LACAAW changes name to Peace Over Violence
Contact: John Lee
Nakatomi & Associates
(310) 914-5000
john@nakatomipr.com
The Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women Wants You To Know: In Times Like These We Can Use A New Vision – Introducing Peace Over Violence
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 27, 2006—After 35 years of service in the violence prevention field, the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women (formerly LACAAW) will now be called Peace Over Violence.
The new name is a call to action and it reflects the organization’s expanded commitment to eliminating sexual, domestic and interpersonal violence.
Peace Over Violence began in 1971 when a small group of activists formed an anti-assault squad after the rape of their friend. Over the decades the organization, along with its mission and resolve, grew steadily to become a multi-service intervention and advocacy operation with a staff of 35, who work from three offices across Los Angeles.
Peace Over Violence’s executive director is Patti Giggans, a nationally recognized leader in countering sexual and domestic assault, who has long asserted that violence is preventable. Giggans contends that reducing violence against women, youth and children requires a raised awareness of the impact and costs on everyone.
“Our work is not done after 35 years,” Giggans says. “The recent murders of girls in the Amish community and at the Colorado high school are prime examples that our need is stronger than ever. Few people are even conscious of the gender targeting aspect of these awful crimes, and we need to be. This is why we are re-energizing ourselves and transforming into Peace Over Violence.”
To eliminate violence in society, Peace Over Violence offers programs and services provided with cultural and social sensitivity, emphasizing self-defense, peer counseling and education. The organization’s scope reaches beyond the confines of sexual and domestic conflict to address youth and interpersonal violence, and explicitly encourages social change through activism and policy advocacy.
Peace Over Violence offers counseling and aid via crisis intervention programs and services for survivors of violence, helping them cope with and heal from assault and abuse. These include a 24-hour, LA Rape and Battering Hotline; hospital and law enforcement accompaniment for victims; sexual assault response teams; domestic abuse response teams; in-person counseling; deaf and disabled services; Latina services and a legal advocacy program.
Prevention programs include self-defense training; community seminars; anti-stalking education; public service campaigns; teen dating violence prevention; peer education and counseling; Denim Day In LA; In Touch with Teens; leadership development and mentoring for high-risk youth. There are plans to render services online and nationwide.
Peace Over Violence promotes organizational and societal change through its new website, peaceoverviolence.org, and will soon unveil a series of powerful images on billboards and through advertising in Los Angeles and beyond.
The campaign features Calista Flockhart, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and other public figures and everyday people in simple, black-and-white images with a series of powerful messages designed to change people’s pointsof view on combating violence.
Violence against women continues to be a problem, and women are still the primary focus of Peace Over Violence. But, in adapting to meet the needs of a changing society, the work done by the organization has shown how violent conflict spans gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious belief and disability. To break the cycle, Giggans says, change must address society as a whole.
“Peace to us is not passive or neutral,” Giggans says. “It is not the absence of conflict but how we go about resolving conflict. Peace is not a state; it is an ongoing process that must be constantly engaged and chosen.”
Given the degree to which violence has become a part of society, Peace Over Violence’s national spokesperson Calista Flockhart recognizes the gravity of the organization’s work.
“Just how far their depth and breadth of work in the community goes has really blown me away,” Flockhart said on the occasion of the organization’s Oct. 27 annual humanitarian awards dinner. “Especially with such a small staff, their work is more like that of 100. This amazing growth has been one of the most eye-opening aspects of my work with them, as they just do so much to serve survivors of sexual assault.”
Giggans looks forward to a time when society’s dependence on violence becomes undone.
“The work we do is difficult and challenging,” Giggans said. “It requires a strong commitment to the community, much perseverance and the faith that one day we will celebrate the fact that our services are no longer necessary.”