Allstate's Purple Purse Challenge

We're super excited to let you know that we're part of The Allstate Foundation Purple Purse Challenge, a fundraising campaign to end domestic violence. 

Allstate will donate $500,000 to ignite public awareness and fundraising for charities benefiting domestic violence survivors. The charity that raises the most throughout the Challenge will get a $100,000 donation; second place gets $75,000; third $50,000; fourth $25,000; and 5th-10th $10,000 each. We're out to raise as much money as possible for our cause so we can win the $100,000 grand prize donation. 

We definitely need your help. We'll send emails throughout the Challenge, asking for you to give. Every donation makes a difference, no matter how small. 

To help now, please Click Here and give whatever you can. 

If you want to go one step further, Go Here and click 'Fundraise for This Campaign.' In seconds, you'll have your own fundraiser that you can share with all of your family and friends so that you can raise money for our cause too. 

Please email CrowdRise at PurplePurse@CrowdRise.com if you have any questions at all and they'll help solve everything.

Thanks so much for your support.