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Survivors Organizing For Change
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Mission & Vision Mission: Improve domestic violence policy, its implementation and the services abused victims turn-to for safety justice and assistance. Vision: The systems that victims of domestic violence turn-to for safety, justice and assistance are fair, effective and quick in helping victims leave abusive relationships quick.
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NYC Domestic Violence Landscape
There are over 270,000 domestic violence incidents. There nearly 40 Domestic Violence Shelters in New York City. Supportive non-residential services for victims of domestic violence at nonprofits and he Family Justice Centers. NYC has both Family and Integrated Domestic Violence courts handling DV cases in all five boroughs.
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victimsurvivoradvocateactivistorganizerleader
Our Work Make-up Membership-based organization in New York City. Focus on policy change. Survivors create our policy platform. Our leadership development philosophy is built on the idea that people are empowered to become leaders through education, support and practice. Our approach validates the individual’s knowledge and experience, helps them to recognize and respect similar experiences of others and builds on that knowledge. The leadership development model is the following: victimsurvivoradvocateactivistorganizerleader
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Survivor-Self Empowerment
The Voices of Women’s Theory of Change-Community Organizing (Organizing) Connect Educate Grow Organize Connect: Link survivors to resources. Promote collaboration with domestic violence organizations and organizations where domestic violence intersects. Educate: Domestic violence awareness, and outreach in high risk and non-high risk communities. Survivors of domestic learn how the system should work. Key stakeholders learn the need for survivor involvement in policy making. Grow: Use data-driven planning. Diversify funding. Provide varied activities for survivor involvement in systemic reform. Organize: Ensure that survivors of domestic violence are leading the work. Build capacity of survivors to assume leadership roles. Elevate survivors voices and experience s to ensure their involvement in formulating policy. Effective Systems Navigation & Survivor-Self Empowerment
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Our Members Survivors of domestic violence who have sought help from NYC’s domestic violence response systems. Child witnesses to domestic violence.
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Survivors Are Experts are experts of own life have knowledge of tactics used by abusers and systems know what they need to survive and succeed bring sense of urgency that every movement needs have the energy and passion to organize want the chance to hold systems accountable.
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Why Organize Survivors?
When members start out at VOW they’re still a little timid and then once they feel safe enough they always start to share their stories, because so many people in the system tell you, “Oh, we don’t want to hear that. Be quiet.” -Tanya
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Survivors At VOW Address domestic violence as a social, political and economic problem. Work to create attitude changes in society about survivors . Organize to ensure survivors help shape policies. Aim to undo the internalization of misogyny, sexism, racism and patriarchy.
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VOW’s Organizing–Its Components
Goal: change power relationships and its dynamics in the community. Address injustice. Method: Community members acting collectively on their own behalf to confront power (decision- makers). Deals with the root causes of the problem (behavior and attitudes as well as written policy).
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How Organizing Differs From Advocacy
Goal: change power relationships and its dynamics in the community. Address injustice. Method: community members acting collectively on their own behalf to confront power (decision-makers). Deals with the root causes of the problem (behavior and attitudes as well as written policy). Goal: to change a governmental practice. Method: representation for a group or individual. Deals with: the policies that perpetuate the problem.
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General Narrative of Community-Organizing
The process of bringing people together in order to use their collective power to win improvements in peoples lives and challenge a power structure.
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How Does Community Organizing Work at VOW?
At VOW survivors organize for change and reform to the system abused women and children turn-to for safety, justice and assistance, more specifically, in the child welfare, criminal justice and housing systems. (Systemic Reform) Organizing is interweaving relationships, understanding and acting so that each contributes to the other. (Power, Movement Building) Challenges people to take the responsibility to act. (Self- Determination) May work through campaigns. (Social Justice, Direct Actions ) Builds communities by developing leadership. (POWER)
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What doesn’t work? Maintaining Internalized Oppression.
Internalizing the idea of inferiority for themselves and superiority for the dominant group and experiences disrespect from the dominant group. Dominate group internalizes the idea of superiority for themselves and inferiority for the excluded group which is shown in unconscious and indisputable ways. Not recognizing that collective efforts are greater than individual efforts. Power and Control.
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Beginning Steps To Organizing…
Self Determination Power Justice Those directly affected determine the solutions. Those directly affected are building a base of power for justice and developing their own community leadership. The groups agenda is for Social Justice.
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Working With Survivors As Organizers.
“In the very beginning what we started to realize, not just myself but the staff, [we] started to recognize that we needed of course structure, that we needed to find ways of moving meetings along and to have an agenda that needed to be done within a certain amount of time. We realized that, and gradually the meetings started to be a lot better, more organized, and it was a process.” Maria, 1st VOW Member
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Preparing Survivors For Our Organizing
Political Education Work Shops Power analysis Historical analysis of oppression Impact of internalized oppression Intersection of racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism and capitalism with domestic violence Trainings Public speaking Community Organizing Training Understanding how each system works How they work together to oppress poor people, people of color and women Preparing Survivors For Our Organizing
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VOW et al. Our Other Programs
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Workshops Effective systems navigation
This training educates members about the criminal justice, child welfare and housing systems and familiarizes members with the key decision makers. These workshops are run 3 times a year each, and each session is 2 hours long. Higher Healing The Higher Healing workshops enable survivors to transition from victimhood to survival and thriving by addressing and cultivating the skills necessary for personal growth in a safe and supporting community environment.
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Workshops Continued Higher Healing is a year long program.
Creative Writing In collaboration with the New York Writers Coalition, we will launch for the first time a series of writing creative writing workshops, 10 in total per year. Participants of the Creative Writing program are invited to participate in NYWC’s readings (granted an opportunity to read their work at various sites and occasions) and their work is published in NYWC’s high-quality publications. Summer Programs Financial planning, managing triggers, resume building and member engagement events.
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Getting Started Identify The Problem: Identify the issue you want to address. Start Small: Recruit 3-5 Survivors to help address the issue. Create winnable activities: Activities that make sense for your community and are achievable.
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Reminders For You Check Yourself:
We all have biases, we are human, what’s most important that we recognize biases and work to eliminate them. Understand that many components of organizing in the beginning are about: Trust. Developing relationships. Letting survivors know that you support them and their efforts. Understand and work to decentralize power and control. Within the group we are organizing. In how we interact with survivors.
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Table discussion What insights or ideas does the Voices of Women organizing process give you for your program? What questions does it raise? What are ways your advocacy reflects or doesn’t reflect this organizing approach? What could you change in your program to strengthen the ways you organize survivors?
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