George Tiller, one of only a few doctors in the nation who performed abortions late in pregnancy, was shot to death here Sunday in the foyer of his longtime church as he handed out the church bulletin.
"A Day in the Life of ... a Rape Crisis Advocate" Blog Contest
Thank you to the advocates who submitted a blog post. We chose 6 finalists, and will feature a new story each week.
We hope you enjoy reading about the fascinating experiences of these rape crisis advocates!
Week 1: Laura, from the Mt Sinai Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program
Week 2: Vicki, from The Awareness Center
Week 3: Ihotu, from the Crime Victims Treatment Center
Week 4: Meredith, from Beth Israel Medical Center Rape Crisis and Domestic Violence Intervention Program
Week 5: Kristin, from Mt Sinai Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention (SAVI) Program
[Contest rules]
Abortion Doctor Slain
Intended Consequences
I want to share something that I saw last fall that was breathtaking and heartbreaking and so powerful, it rendered me speechless. I went to the Moving Walls 14 photo exhibition at the Open Society’s midtown office with my photography class, where we viewed several series of images shot by different photographers. Subject matter varied from the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, to the oil fields in the Niger Delta. There was one series, however, that consumed me–where I found my feet planted, too heavy to lift, and so I stood there equally captivated by the beauty of the images and horrified by the story behind them. The photographer is Jonathan Torgovnik and in this exhibit, Intended Consequences, he photographed women who were raped during the Rwandan genocide with the children they bore as a result. The combination of image and text offers a raw look at the complex horror that is the reality of these women’s lives–it goes beyond just the brutality of sexual violence and extends to the internal battle between loving their child and resenting them for what they represent.
OSI’s gallery is now showing Moving Walls 15, but you can see Intended Consequences on OSI’s website. Click here.
Williamsburg Project ENVISION Coalition Update
In addition to my regular communication duties here at the Alliance, I have signed on to be a part of the Williamsburg Project ENVISION Coalition in my spare time, as a volunteer. I want to do this because I’ve lived in the same Williamsburg apartment for nearly 5 years now, and I sincerely care about what happens where I live. It’s so interesting to see the way the neighborhood is changing as expensive condos sprout up around hundred-year-old brownstones and industrial factories-turned lofts. Most of my friends also live here and over the years I’ve met a lot of great people, both long-time residents and people new to the area. Interestingly, I have also received more than a couple email warnings regarding sexual assaults. I once had a woman stop me on the street — my street — to beg me not to walk home alone late at night. I’ve lived in other countries and cities in the US, and I’ve never had that happen before, nor did I ever expect it in a city as large as New York. Warnings from friends of friends about what happened to someone they know on the train, in a car, at a party, in our neighborhood, and pleas from strangers for us to be aware and careful. But while all that is well and good, it does nothing to prevent sexual violence at its origins.
Last week the Williamsburg ENVISION Coalition researchers Carrie VanDenburg and Laura Fidler presented the findings from their five-month long research period during which time they held numerous focus groups with community members and spoke to people on the street to gather thoughts and opinions on what causes sexual violence and how we can chip away at the cause, rather than just attempting to avoid being in a “dangerous situation.” Now, the action planning phase is about to begin. For those who don’t know, Project ENVISION is a pretty comprehensive six-year project the Alliance is working on with 11 NYC Rape Crisis Centers focused on what causes the behaviors that allow or foster sexual violence and how to possibly change them at a community level before they take shape. Basically, ENVISION is about getting to the root causes of sexual violence in an effort to prevent it — a pretty hefty task — but one that is gathering support as it gains momentum.
Williamsburg is just one of three distinct communities where this is taking place; the Lower East Side in Manhattan and South Bronx also have coalitions. These folks are working really hard because they care about what happens to their communities and they want to have a stake in what is going on around them. Not all of the people involved are youth or health care workers, law enforcement officers or researchers — they are just people like me who care and want to try to make a difference by envisioning a world without sexual violence.
If you live in one the three ENVISION neighborhoods and would like to become involved, please do! It’s as easy as sending an email to envision@svfreenyc.org.
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- Carrie VanDenburg explains the root causes of sexual violence in Williamsburg.
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- Chris St. John (right) and an ENVISION Coalition member Jennye Patterson listen to research findings.
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- Laura Fidler reviews prevention strategies.
Blog posts are the responsibility of their authors, and do not reflect the opinions of the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault.
