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.

Thanks, Operation Backpack!

This week the children in the Center's emergency domestic violence shelters returned to school.  One of the consequences of homelessnes, especially homelessness caused by family violence, is the disruption of a child's education.  These children need school supplies for the upcoming year.

For over a decade, Volunteers of America's Operation Backpack has collected and distributed school supplies to these, the City's most vulnerable children.


Here at the Center, 165 children and teens received full backpacks and a big dose of confidence for their return to school.

Thank you!

Back to School

As the days shorten and the temperature drops, school days begin again.  Roads and subways are full of students and teachers.  Staples ads proclaim this “the most wonderful time of the year” - - for parents.

School is not always the safest place for a student to be.  In New York City high schools and intermediate schools, over a quarter of teen girls will be harassed, or bullied, or threatened by their dating partners.  Many thanks to the Center’s supporters and to the members of New York’s City Council that the Teen RAPP Adopt a School program will be going back to school this fall.  With workshops, counseling and leadership development, the Teen Relationship Abuse Prevention Program stops bullying and dating violence.  It works from the inside out to create schools with no tolerance for abuse.

Return to school poses extra challenges for the 150 children in the Center’s  three domestic violence emergency shelters.  Many children who witness violence at home perform badly in school; while they are away from home they worry about what’s going on and cannot concentrate.  While other young children attend school and learn to break the code for reading and arithmetic success, young children of domestic violence victims are often kept at home for protection.  At the shelters, we offer after school homework help with nutritious snacks and tutoring. You can give a young student the gift of school supplies by donating here.

Without intervention, young children who have witnessed domestic violence are two times as likely to become abusers or victims.  With your support, the Center Against Domestic Violence is building a more peaceful world – one child at a time.

Join the Center's Marathon Team

The Center is looking for runners for our 2013 ING NYC Marathon team

Receive a guaranteed spot for the marathon in exchange for fundraising on behalf of CADV and the families we serve. We assist with training and fundraising. Runners of all levels welcome!

For more than 35 years, CADV has been working towards a society free from violence by transforming the lives of victims and raising awareness in our communities.  CADV’s emergency shelters, non residential support groups, and school based teen dating violence prevention and intervention program (RAPP) help tens of thousands of New Yorkers.

Email Magdalen at MSangiolo@CenterAgainstDV.org to get involved!

Click here for more information.

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!

International Women's Day - Stop the Violence

Today marks International Women’s Day, the 102nd anniversary of this special day when the world over honors the political, economic and social achievements of women and renew its commitment to improving the lives of all women.

There is much to celebrate.  A century ago it was almost unheard of for a woman to own a business or become a professional.  A woman’s place was in the home or in the sweatshop.  Women in the United States had no vote.  Their property belonged to their husbands.  Now we are closer to gender equality than ever.  And, after a long struggle, we celebrate the President signing the Violence Against Women Act into law yesterday.

This year the United Nations has chosen “A Promise is a Promise:  A Time for Action to End Violence Against Women” as the theme for International Women’s Day.  Judith Kahan, CEO of the Center Against Domestic Violence said, “This is a day of great significance across the globe.  The work of the Center Against Domestic Violence began a deep commitment to improving the quality of women’s lives.  We join our allies around the world to celebrate women and rededicate our efforts to ending violence.” 

Violence against women is a global crisis that threatens women globally, regardless of country, economic status, ethnicity or age.  Here in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control found that one in five US women have been sexually assaulted in their lifetime. The CDC estimates that domestic violence costs the US over $8.3 billion a year in medical care, mental health services, and lost productivity.  Last year, here in New York City, Police responded to 263,207 domestic violence incidents and City’s Domestic Violence Hotline advocates answered 108,131 calls; that’s more than 1,000 cries for help every day.

For more than 35 years, the Center Against Domestic Violence has been working toward a society free from violence by transforming the lives of victims and raising awareness in our communities.  CADV opened the first publicly-funded shelter in New York State and now operates three full-service shelters for victims and their children, offering childcare, job assistance, housing placement, counseling and other crucial services. Our groundbreaking education programs teach more than 27,000 young people each year how to prevent domestic violence and have healthy relationships. We also provide ongoing support for shelter residents, victim advocacy, and community outreach as part of our efforts to eliminate domestic violence.

Violence against women needs to end worldwide. The Center Against Domestic Violence is proud to be a local leader working to end violence against women.