A Love Letter to POV after 45 years: A Journey of a Lifetime.
From Patti Giggans, Executive Director/CEO Peace Over Violence
Greetings,
After 45 years, I find myself at a moment I have imagined many times, but never quite knew how it would feel: saying farewell to Peace Over Violence.
Who would have divined that a visit from a staff member from the Los Angeles Commission On Assaults Against Women (LACAAW) to my KarateWomen Dojo in 1981, would lead to a 45-year career and commitment to trauma healing and violence prevention.
I started first as a volunteer to advise the women’s self-defense program. Two years later I was hired as the Women’s Self-defense Coordinator and the Hotline Counselor Advocate Training Manager. Two years later in 1985, I was appointed Executive Director. The rest is history, not only mine, but POV’s and the Movement to end violence against women and girls and all people.
For nearly half a century, this organization has been woven into the fabric of my life. What began as work became a calling, a commitment, a community—and truly, a journey of a lifetime.
Peace Over Violence has been part of a movement that has never stopped asking us to believe that a safer, more just and peaceful world is possible. For 55 years, this agency has stood at the forefront of that movement.
When I look back at what has been built, I am filled with pride and even more importantly with gratitude. This agency was built with so many hands and eyes and hearts along with courage, fortitude and wisdom. Whatever we have accomplished has been made possible by an extraordinary community of people. By the staff who brought courage, compassion, and creativity to the work every day. By the volunteers who gave their time and their commitment. By the survivors who trusted us with their stories and, in doing so, reminded us every day why this work matters. By the donors, funders, electeds and supporters who believed in our mission and invested in the work. By colleagues and collaborators and coalitions who stood beside us, challenged us, partnered with us and helped carry this movement forward.
The story of Peace Over Violence is a story of people coming together with an idea, a conviction, a need and the courage to say: There has to be another way! A peace over violence way!
Together we built and grew programs that reached people in ways we could not have imagined when I first began this journey.
We took an Italian Supreme Court Judges ignorance and turned it into Denim Day, a powerful global statement of solidarity with survivors and a call to challenge victim-blaming.
We developed Empowerment Self-Defense & Safety, giving women and girls practical tools, confidence and a greater sense of their own power and agency.
We created The Trauma Recovery Center, recognizing that surviving violence is not the end of the journey and that healing requires trauma-informed care, support and community.
Through In Touch With Teens, we reach young people with conversations and tools that can help shape healthy, violence-free relationships.
We developed programs for the Deaf and Disabled Communities making sure that people whose needs were overlooked could be seen, heard, supported and empowered.
We adopted approaches that met at the intersection of race and gender and origin so that the complexity of trauma, oppression and history were not ignored. And we adopted a public-health approach to violence prevention.
There were so many others-programs, partnerships, collective ideas and innovation that grew because someone at POV always cared enough to ask “What else can we do?
Through all the growth and innovation, we never lost sight of the fundamentals: The 24-hour LA Rape and Battering Hotline. Emergency Services. Being there when someone needed us the most-sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes at the most frightening moment of someone’s life. Those essential services remind me that at the heart of everything we have built is a simple promise: When someone reaches out. POV will be there.
That promise has been at the heart of Peace Over Violence (formerly LACAAW) for 55 years. That is the promise when I arrived, and it is the promise that will continue after my exit.
Over these past 45 years, I have seen enormous change. I have watched issues that were once hidden become public conversations. I have seen people find their voices. I have seen communities come together. I have seen ideas that once seemed impossible become programs, movements and sources of hope.
These changes happen because people are willing to imagine something different…and then roll up their sleeves and do the work. I always loved the work! That is what I have been privileged to experience at Peace Over Violence.
As I prepare to leave, I know the work is not finished. But I also know that I can leave with confidence because I have seen what can get done when committed people come together with a shared mission, vision and purpose.
My hope for the future is that POV will continue to be courageous . Continue to innovate. Continue to Listen. Continue to lead. Continue to include. Continue to inspire. Continue to believe. And continue to ask the question that has driven so much of our work:
What Else Can We Do?
I have so much to carry with me as I exit my role as Executive Director; memories, stories, learnings…. as I start this next chapter. But mostly its gratitude. Gratitude for the extraordinary gift of having a life’s work that I can look back on and say: It mattered! And it mattered that I intersected with so many of you who are reading this message.
Peace Over Violence has been a chapter in my life... it will always be a part of my story. And the greatest gift of all: knowing that the work we have done together will continue in the hands and hearts of others. Peace Over Violence is in good hands! And those hands are attached to people with the biggest hearts.
To all of you I say thank you.
I have been fortunate to witness extraordinary change over these 45 years. I have also witnessed how much work remains to be done. The issues we confront are deeply rooted, and progress is never guaranteed. And in this critical time, we are losing the ground gained. Each generation must choose to continue the work—to speak up, to stand with survivors, to challenge violence, and to imagine something better.
That is why I leave with hope.
Not because the work is finished, but because I have seen what is possible when people come together with courage and purpose.
Peace Over Violence belongs to all of us who have carried its mission and vision. And now, as I step into retirement, I know that its future belongs to those who will carry it forward.
I leave with an enormous sense of gratitude—for the people, the relationships, the lessons, the struggles, the victories, the laughter, the tears, and the countless moments that have made these 45 years so meaningful.
There are many ways to measure a career. I will measure mine by the people I had the privilege to work alongside. What an extraordinary gift it has been to spend my professional life in service of something I believe in so deeply.
As I retire for some rest, recreation and relaxation before I figure out the next chapter: To paraphrase Gloria Steinem: I am not passing the torch, I plan to continue to light torches. I may be retiring from my role at POV, but I will not be retiring from the movement. And I will never retire my belief in the possibility of peace over violence.
Thank you for accompanying me on this remarkable journey.
With deep gratitude, love and hope for all that comes next*.
