I’MPOWER

The Violence Stops Here

Violence against girls and women is a global problem.  Research from North America, Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia has found astonishingly high rates of sexual assault, stalking, trafficking, street harassment, violence in intimate relationships, gender-based cyber-bullying and other violations of bodies and minds of girls and women.  A bigger danger to women’s well-being than cancer, with 45 percent of women in North America, Australia, New Zealand and Europe experiencing some form of physical or sexual violence and subsequent impacts. Studies in Asia, Latin America and Africa show that violence against girls and women is ubiquitous. 

Globally, 139 constitutions include guarantees of gender equality and 125 states outlaw domestic violence and yet, according to UNiTE up to seven in ten women across the world have faced some form of violence and is the single largest form of violence of any type, including armed conflict. 

In Canada, where BWSS Battered Women’s Support Services is based, a casual scan of the headlines of any major Canadian newspaper jars the reader with astonishing incidents of violence against girls and women at home and in the community.  The last two months at our Vancouver office 4,000 women accessed our support services on an ongoing basis with over 100 new intakes a month. 

Violence against girls and women is endemic and an epidemic. 

How can you use your POWER to end violence against girls and women?

I’MPOWER – The Violence Stops Here is your opportunity to take effective action to eradicate violence against girls and women.  This action model invites awareness, exploration and transformation;

As an Individual

…as a social issue, we’re all affected by violence against girls and women.  Each and every one of us has an experience as either a victim, or as a survivor, as a bystander, as advocate or as an activist and even as a perpetrator.  This means each and every one of us has a role in the solution.  Individual action does matter and can make a lasting difference.

In your Relationships

…as a gender-based issue we’re all navigating our relationships wanting to know how to have healthy and safe connections across genders in our intimate relationships, in friendships, at school, in our family and at work. There are particular actions we can take based on our gender and at Battered Women’s Support Services, we urge men to own their role in ending violence.

In your Community

…community action is key to making change, the extent to which our communities can create safe spaces for girls and women, address victim-blaming, while ensuring bystanders are supported, as well as, holding perpetrators accountable for their infractions, is the extent we can see the prevention, and eradication of violence against girls and women.

In Society

…laws, government, media (advertising, entertainment and news), social norms, cultural expression, historical legacies and traditions, are forms of “society”, an interconnected web that can bring us closer to prevention and/or take us farther away from eradication.   Each level of society has a critical responsibility to take effective action.  We are the change, we hold the keys to the solution.

Ask yourself…

“How will I use my POWER to end violence against girls and women?”

Now until December 6,  2012, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada,

join Battered Women’s Support Services

Social media and online tools are your ‘go to’

Each day during the campaign log onto BWSS Battered Women’s Support Services or The Violence Stops Here through Facebook, read our Ending Violence Blog, and follow Ending Violence on Twitter for tips and tools for action.  Then share liberally to start the conversation and take the conversation further than you ever have before. 

Use your POWER to make your action count!  

During the campaign messages of POWER include:

Understanding the dynamics of an abusive relationship

Understanding the dynamics of sexual violence and date rape

Understanding and resisting the culture of victim blaming

Effects on Ch
ildren Who Witness

Healthy Relationships and Equality

Hearing the Voices of Women Who Got Away

What Does Violence Prevention Entail?

How to be an Empowered Bystander

How to Advocate and Activists Stories

YOUth Ending Violence

The Role of Men – Men Ending Violence

How to take action in your community, with law enforcement, with municipal, state/provincial, federal/national government , at school, and/or work

and more…

Together, we’ll harness, the POWER of the voice, the POWER of the pen, the POWER of the individual and collaborative action because…

The Violence Stops Here