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Giving Tuesday 2014

#GivingTuesday is almost here! Tomorrow, on Tuesday December 2nd, the Center Against Domestic Violence will be participating in Giving Tuesday. Please show support on this generous day! The holidays can be are a hard time, but it is always difficult for families dealing with the trauma of domestic violence and the hardship of starting a new life. Please donate funds for gift cards so parents we shelter can purchase holiday presents for their children.   We're asking you to help ease the financial burden of buying gifts so that survivors of domestic violence can celebrate this December!

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:

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.  

In 2013, With Your Help, We...

• Trained 267 RAPP peer leaders on teen relationship abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, and bullying, equipping them with skills and information to become leaders in eliminating abuse at their schools.

• Counseled 1,160 intermediate and high school students experiencing dating violence, bullying, or other issues.

• Taught 30,000 NYC public school students how to have healthy relationships and end bullying and abuse.

• Sheltered over 1,000 domestic violence survivors and their children, providing these families with a safe place to learn to break the cycle of violence and start life anew.

• Hosted over 40 survivors each week at our Spanish speaking and English speaking support groups.

• Provided counseling, advocacy, and referrals to 3,000 domestic violence survivors in the NYC community.

• Provided emergency assistance to over 813 survivors making it on their own in the community.

 

On behalf of the Center's residents, students, staff, and board -- Thank You. We couldn't have done it without you. 

 

 

Support our lifesaving programs - Give the Gift of Safety to thousands more in the upcoming year.

Join the Global Movement - Today is Giving Tuesday

Support NYC Youth Today

 

Donate

 

 

 

Give a life free from relationship violence for teens across New York City! All our children deserve a safe future to reach their highest potential. Support Teen Relationship Abuse Prevention Program - RAPP - a proven violence prevention program reaching almost 50,000 New York City teens each year.

 

Donate

 

A Breakfast Conversation with Emily Bazelon

Thank you to everyone who attended and supported our Fall Breakfast 2013. Your contributions support the Center’s life changing work. It was a great morning and we hope to see you again soon! 

Missed the Breakfast?

Listen to the audio recording here.

Click here for more pictures.

Special Thanks

Emily Bazelon, author of Sticks and Stones and senior editor at Slate, for engaging us with her important research and conclusions;

Dr. Liz Lasky, Relationship Abuse Prevention Program (RAPP) Coordinator for the Center, for leading the poignant disussion;

Devon Arnold, RAPP Peer Leader, for bravely sharing his story about how RAPP helped him overcome years of bullying;

Andrea Cruz and Amber Perez, RAPP Graduates and Stuckey Scholarship Winners, for inspiring the entire room.

Meet Author Emily Bazelon - October 18th

Fall is a time for beginnings.  It’s back to school time for the Relationship Abuse Prevention Program (RAPP), for Relationships are Elementary and for the 150 children in Center Against Domestic Violence shelters.  These programs can transform children and teens from victims to survivors to peer advocates; they teach young people skills to stand against bullying and teen relationship abuse by becoming responsible bystanders.

Two years ago, the Center’s Fall Breakfast at the Harvard Club looked at Bullying in the 21st Century.  We hosted a panel that included a RAPP social worker, a DA at the intersection of cyber-crimes and harassment, a survivor whose landmark case forced Google to release her harasser’s email address; a human rights advocate; and an intermediate school principal.  Everyone at the table agreed that bullying took a great toll on bystanders, and saw these witnesses as key to stopping bullying.  Acting to end the abuse they witnessed stopped bystanders from feeling powerless and ended their own victimization.

This fall we are taking a look at bullying through yet another lens.  On October 18 we will host a breakfast conversation with Slate senior editor and New York Times Magazine contributor Emily Bazelon.  Her highly acclaimed book, “Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy” explores teen bullying, what it is and what it isn’t, and how the rise of the Internet and social media make the experience more challenging.   She charts the experiences of bullied children and describes successful anti-bullying measures.  In “Sticks and Stones” Ms. Bazelon, a lawyer who is a Senior Research Scholar and Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School, reviews jurisprudence on bullying, and examines both the virtues and the pitfalls of treating bullying as a crime.  “Sticks and Stones” describes what parents can achieve, what schools can achieve, and what may come of the shifting power differential among parents, schools and social agencies.   She will be in conversation with a Center RAPP Coordinator, a veteran social worker stationed on a high school campus to  teach teens how to have healthy relationships.

Please join us on October 18 at the Harvard Club of NYC for breakfast and great conversation.  Purchase tickets here.

Facebook's Role in Perpetuating Domestic Violence

With over two billion users worldwide, Facebook wields more cultural influence than most governments.  How then did it respond when activists called Facebook to task for hate speech and misogynist images?

Even though Facebook has a system for identifying and removing hate speech until early this month language and imagery that glorifies violence against women were not removed.

What made the difference?  You and I made the difference – with over 5000 emails to Facebook advertisers, more than 60,000 Twitter posts and 224,000 signatures on a Change.org petition.

In response to the public outcry against posts that said things like “Don’t wrap it and tap it – Rape it and Tape it!” fifteen advertisers pulled their support from the ubiquitous social media site.  Facebook has promised to review and update the guidelines regarding hate speech on the site, and plans to increase the accountability of users who post hateful content.

More and more, online behavior influences behavior in the real world.  The Center Against Domestic Violence is dedicated to cultivating a society free from violence and abuse.  We drive cultural change through education and intervention.  Through our Relationship Abuse Prevention Program on fifteen campuses throughout New York City, the Center teaches 27,000 teens to be pro-social online and in the real world.

Our groundbreaking programs teach young people how to identify and avoid abuse so that they can develop healthy relationships.  The Center has added new units that address online behavior to our acclaimed Speak your Peace (intermediate school) and Pride Education Equality Respect – PEER (high school) curricula.  The acceptance of violence, gender inequality, harassment, and bullying, are not new – only the venue is new.  As citizens, parents, and activists, we need to condemn violence and create positive environments in both places.

The Center’s Relationship Abuse Prevention Program is a public/private partnership that depends on your contributions and your advocacy to continue.  Relationships are Elementary, the Center’s pilot program to teach elementary school students about healthy relationships, is completely funded by your contributions.

Together we can make this a safer world for ourselves and our children.

Funding for RAPP Will End in July - We Must Again SAVE RAPP

Mayor Bloomberg has eliminated Teen RAPP! (Relationship Abuse Prevention Program) from his preliminary budget for the next fiscal year. If RAPP’s funding is not restored, this highly successful and cost-effective relationship violence prevention and anti-bullying program—reaching over 40,000 public middle and high school students—will cease to exist in July.

Therefore, once again we must mobilize our supporters—RAPP students, teachers, principals, parents, social service providers, interested citizens—to join in our effort. We must send a clear message to the Mayor and City Council that RAPP works—and that they must restore the $3 million in funding that will allow Teen RAPP to continue to provide information and tools to help current and future generations of NYC youth break dangerous cycles of violence.

With your help over the past two years, we have been extremely successful in gaining the support of our local Councilmembers—resulting in the reinstatement of funding for Teen RAPP. We urge you to please join with us again by logging on to www.SaveTeenRAPP.org where you can instantly send a letter to the Mayor, City Council Speaker and your local elected officials.

Thank you in advance. Together we can save Teen RAPP!