SafePlace of Austin has remained a refuge for women and their families for over 35 years. It continues to serve as a necessary resource for both women leaving domestic violence abuse and survivors of Sexual Assault.

Each year SafePlace serves about 800 individuals women and children. SafePlace was actually established in 1998 as a combination of two long established resources. The Austin Rape Crisis center and the Center for battered women created in 1974 and 1977 respectively. These two entities joined in an effort to better serve Austin women.

Program Description and Services:

SafePlace provides both crisis services and prevention services. The most well-known crisis service is their shelter. The SafePlace shelter houses 15 families for 3 months or less. SafePlace also has transitional housing behind it’s secure gates for families. SafePlace provides a hospital advocacy program. Advocates are trained and sent to meet recent sexual assault victims and assist them with different services including Sexual Assault Nurse examinations (SANE). Advocates assist approximately 300 people a year. SafePlace also provides counseling for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, as well as their families. Counseling is free and confidential and is available to women, men, children and groups. The SafePlace hotline receives call from victims of domestic violence 24 hours a day. It is often called by family members and friends of victims looking to help and is often the easiest route to receiving services. SafePlace clients of grade school age receive an exemplary education from the University of Texas at Austin Charter School. Students below grade school age receive day care until the age of five. These students receive counseling and therapy including play therapy. Finally SafePlace clients also receive legal advocacy for restraining orders and advocates at the county court are available to help with courtroom procedure and paperwork in order to help survivors get away from their abusers. SafePlace also continues pursue different initiatives in the community to prevent domestic abuse and sexual assault. One of those services includes reaching out to people with a disability and the deaf community. SafePlace also provides training to schools and parents. They also conduct a program for schools students called expect respect, in which, students are taught to participate in healthy relationships and to be able to see and intervene safely in unhealthy relationships.

Volunteers

SafePlace often utilizes volunteers to maintain the different services for clients. SafePlace offers a 40-hour volunteer training for volunteers who wish to conduct direct service with clients. However, they offer opportunities that do not require client contact and subsequently also require less training. If you’re interested in volunteering contact the Volunteer Services.

SafePlace also benefits from donations and donation drives. They are always in need of different items for their center’s clients. These include hygiene products like unopened deodorants, soaps, and shampoos; baby items like diapers, baby soap or baby oil, baby wipes, and baby powder; general items like gift cards and cleaning supplies; canned and long lasting foods, and more in the full list of items.

Successes/Highlights

The SafePlace Hotline accepts between 11,000 and 13,000 calls every year.

The SafePlace shelter is full throughout the year and has a waiting list.

SafePlace serves over 800 clients directly over the course of a year not including the hotline.

SafePlace:

SafePlace most known for it’s shelter is actually an assembly of services for survivors of interpersonal violence. SafePlace is one of the longest running and most efficient centers in the country and is often emulated by other centers. SafePlace has been a haven for women in Austin for decades and continues to restore and empower survivors in our communities.

Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA) is the representative body for the rape crisis centers in Texas. Since it’s inception in 1982 when volunteers met to create a network of rape crisis centers, TAASA has expanded to include close to 85 rape crisis centers including at least one in every major city. TAASA unrelentingly purposes to ensure that rape crisis centers have the support they need to offer services.

Program Descriptions and Services

TAASA is not a local service provider but instead works at a state level to end violence. TAASA advocates year round for the rape crisis centers in Texas. Each year TAASA provides training to rape crisis centers, law enforcement, military, and other service providers on how to better serve sexual assault survivors. TAASA also advocates on behalf of crisis centers to the Texas Legislature. They also propose state legislation to encourage policy changes that help end sexual assault. TAASA also pursues funding for crisis centers and provides centers with materials and handouts including Speak Up, Speak Out campaign (See header) posters for the public. TAASA also focuses on prevention efforts like their Students Taking Action for Respect (STAR) program for youth and their Men’s Task Force to engage men.

TAASA and UT

Noël Bridget Busch-Armendariz, PhD, LMSW, MPA Associate Professor & Director, School of Social Work, Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault (IDVSA) serves on TAASA’s primary prevention planning committee.

Volunteers:

TAASA frequently uses volunteer interns from the University of Texas College of Social Work. They often suggest volunteers for different rape crisis centers.

Successes/Highlights:

In 2008, TAASA hosted 115 trainings in 46 different Texas communities, they added to their prevention team and started a Men’s Task Force..

TAASA has also hosted visitors from Hong Kong, Ukraine, the Maldives, Romania, Kenya and Angola for different trainings about services for sexual assault survivors and sexual assault prevention.

TAASA completed its 81st Legislative Agenda.

TAASA spearheaded the effort to bring Texas in compliance with the Violence Against Women Act of 2005 by proposing legislation to allow sexual assault victims to obtain a forensic exam without first making a police report. It is likely this will pass this year based on groundwork completed by TAASA.

TAASA expanded it’s campaigns including “Speak Up. Speak Out” (See Header)  to include other languages.

Texas Association Against Sexual Assault

For nearly 30 years TAASA has been a “support center” for rape crisis centers in the state of Texas and a voice throughout the state advocating for sexual assault survivors. The agency has a strong record of success in community education, legal services, youth outreach, law enforcement training, legislative advocacy, and curricula and materials development. They continue each day to make sure anyone who endures a sexual assault experience has a place to go for help.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

At the end of this month we will send our children out in costume to annoy the neighbors and acquire cavities. We will take pictures of them as they beg for us to let them go out and get started. Then in a moment of seriousness we will look into their eyes and warn them about the precariousness that awaits them once they leave the house. We then put our trust in the buddy system, the safety of the neighborhood, and sometimes our own clandestiny as we, unbeknownst to our children, follow them around the neighborhood.

We often don’t encourage our children to take precaution against the violence that may one day erupt in their homes. The Month of October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and is an opportunity to speak to our children about healthy relationships, and to encourage our survivors of domestic violence.

Nationally the Center for Disease Control estimates domestic violence is present in over 32 million homes. Last year 136 women died as the result of domestic violence in the state of Texas alone. These statistics aren’t simply to break our hearts but to help us understand that without action an epidemic of violence against ourselves continues.

I once spoke to an individual about the secret butchery that occurs in the homes of this country. He responded simply with “but I’m a dude.” Meaning to insinuate that this was not his issue and as such should not concern him. Being a “dude” puts him and myself in a powerful position to not only discontinue cycles of violence individually, but also within our spheres of influence by holding our peers accountable. While we may not be personally responsible for specific violence if we ignore an issue where lives are truly at stake daily, then we present batterers with permission slips to continue.

I don’t overlook that violence can occur between couples in all kinds of relationships and the offender can identify as any gender, color, or sexuality. However, We cannot disregard that most perpetrators are male and as such males must increase their vigilance against an infirmity that we are in majority responsible for and that plagues the entire world.

In October and every month I implore you to remember that domestic violence continues and offer to assist, donate or educate. Leave victim blaming locked away and unlatch your compassion.

While Halloween and the month of October itself is a fugacious event that will soon dissipate until next year. Unfortunately domestic violence is not, it will not simply fade or pass although attention to it might. Domestic violence must be challenged it must be highlighted and it must be stopped by us all.

Marlon L. Bailey

Community Engagement Collaborative Domestic Violence

Domestic Violence Survivor Support Network

Domestic Violence Survivor Support Network (DVSSN) is a group of University of Texas at Austin law, social work, and business students who obtain resources to directly support survivors of domestic violence.

One of the primary reasons that victims return to their abusers is because of financial insufficiency.

Program Description and Services:

DVSSN was founded by students around five years ago and continues today to offer services to domestic violence survivors. The organization has provided for court orders, utility and other bills, rent, health exams, grocery bills, and other services. They provide their time for direct service like financial empowerment and budgeting instruction. They help survivors to find and keep work. They also offer their effort in fundraising.

On October 22, 2009 DVSSN will offer a fall-themed poker tournament called Pumpkins and Poker. Proceeds will directly benefit domestic violence survivors. The tournament will take place at the Belmont: Classic American Restaurant and Bar at 9:30 pm until 1:30am. Enter the tournament with fifteen dollars or simply come, hang out, and support survivors for five dollars.

Later in the fall and in spring semesters DVSSN conducts it’s bi-annual candle sales. A domestic violence survivor who owns a candle store makes the candles. The store sells to DVSSN at a discounted rate so that the candles can be resold in order to make a profit that benefits survivors

If a special or immediate need arises DVSSN holds bake sales or other impromptu fundraisers to assist.

Volunteers

DVSSN is able to commit to their mission because of the volunteers and donations they receive. They remain conscious of their overhead cost in planning and executing events so that more resources can be utilized for survivors. Please click the links to find out how to volunteer or donate.

The price of not having an organization like this can be catastrophic to those who need even the smallest intervention and the foundation of the persistence of this organization over the years is the risk of it’s absence. Professor Sarah Buel, a domestic violence survivor herself, sees how invaluable this organization and has continued to sponsor as a faculty advisor.

Domestic Vioelnce Survivor Support Network

DVSSN is a collection of students year after year who find the passion to make a difference in practical, beneficial, and direct way. Their work may not receive much press or recognition but their service is worthwhile.

What’s the number to the national domestic violence hotline? 1800-799-SAFE.

How much does a family of three (single mother and two children) receive per month on welfare? $213

Imagine having completed a bachelor’s degree, taken the LSAT, and having been accepted to one of the best law schools in the country. Then, in a particular law course, being humbled every session by having to recite the answers to the above mentioned questions in kindergarten fashion with the rest of the class before instruction begins. When law students leave the University of Texas at Austin, they do so prepared to compete in the field of law, and with the answers to those two questions.

The assumption could be made that an ordinary law class at such a respected law school would not include such a simple activity. This activity, as meaningful as it is simple, is not an ordinary activity, and this is no ordinary class. Reason being, Sarah Buel is not only an exceptional teacher, but also an exceptional human being.

I recently sat with Dr. Sarah Buel a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin Law School. She is the law school liaison to IDVSA and faculty sponsor for the Domestic Violence Survivor Support Network.

Dr. Buel, a survivor of domestic violence can and does illuminate a generation with her passion for other survivors. In order to contribute, she often hurdles past obstacles that keep services from survivors. From her experiences as a survivor and now an advocate, she understands some of the issues that survivors have to deal with like, “people expect that [survivors] can just pack up the children and get on the bus. They don’t realize how difficult the bus system is until they have to ride.”

As an advocate for survivors who is always trying to solicit supplies from her colleagues for those in need, Dr. Buel commented, “people could not believe how little it takes. Every dime can help in different situations.” As a result, colleagues of Dr Buel’s have grown to expect emails asking for furniture or to help meet a need, and they know that all unwanted clothes can be placed in Dr. Buel’s office, which serves as her distribution center as much as it does her law office.

Dr Buel believes that one significant reason women are not given the help they need is due to the “victim blaming” that persists in our communities. Questions like, “why doesn’t she just leave” often constrict the complexity of the situation down to a duality that simply doesn’t exist. Dr. Buel often explains the systematic hardships that demonstrate the difficulty of executing exit strategies. For example, the possibility of not being able feed their child if they left, or insufficient space in shelters. From her personal experience and the experiences of the many people she has assisted, she thoroughly understands these systematic hardships.

When asked what inspires her, Sarah Buel cites her mother as her foundation and an example of being so giving. She remembered her mother allowing others to eat and visit with them. “She just had a loving sense of community and [taught me] whatever little you have, whatever your gift is, you just share it.”

Sarah Buel’s other inspiration is the honorable and gifted actor, Raymond Burr in his memorable role as the fictitious defense attorney “Perry Mason.” “He knew how to use the law to make things right for people.” While she was not a defense attorney, like the formidable Mason, she took the responsibility to use the law to make things right for people as a real mandate. That mandate however, has been problematic to uphold.

Dr Buel’s proudest moment was actually being fired from her job as a district attorney in Boston as a result of that mandate. When presented with an ultimatum to stop working on the documentary “Defending Our Lives” or be fired, Dr Buel decided her ethics and morals would not be determined or dictated by her paycheck. She allowed her supervisor to terminate her.

“Defending Our Lives,” directed by Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich, is about women who were incarcerated for murdering their abusers in self-defense; this documentary went on to win an Oscar at the Academy Awards in 1993. Three of the women highlighted in the video were released from prison by the parole board due to the documentary’s influence.

Dr Buel is revered by her students, respected by her co-workers and is seen as a champion for human rights by so many. Students have even called her their Mom away from home.

Dr Buel continues to advocate on behalf of survivors in the domestic violence clinic of the UT Law School. She continues to teach as a professor and be a faculty sponsor of the Survivor Support Network law student group. She currently leads a committee to create an Austin family Justice Center. She also participates in new initiatives concerning youth in detention centers.

Dr Buel’s passion for human rights is unrivaled, her love for the human condition is unparalleled and her self-sacrifice for others is inspiring to all.

After reading this you may forget the name Sarah Buel. You may forget her experience, her accomplishments and her endeavors, but if I include them one more time, maybe you’ll remember the answers to her two questions, as a way to remind you to pursue others with compassion before blame;

The number to the national domestic violence hotline is 1800-799-SAFE

A three-person family, a single mother and two kids, on welfare receive $213 a month.

In 1982 three female attorneys opened a hotline for legal advice. They found themselves so inundated with domestic violence calls that they changed their purpose to helping survivors of interpersonal violence. These three women and their hotline have expanded to become one of the greatest resources for survivors of interpersonal violence in the state of Texas.

What once was a hotline is now an entire system of services established to help those in interpersonal violence situations called the Texas Advocacy Project (TAP). Texas Advocacy Project is in its 27^th year of providing free legal services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.

Program Description and Services

Clients are referred from all across Texas including from shelters, law enforcement, schools and other local organizations to the different Texas Advocacy Project hotlines.

Callers to the hotline receive half an hour to an hour of free legal council per call about their specific cases or legal options covering issues such as how to file for a divorce, obtain a protective order, establish or change custody and visitation orders, receive child support, and get protections provided under the law to domestic violence victims.

Callers seeking legal representation can be referred to an attorney in their area who has an agreement with Texas Advocacy Project to provide a free half hour consultation; referral attorneys are encouraged by the Project to then charge on a sliding scale based on income of the client.

The Assisted Pro Se (Self Representation) Program at TAP provides more in depth assistance and support with preparing legal documents so that clients in rural areas can represent themselves effectively.

TAP’s Emergency Protection Order Program (available in Travis county only) contacts victims directly within 24 hours of a family violence arrest, providing information on legal resources and safety planning and advocate to the magistrate for the granting of an Emergency Protection Order if requested.

Texas Advocacy Project also has a Teen Justice Initiative offering free legal advice and court representation to youth victims of domestic abuse. The TJI Program also provides trainings to high schools throughout Texas on the topic of teen dating abuse and the signs to watch out for in an abusive partner.

Texas Advocacy Project also offers trainings to law enforcement, prosecutors, judicial staff, and victim counselors on the main types of protective orders in Texas through their Legal Access Initiative.

Victims of abuse with non legal questions can be referred to the Project’s Technical Advocacy Program, which assists victims of domestic violence with locating shelter, applying for financial assistance and safety planning.

Finally, TAP’s newest program - the Economic Empowerment Initiative – was established this fall to help survivors learn how to gain a solid financial foundation in order to maintain independence from their abusers; this program will also focus on private enforcement actions to recover back child support.

Volunteers

Volunteers are an integral part the Texas Advocacy Project’s ability to provide services for hotline callers. Volunteers also help with seasonal projects like the handbag giveaway around mother’s day.

Successes/Highlights

TAP has had many great successes throughout their almost thirty year history. Dana Vig the Communications Specialist and Volunteer Coordinator believes their greatest success is ending the cycle of violence in families– preventing children from further exposure to violence that could have lead to a future as a perpetrator or repeat victim of violence.

The Future

In the future Texas advocacy Project would like to expand by opening other offices within the state of Texas - especially in rural areas to make their services available where access o services is severely limited

They would also like to re-open a civil division to help individuals with more complex cases requiring court representation.

Texas Advocacy Project

For nearly thirty years the Texas Advocacy Project staff and volunteers have provided free statewide services around interpersonal violence with one primary goal in mind; to end abuse in Texas.

The Women’s Resource Agency(WRA) is an agency of Student Government(SG) that strives to raise awareness and facilitate open discussion of gender issues by providing a forum to explore and exchange beliefs, ideas, and experiences of the students, faculty, staff, and administrators at the University of Texas.

It also serves as a referral base, establishing a supportive network of campus and community resources that fosters individual and communal enrichment and empowerment. Further, WRA seeks ways in which SG, women on campus, and the students in general can serve to empower women

I recently sat with Anna Lesa Russo one of the co-directors of WRA who found a passion and courage in a women’s reproductive health class at UT to spread the message of equality for women and spoke about the history and direction of the Women’s Resource Agency.

Program Description and Services

WRA was founded six years ago as the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) and over time has partnered with different entities on campus including the Gender and Sexuality Center (GSC) where the WRC was instrumental in helping the GSC acquire space on campus. Even today WRC resources like books and studies are held in the GSC. The WRC was created as a way of holding SG accountable for addressing issues that concern women. The WRC is now the WRA.

Every year the Women’s Resource Agency produces on campus performances of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues using current University of Texas at Austin students. The Vagina Monologues is a well-known production written by Eve Ensler, from the experiences of different women and often performed by celebrities. The play tells of hardships and victories and has long been responsible for heightening awareness of injustice and inequality of women. The V-Day organization founded by Ensler has long been a chanmpion in helping to end violence toward women and girls.

Successes/HIghlights

WRA’s performance has been a continued success every year, often selling out with a crowd of UT students, staff, faculty and members of the Austin community. It shows around Valentines Day and proceeds benefit local non-profit organizations, usually domestic violence services.

The Future

The WRA is beginning a new council to provide a place for all campus organizations concerned with women’s issues like Men Against Violence or FaceAids, to come together and collaborate to create a united dialogue and network to better present awareness of issue that effect women to the campus community. The WRA hopes to facilitate the implementation of women’s programming and further connectivity between women’s groups.

Women’s Resource Agency

Together, the organizations that comprise the council will have the opportunity to address women’s issues through a variety of lenses, rendering programming more influential and giving it a broader reach on campus. Through Student Government and other donors, the WRA Council may be able to offer its constituent organizations funding for their events that further the WRA’s mission.

The Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault is a worthwhile resource that fulfills research needs based on community input and university resources.

The IDVSA is housed out of the School of Social Work and is a collaboration of the schools of social work, law and nursing.

I recently sat with Dr. Noel Busch Armendariz and Karen Kalergis from the IDVSA and spoke with them about the program and the meaningful work being completed.

Program Description and Services

The IDVSA ‘s three main goals are:

1. Research. Develop and conduct empirically based research that adds to the knowledge about the impact of interpersonal violence.

Dr. Busch-Armendariz elaborated on these saying that “As a social work practitioner before, research made no difference to me, because it was either esoteric, I didn’t understand it or it wasn’t on target so part of the goal of IDVSA is to produce research that’s relevant that can inform practice and practitioners are very much a part of setting the research agenda.”

2. Education. Develop and implement a specialized, multidisciplinary training program and curricula that ultimately enhances the quality of services delivered to victims.

The education has not only been for members of the University of Texas at Austin students and future practitioners, but IDVSA has also offered training to state and national groups like the statewide victim services conference.

3. Collaboration. Focus IDVSA’s efforts on research and training that is relevant to practice, and provide easy access to information gathered and developed by research participants

IDVSA collaborates with SafePlace, Texas Council on Family Violence, law enforcement advocates, Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, and many more.

The empirically based research is relevant to the different community organizations like these, and is considered some of IDVSA’s greatest successes.

Successes/Highlights

Bi-Annually IDVSA conducts national expert witness training, showing practitioners, lawyers, and advocates on how to be or use expert witnesses in all levels of legal cases. i.e. criminal, civil, family court etc. So far there have been three conferences, which have had great success and grown every year due to the need for expert witnesses.

IDVSA also conducts a conference for refugee service providers. This is an area where IDVSA has conducted a large amount of research as the refugee community sometimes involves interpersonal violence or is a human trafficking issue.

Fufilling IDVSA’s goal of collaboration has resulted in, partnerships with,TAASA, the Attorney General’s Office and Centers for Disease Control working on developing a sexual assault primary prevention plan for the state of Texas. Another project grew from IDVSA’s membership on the Texas Team, and resulted in an evaluation of Texas Teen Dating Violence toolkit.

Along with the broad research IDVSA continues to do, they are also creating new strategies to better Connect UT and Austin. IDVSA is developing a database of University colleagues whose research focus is domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, or human trafficking. The goal is to share information both on campus and with the Austin community.

IDVSA also engages students by involving them in their collaborative research-to-practice projects. Several graduate students have noted that they chose The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work because of the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault

The Future

Next the IDVSA plans on committing to reach out further, using blog technology and a newsletter to create learning communities in the different areas of interpersonal violence.

Contact

Dr Busch-Armendariz and Ms. Kalergis each have personal reasons for their devotion to making a difference in this area. Dr Noel Busch-Armendariz’s work with women incarcerated for killing their abusers and as a therapist for survivors of interpersonal violence inspired her to develop a way to fit her interest in research into her practice.

Karen Kalergis previously worked for Texas Governor Ann Richards in victim’s services as the director of the Texas Crime Victims’ Clearinghouse. Her job included, providing, informing, and referral services and highlighting model victim services program to replicate in Texas. In her 18 years in the field, she has seen the change from individual programs being highlighted based on anecdotal informationto selecting programs and models based on more data driven evaluation and research. Karen’s work with IDVSA now focuses on getting IDVSA research on what works to the field through curriculum development and training. She has had many successes herself including her involvement in state trainings.

Dr. Robert Jensen, a media professor in the college of communications at the University of Texas at Austin, is one of the most radical voices for equality and social change in the academic world.

I recently sat down with Dr. Jenson and asked about his journey to becoming such a powerful voice for social responsibility.

Dr Jensen greeted me very informally with a slight indignation at my decision to wear a tie. This led somehow into Dr Jensen’s ideas on the progression of the Nation state and role of the United States government. These were pretty interesting, as you’d expect from a radical like Jensen.

Dr. Jensen will tell you his teaching centers around media, and media relates to everything and this study of media became his entry point into men’s violence against women including dynamics of gender, sex, power, and violence.

He considers one of his overarching themes to be power. He writes about power because he feels it’s the one thing contemporary scholars ignore. He’s most interested in power that concerns gender, race, class, identity, and economic difference.

“Why is it we live in a world in which men routinely beat and rape women; African-Americans and Latinos are incarcerated at much higher rates than other groups; and a certain amount of the population does not have access to economic resources? Why do they [groups in power] express they’re power that way.” Dr. Jensen continually addresses these phenomena in his books, articles, and classes.

Some critics have said they’ve felt the same objection to pornography that Jensen describes but haven’t been able to articulate it as well as Dr. Jensen does. Others have thanked him for his commitment to not dance around subjects. He speaks openly of the nature of white supremacy and takes into consideration the effect his body [identities i.e. white heterosexual male] has on what he says.

I asked Dr Jensen about his greatest success and he couldn’t really answer, but he spoke about being most proud of his son’s decision to drop out of high school and make his own decisions. He felt it was evidence of an anti-authoritarian mind-frame that he and his friends had displayed with their lifestyles and that his son had picked up.

Dr. Jensen contends that the University of Texas at Austin has been amazingly helpful and supportive especially in that they have not censured anything and have paid and promoted him fairly. However, he is not shy about pointing out that the university has treated critical faculty unfairly and that he has the experience that he has because he is white. Instead of blaming the University he had this to say:

“The reason sexism and racism continue is not because of evil people, but people like me don’t always do enough so I don’t exempt myself.”

Next for Dr. Jensen he plans to hand over his commitment to the honors program in the college of communications soon to begin more community work. Including a new community center that is scheduled to open in January.

Jensen believes part of the mission of any public university should be that type of outreach, not just the rhetoric, but doing it. “I’m a faculty member who can contribute to the community. It’s not apart of our job but part of our mission. How do you transform the knowledge you’ve acquired in your job to the community?

There’s no formal reward for me doing it I do it because it’s important. You either build that into your life or you don’t. This culture often doesn’t know how to do that.”

Before the end of the interview Dr Jensen left me a few pieces of advice about entering into a life of social change.

“The best one can hope for is that you’re contributing to an analysis and social movements that can make progressive social change overtime. “

“Social change does not happen quickly. Civil rights movement took decades of work most of it failed. It didn’t happen in ten years the civil rights movements began with slave revolts [and maroon communities].”

“If you want to do progressive social change and you have no long view of history you’ll drive yourself insane. “ I think that’s why a lot of people don’t do it because they don’t make the choice with eyes open and a sense of history. If you’re gonna strap in, strap in for the long hall and don’t get unwarranted expectations.”

This blog is a part of a new initiative called the Community Engagement Collaborative to connect University of Texas at Austin resources to Austin community efforts. It will serve as an information depot for all the efforts both on campus and in the community to end domestic violence.

If you wish to find out about research being completed on and about domestic violence from professors at UT Austin you will be able to find that here

If you wish to find out about University faculty projects and efforts in the community that concern domestic violence you will be able to find that information here.

If you wish to find out about UT programs that exist to help end domestic violence you will be able to find that here.

If you wish to find out about Austin organizations including non-profit’s that serve the Austin community in the area of domestic violence you will be able to find that here.

If you would like to find out about student groups and service organizations that serve in the area of domestic violence you will be able to find that here.

If you wish to find out about events occurring in the Austin area that concern ending domestic violence you will be able to find that here.

This blog is only one part of the initiative. We hope to be able to bring the individuals and organizations highlighted in this blog together to increase domestic violence prevention and advocacy for survivors of domestic violence.

This initiative is beginning thanks to collaboration between the AmeriCorps Vista Program and The University of Texas at Austin Division of Diversity and Community Engagement’s Volunteer and Service Learning center.

There are nine other directives with similar blogs those links can be seen to the right.