VDAY

We Will Not Stop Until the Violence Stops

In 1994, a play called The Vagina Monologues, written by playwright and activist Eve Ensler, broke ground, offering to the world a piece of art like nothing it had seen before.

On Valentines Day, 1998, Eve, with a group of women in New York City, established V-Day, a global activist movement to stop violence against women and girls. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sex slavery.

Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues, A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer, Any One Of Us: Words From Prison, screenings of V-Day's documentary Until The Violence Stops, and the PBS documentary What I Want My Words To Do To You, Spotlight Teach-Ins and V-Men workshops, to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities.

Performance is just the beginning. V-Day stages large-scale benefits and produces innovative gatherings, films and campaigns to educate and change social attitudes towards violence against women

In 2010, over 5,400 V-Day benefit events took place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls.

V-Day's mission demands that violence against women and girls must end. To do this, once a year, in February, March, and April, Eve allows groups around the world to produce a performance of the play, as well as other works created by V-Day, and use the proceeds for local individual projects and programs that work to end violence against women and girls, often shelters and rape crisis centers.

The V-Day movement is growing at a rapid pace throughout the world, in 130 countries from Europe to Asia, Africa and the Caribbean and all of North America. V-Day, a non-profit corporation, distributes funds to grassroots, national and international organizations and programs that work to stop violence against women and girls. In 2001, V-Day was named one of Worth Magazine's "100 Best Charities," in 2006 one of Marie Claire Magazine's Top Ten Charities, and in 2010 was named as one of the Top-Rated organizations on GreatNonprofits. In eleven years, the V-Day movement has raised over $80 million and reached over 300 million people.

The 'V' in V-Day stands for Victory, Valentine and Vagina.

To learn more about how to organize a V-Day event, click here.

Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art

The Chicago Cultural Center hosts the exhibition Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women & Art through April 13. This exhibition features the work of 29 internationally renowned artists from 25 countries, including Laylah Ali and Yoko Ono. The exhibit addresses violence against women and their basic human right to safety, security and justice around the world through artistic responses to gender-based violence. It is organized by Art Works for Change and is curated by Randy Jayne Rosenberg.

Chicago Cultural Center 4^th FL

78 E. Washington Street.

January 22 - April 13, 2011

Admission is Free

Rape Victim Advocates helped co-organize the special performance, Stories on Stage which will be a featured event on February 17,2011. For More information on Rape Victim Advocates, you may call 312.443.9603 or contact them by e-mail at info@rapevictimadvocates.org

Women of the World's Opening Event of 2011

In collaboration with The University of Chicago Women’s Business Group

“Gen Y Women – Paving the Highway to the Future”

On Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at the Mid-America Club an expert panel moderated by Noeleen McGrath, McGrath Communications featured:

· Elene Cafasso, President, Enerpace & VP Programs, UCWBG

· Janet Deatherage, Associate Dean, Loyola University & Director of Women’s Leadership

· Laura Waleryszak, College & Community Campaigns Associate, VDAY

The connection between "generation Y", those born in the mid 1980’s and later (also known as the Millenials), and "baby boomers", those born between 1946 and 1964, is one where both generations are learning from one another while working together.

Janet Deatherage stated that there is a paradigm shift in which new graduates are mentoring the baby boomers. Elene Cafasso believes Gen Y have flexibility and balance because of their behavioral patterns. After leaving work Gen Y’s are online at night, which means that they can work from home at any time. Laura Waleryszak, a Gen Y herself, is able to work on VDAY activities from anywhere while also being connected to many others around the country.

This is a two-way street, both Gen Y and baby boomers can learn from one another. It is never too late.

Be Yourself. Own Yourself.

I Own Me Campaign

On February 9^th Ad 2 Tampa Bay released a public service campaign as part of its annual effort to work with a nonprofit with impact and significance.

For the 2010-2011 year, it chose The Spring of Tampa Bay, Hillsborough County's only certified domestic violence prevention and emergency shelter agency. Its mission is to prevent domestic violence, protect victims and promote change in lives, families and communities.

I Own Me is a campaign designed to increase awareness about the violence that may occur during teen dating relationships. The campaign emphasizes a teen girl's ability to exercise her independence by acknowledging that she owns her own actions, words, and body.

I Own Me is a collaborate effort with the following Domestic Violence shelters:

· CASA – St Petersburg

· The Haven of R.C.S. – Clearwater, Sunrise Domestic and Sexual Violence Shelter

· Salvation Army Domestic Violence Program of West Pasco

· Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center – Sarasota County

· Hope Family Services – Manatee County

· Peace River Center Domestic Violence Shelter- Hardee, Highlands and Polk Counties

Will you own yourself? Take the pledge.

“Because I own me, I pledge to demand respect from my boyfriend or girlfriend. I expect to be treated properly by establishing personal boundaries and to be honored in my decisions concerning privacy, sex, and affection. I will not tolerate being physically, verbally, or emotionally hurt.”

Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women

Clothesline Project

The clothesline project is a national art project started by women in Massachusetts as a memorial to the victims and survivors of domestic violence. The project involves designing shirts to remember the women and children murdered as a result of domestic violence and child abuse. The shirts then are hung on a clothesline and displayed in a public location. The purpose is to create a visual memorial to the casualties and survivors of the war against women.

The Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women started the Minnesota clothesline in June 1992 at a statewide conference for battered women and advocates in Brainerd, MN. In October 1992, MCBW co-sponsored a statewide display of the clothesline with the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault, in which over 300 shirts were hung by participants from all over the state to commemorate their own, or other women's and children's, experience as victims of the war against women and children. Included were shirts designed by Arts Against Domestic Violence for each of the women and children who died from domestic violence in 1992. A 1993 Clothesline honoring the women and children murdered in Minnesota in that year as a result of domestic violence premiered at Battered Women's Action Day at the Capitol in March, 1994.

Clotheslines from 1992 to the present honoring the women and children in Minnesota murdered as a result of domestic violence are available for exhibit throughout the state to raise public awareness of the prevalence and severity of domestic violence and child abuse. Clotheslines from the different years travel to communities throughout the state of Minnesota.

The shirts on each Clothesline are designed by volunteer artists. Most of the artists did not know the woman or child they honored with a shirt, but had information collected mainly from news accounts. Beginning in 1993, the Clothesline has included shirts designed by family members and friends for their loved ones.

Besides bearing witness to the victims of the war against women, the Clothesline Project is also a powerful healing tool for survivors of this violence. Survivors can be invited to participate in the Clothesline Project by decorating a shirt paying tribute to their own survival. Organizers planning to exhibit the Clothesline may want to consider offering shirt-making workshops alongside the exhibit. For more information, please contact the National Clothesline Project.

Please read these facts about the victims affected by violence at the National Teen Dating Violence Prevention Initiative. Your outreach for the victims and survivors can help bring a victim or their family out of the darkness and into the light.

MCBW is a well-established, membership organization with 90 member programs located throughout Minnesota with a strong history of effectively carrying out programming that advances women's safety and security. MCBW has existed for almost 30 years as the state's primary voice for battered women. The Coalition has a dedicated and experienced staff, and its capacity is strengthened by the leadership of its members and by a deeply committed and involved board of directors.

February is National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Month

Love Is Respect

Do you feel like you might be in an abusive relationship? Do you ever feel scared? If so, here is a quiz that can help you determine if you are being abused…

Does your boyfriend/girlfriend:

• Look at you or act in ways that scare you?
• Act jealous or possessive?
• Put you down or criticize you?
• Try to control where you go, what you wear or what you do?
• Text or IM you excessively?
• Blame you for the hurtful things they say and do?
• Threaten to kill or hurt you or themselves if you leave them?
• Try to stop you from seeing or talking to friends and family?
• Try to force you to have sex before you’re ready?
• Do they hit, slap, push or kick you?

If you have answered yes to any of the above questions, it is time to take ownership of YOUR life and save yourself. You are a human being that deserves to be respected. Love does not abuse.

Each year, about one in four teens report being the victim of verbal, physical, emotional, or sexual violence.

Don’t be another statistic and get the respect you deserve.

Loveisrespect.org is an organization that provides resources for teens, parents, friends and family, Peer Advocates, government officials, law enforcement officials and the general public. To contact the National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline at 1-866-331-9474 or visit www.LoveIsRespect.org to receive immediate and confidential advice and referrals.