VAWnet News Blog

Millions of youth run away or are thrown out from their homes every year. Yet, services designed to support them are rare in most communities. National Runaway Prevention Month (NRPM), sponsored every November by the National Runaway Safeline, is an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of and educate others in your community.

Tell Me More guest host Celeste Headlee spoke with Oliver Williams, a professor of social work who heads the Institute on Domestic Violence in the African-American Community at the University of Minnesota.

“The Avon Foundation launched Speak Out Against Domestic Violence in 2004 to support domestic violence awareness, education and prevention programs, as well as direct services for victims and their families. Through the end of 2013 in the United States, the Avon Foundation will have donated more than $38 million to the domestic violence cause.

“During the two week government shutdown OVW heard from grantees about the dire financial circumstances many programs faced. In communities across the country domestic violence services providers, shelters, and health care clinics were forced to shorten business hours, and in some cases furlough employees.

“A new national study released on Oct. 22 reveals that although 44% of women experience domestic violence, 76% say they have never been asked about domestic violence in a medical exam.”

The Violence Against Women Act, our nation’s response to intimate partner violence, was recently passed with explicit inclusion of LGBT survivors of violence and implementation began October 1st.