LIVE: AG Merrick Garland delivers remarks at 30th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act

possible and those who've come before us as champions in this work and we also honor those who've lost their lives whose lives have been taken from them and the amazing loving people who love them who then have become Champions and leaders in this work as well and we honor them and we are fortunate today to be joined by some very special guests this morning we have Jen kleene director of the gender policy council at the at the White House and her tremendous leadership here and she serves also as assistant to the president and as we all saw last night the tremendous moving remarks of the president and the tremendous commitment of the Biden Harris Administration to advancing these goals so we're just so grateful Jen that you could join us this morning and we're honored to be joined by our justice department leadership the principal Deputy associate attorney general Ben meiser who will be with us a little bit later today our Deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco and the Attorney General of the United States Meritt Garland attorney general Garland is entrusted with the tremendous responsibility of safeguarding our nation and of protecting and advancing civil rights and we are deeply grateful deep deeply grateful for his unwavering support of the office on violence against women of integrating this work throughout the Department of Justice and for all his commitment to this Mission and all these initiatives so thank you so much attorney general and will please join me in welcoming him to he remarks thank you Rosie for that generous introduction and for everything that you do respect to vawa the office and combating violence against women I am very honored to be able to welcome you to the justice department for the 30th anniversary of the violence against women act three decades ago vawa transformed our national response to domestic violence sexual assault Dating Violence and stalking its enactment indicated a paradigm shift not just in the way we address gender-based violence but in the way we understand it I was serving as principal associate Deputy attorney general when bwa was originally enacted in 1994 in that role I had an all too clear picture of the way that domestic violence sexual assault and stalking were often handled in police stations prosecutor's office offices and courtrooms across the country as attorney general Janet Reno later described many quote representatives and participants in the criminal justice system looked at domestic violence cases and said that's a domestic and they just turn their back that was so even though at the time as Congress found onethird of women murdered in America America approximately 4,000 per year were murdered by present or former spouses or Partners the same was true with sexual assault during the vawa hearings survivors and experts testified about the devastating effect of prevailing attitudes that distinguish between a rape by a stranger as compared to a rape by an acquaintance a date or a partner and that frequently put the the blame on the victim Congress found that women reported 100,000 rapes to law enforcement in 1990 more than in any previous year in American history that figure was estimated to represent only onethird of the true number another 2third of victims declined to report to police fewer than half of the reports resulted in a arrests vawa has helped to change that perception and reality the ACT gave the federal government tools to intervene in a sphere that had previously been largely the domain of state and local law enforcement it created new resources and authority to prevent and prosecute these crimes and to support survivors in so doing it sent a message gender-based and inter partner violence is not just a private matter not just a local matter but a national crisis one that our country was no longer willing to tolerate today officers prosecutors judges families and Society at large understand what should have always been clear domestic and Dating Violence sexual assault and stalking are are violent crimes they cannot be ignored as somehow distinct or private today we recognize that they are among the most serious crimes that our society faces we recognize the devastating lifelong effects that gender-based violence can have on both the physical and mental well-being of survivors we recognize that domestic violence calls are among the most dangerous for first respon ERS and victims alike we recognize that those who have engaged in sexual or domestic violence are far more likely to harm both current and future partners and children as well as being a danger to the public at large we recognize that this danger multiplies when these individuals possess a firearm and we insist that the federal government has not just a duty not just a role but must intervene to return to the words of Attorney General Reno who said during va's enactment we recognize that addressing Domestic and Sexual Violence must be quote a Lynch pin in the attack on violent crime today we have the opportunity to recognize the impact the vawa has had on our country for the past 30 years we also recognize what it took to ensure vawa's passage in 1994 and its reauthorization in 2000 2005 2013 and 2022 and we would we recognize that we would not be here today if not for the survivors who offered their powerful and often heartbreaking testimony testimony to their communities with reporters and in Congressional hearings they made real for lawmakers and the American public the toll that these crimes take on women men children families and entire communities we also would not be here without The Advocates and experts who work to amplify Survivor stories and experiences and put forward Solutions they underscored the need for stronger protections to hold offenders accountable and the need to increase access to services for victims in the aftermath of these terrible crimes many of the on behalf the justice department and the American people thank you not yet I have so much more to say the progress our country has made in addressing gender-based and intimate partner violence is also the result of the work of professionals who have dedicated their lives to carrying out V's promise over the past 30 years I want to thank thank the service providers on the front lines who work every day with survivors to ensure that they continue to have a voice that they are believed and that they receive the support they need to heal and rebuild their lives you are true heroes I want to thank our criminal justice Partners Law Enforcement Officers prosecutors and judges you to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable that the rule of law is upheld and that survivors are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve and finally I want to thank my colleagues here at the Department of Justice who work tirelessly behind the scenes to implement bwa's protections you develop policies and resources to improve investigations and prosecutions you administer millions of doar and Grant funds every year to support the protection services that survivors need you enforce laws and prosecute cases in Indian country and Advance efforts to end the crisis of missing or murdered indigenous persons you defend federal law protections including in the Supreme Court's last term when you successfully defended the ban on firearm possession by individuals subject to civil protection or ERS although my position at doj in 1994 gave me a grim view into the treatment of gender-based crimes before VA vawa it also gave me a vantage point to see the shift that followed in 1995 that meant being there as Janet Reno stood up the original office on violence against women based since its creation obw has awarded and administered more than1 billion in Grants and other funding I've had the opportunity to work with Rosie and her incredible obw team many of whom have been with the office since its founding I am in awe of their passion deep expertise and commitment I am moved by the Relentless work to reach every person touched by these crimes and to show by example that the justice department Can Be an Effective and caring partner in this effort thank you Ros today we take stock of the progress that vawa has advanced but we recognize that there is so much more to do the reality remains that in the United States more than one in three women experiences sexual violence physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner within her lifetime and tribal and historically marginalized groups are disproportionately affected that is why it was so essential that that Congress reauthorized vawa in 2022 and it is why the Department of Justice remains committed to using every tool at our disposal to end domestic violence sexual violence and stalking and to support survivors as part of that effort I announced this week that the department is awarding a total of $690 million in Grants all through programs created under vawa among those are Awards of more than 171 million across all 50 states and six territories under the stop violence against women formula grants program this program promotes a coordinated Community response among law enforcement prosecutors courts victim Services organizations and other community services to ensure the safety of survivors we are also awarding nearly $6 million under the enhancing investigation and prosecution of domestic violence daating violence sexual assault and stalking initiative These funds will be used to promote effective policing and prosecution strategies we are also leveraging the FBI ATF US Marshals and US attorneys offices throughout the country today I designated an initial set of 78 community across the country with more to follow where we will surge Department resources to combat firearm violence against intimate partners and children we will designate Special Assistant us attorneys to focus on this effort and justice department agents and prosecutors will work handin hand with Community stakeholders to develop strategies and prioritize prosecutions for unlawful possession of a gun by those who have committed domestic violence offenses the program will build on the Innovative initiatives that us attorneys offices are already leading to Target domestic violence in their districts that includes the Western District of Oklahoma's operation 922 program which has charged hundreds of domestic abusers with Federal fire offenses to quickly remove abusers from the home to protect the victims over whom the abusers exert control and to safeguard law enforcement responding to domestic calls together we do everything and we will do everything we can to get Firearms out of the hands of those who have engaged in domestic abuse in concert with our work to protect survivors and promote healing this will save lives I know that for many of the people in this room the success story of the violence against women act is personal it reflects remarkable Vision Decades of advocacy and hard work steadfast commitment to survivors and Triumph over personal tragedy to all of you thank you you have changed our world you have saved lives and you have improved countless lives I look forward to our continued work together thank you for being here today thanks again thank you again attorney general Garland we're so pleased he was able to join us this morning before departing for a very busy schedule today but as you saw the unwavering commitment of the Attorney General not just now as leader of the Department of Justice but throughout his whole career and so it's just such an honor to have his remarks with us today to Center us to provide that foundation for the rest of our discussion today and now it is my great honor to invite our next speaker Jen kleene as I mentioned she serves as assistant to the president and as a director of The White House gender policy Council which Jen established and led since the outset of this Administration when the gender policy Council was created by President Biden by executive order to advance gender Equity domestically and globally and Jen comes with a tremendous career of commitment and work in the field to advance these goals both domestically and globally and her leadership has been phenomenal including I had the great honor and privilege of working with Jen as she led the effort across many federal agencies to develop our first ever US national plan to end gender-based violence and it's the first ever framework blueprint for a whole of government approach but it also reflects all the input and guidance and work of survivors and Advocates and people in the justice system and across all systems it's based on those Lessons Learned those guiding principles that Vision so we are so pleased to have Jen with us today to provide some remarks as well please help me in in welcoming her thank you Rosie for that introduction um and I'm going to laugh at the definition of lad because I wanted to start by thanking you for all that you have done and for teaching me so much um I had the privilege you as you just heard of working with Rosie as she masterfully led our work at the White House both on the vower reauthorization of 2022 and of course the development of the first ever National PL and gender violence and I also want to thank attorney general Garland and of course Deputy attorney general Monaco for your commitment to these issues uh and for having me here today it's an honor to Mark the 30th anniversary of the violence against women act alongside all of you survivors Advocates experts government Partners leaders in all ways and partners in this work I'll start by saying what this room already knows vawa is President Biden's proudest legislative achievement he first introduced vawa in 1990 when he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and he has championed it ever since I can still remember as a newly minted lawyer and very young staffer uh in President Clinton's White House how then Senator Biden made it possible and I'm looking at so many of the staff who made it possible with him so thank you thanks to his leaders ship and as I said the work of so many who are here right here with us today vawa fundamentally transformed our nation's response to violence against women and girls and we've been building on this critical legislation together ever since through four reauthorizations including through the vower reauthorization of 2022 during this Administration so that each time we've made the law stronger and more responsive to the needs of all survivors as we heard from the President yesterday it matters even with the progress we've made of course there is still so much to do to prevent and end gender-based violence which is why this Administration has made historic investments in vaa the president often says don't tell me what you value show me your budget and I'll tell you what you value and the and the Biden Harris Administration a values investing in communities so that we can finally end gender-based violence thanks to the president's leadership we've increased funding for V programs by more than 35% since 2021 securing more than $700 million the highest ever funding level for vwa implementation of course the Department of Justice is leading this effort and has distributed record funding to States territories tribes coalitions law enforcement and more to fund the programs that we know survivors and our nation need and deserve there's so much more I could say about vawa and the laws Legacy and that's the work you're going to get to today I also want to take a moment to put this in the context of the president's broader Legacy as a champion of gender equality and Equity so in addition to his unwavering support and Leadership on vawa he's taken action to address gender-based violence wherever and whenever it occurs at home at work in the military in schools in communities and even online as president he's Advanced bipartisan reforms to the military's investigation and prosecution of sexual assault and sexual harassment he signed into law the Voca fix act which has provided more than $1.4 billion for the Crime Victims fund to support local programs and services for victims of crime including survivors of gender-based violence the president's American Rescue plan invested nearly 1 billion doll for domestic violence and sexual assault services and supports through the Family Violence prevention and services act and he's directed his administration to address online harassment and abuse including deep fakes and online child sexual exploitation the president finally as you heard directed The White House gender policy Council to develop the first ever National plan to end gender-based violence with which thanks to the incredible work of the leaders in this room we issued last year to guide the administration's efforts to prevent and address gender-based violence really across the entire federal government working uh again with all Partners including State local tribal governments these are just some of the examples of the work this Administration has done in service of our commitment to preventing and ending gender-based violence so I'll close by saying that it's a privilege to be here today among so many friends partners and colleagues because it truly this work truly takes all of us thank you each for the work you do day in and day out and with that I'm going to turn it back to you Rie wonderful thank you so much Jen for your remarks your leadership and the opportunity to really help us all be able to strengthen our federal coordinated Community response and now it's my great honor and privilege to be able to introduce the deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco as the Department of Justice second ranking official she oversees the overall operations of the Department of Justice and she has dedicated her career to reducing violent crime and increasing access to Justice I could say a lot about her bio but what I want to focus on today as we commemorate the 30th anniversary of vaa is that she started her career as a young staffer in the Senate Judiciary Committee for then Senator Biden and played a pivotal role in reaching out to survivors so that they could get their testimony in calling shelters and Advocates to get their input so it's just so fortuitous that as We Gather here today to mark this pivotal Milestone that we can also just Express deep gratitude for her leadership here at the Department of Justice not just for vaa 94 but also her critical role with vawa 22 and supporting and guiding the reauthorization the expansion the enhancements of vawa also through her leadership and so we at the office on violence against women are deeply grateful as I know all in the field are for your leadership in steadfast commitment to advancing this work so please help me welcome our Deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco good morning good morning everybody morning it is great to see this Great Hall full to the brim for this anniversary really fantastic thank you Rosie for that very kind introduction I am very grateful for your leadership and the critical work that you and your entire team at ovw do every single day to work to eradicate gender-based violence uh across the country it's an honor to be with you to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the violence against women act and I want to add a special welcome to the many Department alumni who are here today welcome back and of course to the leaders The Advocates the survivors who were the engine behind vawa years ago and who continue to push us all forward thank you for your service and for being here today now the work of so many here today and so many more Beyond this Great Hall produced the first ever comprehensive law to address violence against women in our nation's history for so many of you this anniversary carries particular significance and I know it does for me as well I was privileged to play a very small part in the passage of the original violence against women act 30 years ago as Rosie said as a young staffer on the Senate Judiciary committee now as we all know President Biden led the charge for vawa as chairman of that committee but the drafting of that legislation was not a dry legal exercise nor was it about making technical fixes to the US code now it was at its core about changing attitudes and writing a fundamental wrong it was about bringing an epidemic of violence Out of The Shadow and yes by sheer force of will and determination of so many it was about asking the public and demanding that the Congress confront the woeful failure of our criminal justice system to protect survivors and to hold perpetrators accountable to shed light on this crisis to shed light on what was happening chairman Biden charged his staff to make the case and with The Advocates and survivors and law enforce and so many others that's what we did now as Rosie mentioned I was just out of college not even a baby lawyer at the time to say I was a low-level staffer would be to have given me a promotion my job was to handle constituent mail and basically to do whatever else the lawyers on staff told me to do lucky for me they put me to work there was one project in particular that stood out the idea was to document a week in the life of women in America exposing the epidemic of violence against women in America to lay be the effect on everyday lives to expose the problem of repeat offenders and the failure of protective orders to describe this violence's imp imp on children working on that report working on that committee three decades ago I learned from survivors why we needed the violence against women act I read and responded to countless letters mostly from women who wrote In heart-wrenching detail about the brutal violence and excruciating pain they were suffering often at the hands of a spouse or an intimate partner we talked with rape Cris centers domestic violence shelters emergency rooms police stations across the country to gather data that showed how our system was failing victims and survivors and failing to hold perpetrators accountable the statistics at the time painted a very Grim picture 98% of rape survivors never saw their attacker caught tried and imprisoned fewer than half of people arrested for rape were convicted and almost half of convicted rapists could expect to ser serve a year or less in jail but in September of 1994 that began to change for the first time vawa provided legal protection and resources to survivors of domestic violence sexual assault and stalking it empowered federal law enforcement to go after perpetrators who crossed state lines and required State authorities to enforce protection orders from other states freeing survivors to leave violent situations it closed a major loophole codifying what should have always been patently obvious that there is no such thing as consent to sexual acts between Federal officers and those held in their custody it provided legal relief for battered immigrants and created the National Domestic Violence Hotline which of course is such a vital resource still today and for the first time VA provided critical funding to those who touch survivors from law enforcement to Social Services to access programs and tools and training The Landmark law we celebrate today profoundly changed how this country protects survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault now as this Gathering knows very well none of this happened overnight far from it it took years of painstaking Brave work by survivors and Advocates across this country building a nationwide movement to end violence against women and support the rights and dignity of survivors it was these survivors and Advocates who started the domestic violence shelters and rape crisis centers who lobbied the state legislatures to Outlaw marital rape and protect victims against their abusers who fought against harmful myths and stereotypes urging law enforcement to take violence against women seriously who organized for campus safety and accountability for offenders who formed the victim centered service organizations that continue to push for needed reforms today without them VA would would not exist and we would not be here today so please join me in thanking those leaders who were not only there in 19 1994 but in 1984 and 1974 and 1964 and long before that since va's enactment we've increased Justice for survivors and accountability for wrongdoers and today with the largest funding level ever vas programs are providing more access to services like transitional housing and legal support for survivors more resources to help law enforcement respond and more capacity to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and today we're also addressing the next Frontier in gender-based violence the proliferation of deep fake images and videos fueled by artificial intelligence that's why the department is funding a new National Resource Center on cyber crimes and awarding new local law enforcement grants for the enforcement of cyber crimes to bolster training for law enforcement prosecutors and judges this anniversary recognizes the violence against women act in all of you who made it happen and it recognizes that vawa has been transformative in so many ways in law in culture in attitudes and it was transformative too for me in another way the experience of working with those lawyers a bevy of fantastic women lawyers all working for then chairman Joe Biden on the Judiciary Committee and the experience of working on this legislation 30 years ago inspired me to go to law school to become a lawyer and to go into public service that's because I saw what you could do with the law to help people and to protect victims I was exposed to my very first mentors and Role Models I witnessed their Relentless Drive smart and dedication to getting this law enacted they were helping bring about real change that would have an impact on people's lives these women some of whom you will hear from in a moment were instrumental in the passage of vawa and they were an example for me without them or that experience 30 years ago I wouldn't be here today as the deputy attorney general I am grateful to be able to recognize them and thank them from this Podium today Cynthia Hogan Victoria nurse demitra lambrose and Kathy Russell thank you our progress to address gender based violence hasn't been linear and it's far from finished the Legacy though of the violence against women act is in the courage and the stories and the voices of the victims and survivors who made the original Law possible and it's in the future work by all of us to shape a safer world for women everywhere thank you very much thank you so much Deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco now you all understand why we're so thrilled that our ovw team gets to work with the deputy attorney general under her leadership and un wavering commitment and support and she highlighted The crucial role of some of the attor attorneys on the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time with who played such an important role in the drafting of AA so it's our great honor and privilege to welcome up with us Victoria Norris demitra lambrose and Cynthia Hogan who are here with us today for a panel discussion we'd call it a Fireside chap but we don't have the fireplace with us today but it'll be a lovely discussion to hear from them about that crucial moment of the drafting of vawa and the implementation and the impact it's had so please come join us [Applause] oh there's the mics okay great have a mic thank you sir okay wonderful well thank you so much for joining us here and for traveling to be with us and you know Victoria would love to start with you um and just hear from you the role that you played such a pivotal role in helping draft negotiate and develop the the original violence against women act and what the landscape look like that you were looking at the the deputy AG talked about that a little bit but the landscape you all were facing and just any of your highlights of pulling that together well um can you hear me yep yes okay Rosie you've done such an amazing job I want to also thank the attorney general for taking the time to come down here and I want to thank someone I think this was the best assignment you know I'm a law professor the best assignment I ever gave was to ask Lisa Monaco to do some work on one week uh in the life of America it was I had forgotten about that report and I'm a little bit absent minded since I'm a professor so I'm going to read a few things because it's kind of an emotional day for us why well it was lonely job what's amazing in the last few days is see how many people have invested their lives in something that we just saw a glimmer of and we're honored to be a part of so okay I'll take you back to the the day um yeah it's true I'm a law professor and I went to the library to do all the script you know scribes why there were no way Mo in there there were two women in the Senate and uh I've told this story before but what I really want to emphasize today is the role of a certain person who happens to be the president of the United States it's June of 1990 and then senator now President Biden is a bit late he is about to in a hearing that would change millions of lives and I've only been on the Judiciary Committee for about 6 months and I'm tapping my heel in the staff chairs behind the big leather chairs that the Senators sit in and I'm really nervous like I don't know what's going to happen I have asked three women to share excruciating testimony that the walls of the Senate Judiciary Committee have never heard these are the hidden figures of vawa we've forgotten their names but that testimony and those hearings are seared in my memory I had reason to worry why in the 1980 Senators denounced feminism as a conspiracy to destroy the American Family battered women shelters were called by one Senator indoctrination centers for runaway wives runaway wives so if pass were prologue these hearings weren't going to go very well and that hearing room it intimidates it's got really high ceilings chandeliers there are no women there just me sitting in the behind and it's up to Biden to make this work so I knew sitting there that he was committed to the fight because I'd work with him on all the proposals but still I knew that people did not believe I knew the law did not believe the culture denied that these things existed it was a day and age in which liberal icons of the left sorry declared battering to be American as apple pie newspapers still reported sick jokes that women should just relax but to see pain requires a name a set of categories and contradiction was built into things like date rape it's not what kind of a date is it if you're raped domestic violence implied something that domesticates a punch and I wondered whether he really got it it was too ugly for people to see Time magazine in 1990 said the fight for women's equality had been one Miz magazine for whom I write occasionally said that equality may be bad for women women have so much a former president uh said uh named Ronald rean said that the White House need not appoint them to hire office so as I sat there waiting for that hearing I also knew that police in many localities as the Attorney General said had to see a man beat a woman to arrest when we started one of the surveys funded by your tax dollars and crime did not even count rape police would ignore protective orders gained in one state and then if the abuse was in another state SVU you know we've got television shows they were rare battered women shelters said to me that their second source of funding was bake sales so we were pretty lonely we were operating in a culture that really did not want to see it it was ugly so I was the Scribe the future law professor the nerd but the real authors are those women those hidden fingers who were sitting there that day they had the courage to come forward and tell America something they didn't want the country didn't want to hear and Joe Biden he got it the first thing he said when he came to the hearing room was I wish we didn't have to sit up here on the Das looking down on you if it gets tough just turn off the mic and we'll slow down I know this is going to be hard I know but we America needs to hear this I'm truly honored to be a part of these ladies I decamped to go teach law and they finished the job so over to them thank you thank you so much Victoria for sharing that with us and really putting us there and reminding us what this was about and continues to be about and Cynthia if I could turn to you knowing that you played a pivotal role once for Toria left to the law school that you were there helping lead the charge to negotiate drafted what were some of the key challenges how were you all able to accomplish this in a bipartisan way and what are some of the significant impacts you've seen thank you so much uh I was Chief counsil and staff director at the Judiciary Committee under Joe Biden during these years and I want to say a mark of my genius was that I was the person who hired a young college graduate named Lisa Monaco and then when she came on board I said to everybody on staff um give her some real work cuz she can handle it um like others I have tried to engage in a mental Time Warp the last few weeks to get ready for this and to think about what the world was like 30 years ago I was with then Senator Joe Biden when his colleagues came up to him and said why are you doing this this is a family matter and Joe Biden said to them no it's criminal violence and um it took a long time to get it done I mean it was introduced in 1990 as you've heard we had a series of really fantastic hearings that brought the the knowledge more broadly of what really was going on and the survivors who testified really were incredible they taught all of us and they revealed to everyone how deep a problem it was how wide a problem it was and how much we needed a national solution we had the hearings the deputy attorney general put out a lot of good reports and uh we had the ACT Joe Biden knew that he did not have the votes to get it passed Standalone in the Senate so we were engaged in a in another bill which ended up being the 1994 crime Bill and it had a lot of great stuff in it around support for police and things it has some really tough things in it too you know this was a legislative compromise and we took some stuff we didn't like in order to get it passed but while it was on the floor George Mitchell as Majority Leader Joe Biden and Senator Robert Berg because he was brilliant pulled a slide of hand and got a huge amount of funding put into the crime bill at which point Joe Biden turned to me and said we're putting vawa in here so it can get funded and passed so it was added the house passed it then it came back over to the senate for final passage if Joe Biden is the father of vawa I'd like to say that maybe we're the mothers and but again just to give you a sense of Joe Biden as a person the bill passes it's very late in the in the evening dark out he and I walk outside to the steps of the capital the moon's above us and he turns to me and says Cynthia you've done something really important here and I'm like oh yeah it was all me and said to him thank you Mr senator for getting this done for thinking of it for driving it for withstanding all of the heat he took and getting it done he really is the person who brought this to us thank you so much Cynthia thanks for being a mother of vawa for your vision for your leadership and your contributions sure sorry I wanted just to add one more thing a couple of years after B was enacted I got a call from the head of the national Sheriff's Association and you know these guys were tough guys he came in usually to you know yell at me for something and um he comes in in his cowboy hat and cowboy Boo and I'm like oh boy I better get ready here and he says to me Cynthia the violence against women act is the single most important thing the federal government has ever done to fight crime [Applause] [Music] because as he pointed out to me if you look at State P who's in state prisons a huge percentage of them are people who grew up in violent homes they learned violence there and they took it with them and so as important as it is the lives that have been saved and the coordinated law enforcement response and assistance that's now given to survivors vawa has had a much broader effect and it's it's an important one so again hats off to Joe Biden thank you so much thank you thank you Cynthia and you know demitra would love to turn to you now and H you know share any of the the challenges that you also help to overcome in in developing vawa but also as as we were talking in preparation for this you know demitra had shared how now uh there in Missoula Montana where you live that you're involved at the local level as a volun on addressing these issues and what have you seen what have you seen to be the impact of VA now 30 years later one of the things I do take away is it working yeah is like I I thought of the dag Lisa as our intern like lesson be nice to your interns they're going to get on a rocket someday um uh I remember that night too it was crazy actually it was midnight so they got the funding for this thing a bunch of folks did not want us to put the violence against women act as part of the crime bill you know at the time as a staffer you're like listening to everybody and you want to accommodate everybody's concerns I remember I was like 10 months pregnant going into the bathroom screaming into the mirror and saying like forget them all turning off my phone and just going back calmly and saying of course we're going to put the violence against women act into the crime bill because it is what secured its funding in for all those years even though it was the neighbor with some other Provisions I don't think anybody remembers that now because it has survived as one of the most important legacies of that bill um as Rosie said I'm lucky enough actually to now live in Missoula monana where I've had the chance to see actually the legacy of vawa on the ground um the genus of vaa really is that it recognized that there has to be a coordinated multi-dimensional response to this problem and I've had the Good Fortune to see it um we have The Advocates at the shelter the shelter staff that goes over to the hospitals that holds the survivors hands and just starts getting them um connected with resources the nurses who are doing exams and collecting evidence the cops and the detectives who have come such a long way you've heard a lot about it already who are now really trained and thanks so much to all the training grants that come out of obw in trauma informed responses and interviews the legal Advocates the prosecutors also many of them now in my little town women who really get how to do these cases um all these folks get together like once a month to share strategies and cases um you know less regularly but still in the mix are Judges the County attorneys house housing Specialists um and the service for biders of course and there are so many more services than were there in 199 in the 1990s at the time there was like a little house that was the shelter no Services you know the abusers were stalking the place now there's a 24-hour hotline crisis line um there's legal help there's child there's pet support um there's emotional and employment counseling there's housing assistance there's food assistance there's shelter now look of course it doesn't operate perfectly but in my little town it's vawa in a bottle really just like these dedicated specially trained professionals all wrapping their arms around our Town's survivors and with all the same message you aren't alone it's not your your fault we're here to help thank you so much demitra for sharing both the critical role you played then and your ongoing role supporting this work and sharing the the change you've seen and uh Deputy attorney general Monica turning to you now I think you know as we've talked about how crucial the services of support the funding I think something else that we've seen is a societal change right in the perceptions and we' love to hear from you now in your role where have you seen the advances in the societal change and where do you still think we need to go to advance the vision of vaa well first the only reason I get to sit up here with these guys is because of my current job because it's not because of the role I played in 1994 I was so lucky just to be in the orbit where we need to go I'll take the last part first Rosie where we need to go is on some of the things um that the Attorney General uh mentioned and that I mentioned in my remarks in terms of the next Frontier of the threats online harms that are being fueled uh by AI that are fueling gender-based violence I think is really what we need to be focusing on and that's why we're um committing that funding in this in this latest round but in terms of a shift um as a society I'll give you just a little bit of a vantage point from the baby staffer who was just in awe of these women and and just wanting to see them and say gez I want to be that I want to be that and I I give you just a behind the scenes story so on the floor uh during the um managing the amendments to the crime Bill and as Cynthia and others have mentioned Bawa was getting put into it along with a number of other things but um I remember that uh I never got to go over to the senate floor because did I mention I was a low staffer but when we were getting ready to do the crime bill on the floor the um the manager of that bill the then chairman Joe Biden and his staff were the ones who had to do all the the work to manage the Amendments and and manage the floor time Etc so we would truck over there now remember it's 1994 and as Victoria mentioned in 1990 there was what how many women in the Senate two women in two women in Senate now folks will have remembered there were some elections in the intervening years and there was the year of the woman right in the in the Senate so you know they went up to a number of other women Diane Feinstein kosley braa a number of folks and it was a big deal that you had now more than two women in the Senate well the senate floor hadn't seen anything yet because these folks were now coming over to spend the it was a week or to that the crime bill was on the floor there was a rule my memory maybe I have this wrong you guys can correct me my memory is that there was a rule that women on the senate floor had to be wearing a skirt we got rid of that yeah but but here's how they did it there was no rules committee there was no you know seven layers of votes and committees they just did it they went over there in their pant suits uh and just said you know we're here we're doing this crime Bill we're Joe Biden's staff he was having none of it right and just by sheer force of presence and will they did it and so all of a sudden then the rest of us the lowly staffers I'm looking at you Jen volan in the back she and I my fellow uh low-level staffer helping you know literally carrying their binders uh to do all this work uh we're like well I guess we can wear pants too and that's how it happens that's how it happens um so that's what I remember and it it's it's a it's a theme right uh it was because of the strength of the survivors and the victims and The Advocates to say you know what we're not going to have any more of this we've got to change we're going to speak up we're going to wear pants proverbially right I have to break in here to tell you that uh minority leader Dole's senior floor staff did come over to me and say you know you're not supposed to be wearing pants and I said well you know what I have to sit on the floor so I'm going to wear pants thank you very much exactly right and that was it and that's how it happened so uh that was one of the many lessons I took from these phenomenal women well thank you so much for sharing all you thank you so much for these stories of perseverance Vision leadership we know we stand on the the shoulders of many Giants and shirros many others who weren't able to join us today as well many who had this vision and I'm so glad you acknowledge all those who also came the decades before but so glad that you all were where you are when you seize the moment to help you know this country have the most significant Federal Landmark legislation in a bipartisan way to prevent an end gender-based violence so thank you from the bottom of our hearts and we all carry forward with the charge to strengthen the coordinated Community response and continue s changing social norms so that we can have not just social services but social transformation where everyone can live free from violence so thank you thank you so much wonderful okay we are now going to transition and it's my great honor to ask Linda fan our deputy director for policy Communications and strategic engagement at ovw to come join us up here with some remarkable women uh and and uh and men and advocates and survivors for this next panel while they're taking the stage I just want to give a huge shout out to Linda who's just a force of nature herself coming from tremendous work in the field coming as someone who was an executive director of a culturally specific program in Texas worked in the Texas council on Family Violence and give it up and really plays a huge role representing ovw working with a lot of our components across Department of Justice and advancing policies as well that are so crucial so thank you Linda from the bottom of my heart I don't even think she has slept all week because she's also the one she and Allison and I have failed to take a moment take a moment of PIV privilege that weren't in my remarks to also highlight Allison Randall our principal deputy director at obw and who was obw acting director for two years and all the amazing Missi driven committed staff of ovw none of this would be possible without the tremendous effort so now that we also have a tremendous panel here Linda over to you thank you thank you so much Rosie and thank you all for being here as Rosie mentioned I do have such an incredible honor to serve as the deputy director of policy here and essentially I get to still engage with the field and with Advocates and with survivors I've spent 25 years in the field so it's always great to be in spaces like like this it's like a reunion it's always like a reunion with friends but um so for this panel I really you know it's an absolute pleasure to actually be able to moderate this panel and as you've heard from the panel before how survivors were critical critical and crucial in the drafting of the violence against women's act but it's not just the original Inception of the legislation it's the continual implementation of VA and the spirit of va so at ovw and really at the Department of Justice you know we have an unwavering commitment and rooting lived experiences and Survivor voices because we know that survivors lead they lead us in this work and we truly believe that progress happens when those who have walked the path leads us in that path right so I'm honored to have uh our steam panelists Ruth Glenn Caitlyn Mathis Courtney Fields elizeth Perez Tom crens and Christina love and all of our guests today have been at the Forefront of pushing for policy and advocacy um we have to balance our time there's a little bit of scarcity of time and tremendous amount of insight and knowledge here so what I'm going to do is ask the first question and answering the first question I ask that you introduce yourself all right what does it really mean to be Survivor Le when we're talking about the implementation of Val Ruth would you like to go first sure thank you Linda um what does it mean I I think that someone said it yesterday probably the best and I believe it was Kate ranta when she said do not just make it a checkbox they have to be at every level of the work that you do every level whether it's your staff whether you have them come in as an event uh speaker elizabe and I were talking about that earlier um have them on your board make sure that you're not just acting as though you have survivors present and I know everyone has the best intention but sometimes we we do it as a checkbox and we're not really hearing and I think when we're implementing the violence against women act it's very very critical uh that you ask survivors as well what does that mean to them here's here's the the skinny on W that's my new word skinny here's the skinny on vawa what what do you think about that and then really you know even if it means taking those notes do that so it's not just per functionary and performative it's real so that's my thought on that okay go ahead courney hi good morning um I'm you said also introduce yourselves I'm Courtney Fields I'm from the Bronx Bronx New York um thank you so much for having me today uh I believe that being Survivor Le means asking us and implementing what Justice Means to us so often throughout my case I wanted to be seen I needed to be heard I I was solving my own story I was solving my own case and I just wanted Justice to be done and it took that one88 to ask what what does Justice look like for you and that is when the doors open so being respectful time I will say uh implementing Justice and and listening to us um about what Justice is thank you hello everyone my name is elizabth bees I'm a former on documented Survivor of domestic violence and I just want to start by thanking every Survivor Advocate and leader who did not forget about undocumented individual in lawa thank you um without all of you 14 years later after leaving my abuser with my three little ones um I wouldn't be here today as a US citizen and um and I know that's um how many of you in this room in this space uh were born with that privilege or it was easily given to you but for survivors who are undocumented the path is challenging and I'm just so deeply grateful and when I say I literally wouldn't be here I wouldn't be able to enter this space without an ID so um it's I just want to say thank you and for me um being Survivor Le is including all voices not just one Survivor by a diverse panel like that the one that we have today with different experiences different works of lives with different challenges when we include survivors we need to hear the voices of all and not just one certain Community or one certain population and I just want to Echo the sentence ments of my peers and uh thank you so much well said well said hi everybody I'm Tom crummond and I'm from the beautiful state of South Carolina and I also happen to be I just saw woo I'll take it and I also have the unfortunate honor of being near one of nearly 880,000 individuals involved in the largest child abuse bankruptcy in US history with scouting America formerly known as the Boy Scouts and when you have the chance to go through an experience like that you recognize the power of lived experience because words on a page the definitions of chapter 11 bankruptcy and mass tort reform and statutes of limitations those words become a reality we're four plus years into this bankruptcy and I can't tell you how many times I've watched or heard from individuals that are struggling men that are in their 70s and their 80s that have told myself they've told their lawyers and they have not even told their family of the struggles that they've been through and that is the power of lived experience it's understanding what it means when policy becomes reality and you have to navigate the world that's in front of you and that's before you realize we also carry a lot of technical expertise too lived experience is powerful and we're also bringing in expert expse in social work or psychology or law or any other number of fields and I think that's incredible the last piece i' I'd mention as we open up here is when I think about Survivor leadership I think about the importance of calling in everybody when you are catering and taking the time to support survivors in the most marginalized and oppressed groups that are often on the the fringes you make it possible to support as many many people as possible the only reason why I'm able to get the the support that I've needed is because of acts like the violence against women act when you support the ability to address violence against women you make it possible to help people like myself navigate it as well so this is a a big moment and an honor hello everyone my name is Caitlyn mafis and I am a victim of stalking um I am I'm coming from the Dallas area so very happy to be here um but 8 years ago today my stalker went on to murder an innocent uh woman at a neighboring college and but with the help of va uh and a law enforcement officer on campus as I had just moved to uh un for for school as a freshman in college and I had this law enforcement officer that connected the dots to me being stocked before I knew I was being stoed and this law enforcement officer stepped up he not only educated um me but he went out of his way to inform the perpetrator that he needed to stop and that if he did not stop he would use everything against him to arrest him again and in my eyes I believe that every victim of stalking deserves that sort of assistance uh and in my case I felt as if I had a village uh and and it all escalated so quickly I mean in the matter of months and that's why action needs to be taken quickly I want to see more cases better handled in the way that my case was handled we need to have uh more training for law enforcement and Court officials and I do see Improvement and I am so grateful because if it weren't for VA I don't think I would be here today I don't think I would have gotten those protections especially is being on a campus but it's just got me through it and I had a village and that that goes back to your question of what does it mean to be Survivor Le and it's to me it's being vulnerable as well as having a village and coming together and just like what everyone else said we get the voices of everyone and we work together to do what we can to make it better and I just want to thank everyone here today for getting me here um and just thank you I'm going to pass it off to Cha quish Hawa my name is Christina love my pronouns are she and her my family is from Ek village located in the Bristol Bay Region where we have been for 10,000 plus years I was raised in the village of chna which is on atna at the Baskin land and today I live on link an that's aini home to the aaku Kuan of the clinet nation I am incredibly grateful to be here my mother is a survivor of Bor School my grandmother and um I think it's just incredibly important I I own the title of Survivor because it recognizes all those who could not be with us today I love this question I think it's it's something that I could talk to you literally about um all day all week all month all year I could completely nerd out um I think the thing that's most important to say is that I am a survivor of domestic violence of sexual assault of substance use coercion and trafficking and um in my journey to get here I was was never a perfect Survivor I experienced incarceration I experienced um IV heroin use and homelessness and it's very important that we recognize that the people who need Services the most are least likely to get them so that means that we have so much to learn from identities and experiences that are so different from our own if we think about what identities and experiences um are experiencing the highest levels of lethality and harm that is who we have to Target in our work that is who has the solution this question is the recognition that we have always had the solutions my community individuals people who are experiencing the harm are the experts of that but we are furthest from resources money and power I can I a Storyteller and I can tell you a fantastic story that I I can I'm um with words it is it's a a long tradition of ours that um I can take you to places um that people should never go that that through the power of Storytelling then you can relive harm that I have experienced and you can relive the joy and hope which is Paramount to this Movement we can do that and I can also advise you and you can hire us and we are the executive directors and we can um um there's so much more I think that um at the heart of this is where we have to get to the methodology about what that looks like and it's it's important that we recognize that Equity is both a process and an outcome that I would give you the exact same recommendations for a Survivor who hopes to lead this movement with other survivors that I would give to a tribal nation that I would give to law enforcement that I would give to an agency and that I will give to the the federal government that there is so much internal work that has to happen so that you can sit with another human being and not hold any bias and see them as a whole person that the same truths for advocacy when we're working with survivors when someone calls in the middle of the night and is is seeking help um those skills are the exact same as when we're sitting with another human being and they're the exact same when we are working on pieces of legislation policy and evaluation and so no matter what your ident your experiences we all have the same work and that is what unites uses thank you my goodness person me said you can talk all day and all year and we can listen to you all day and all year and every panelist up here so you mentioned you know there were times where folks got it right where they were able to make connection right and so let me ask you this I um and this is really open to to any one of you up here how has B supported you or perhaps for survivors overall and if you're comfortable in talking about your experience please do so but if not that's fine as well um well so for me when I was at un uh they acted very quickly as I mentioned but they provided me with counseling services they provided me with a way to send them evidence of me being stalked and harassed online to a law enforcement that made the process easy they didn't tell me that this was impossible they said that this was going to be work and that they had to document everything but that we would work together and I didn't think at that point that I needed a protective order but they actually reached out to me and set up an appointment at the Denton County court office to get me set up for a um a protective order and we went through that process to apply for it and then then he went on to murder um a student at Texas Women's University but uh at that point he was released from jail 2 days later he went on to to murder her and so I'm very grateful for these um resources that were provided to me to help me get to where I am today to allow me to work a full-time job I mean I'm up here this is just my Hobby and I'm very very passionate about it but it doesn't make me a living what makes me a living is working in insurance I do employee benefits but uh the resources that they provided me with are have allowed me to live a normal life and I think that we can keep going with this and take it further and it's incredible to me because I was born in 1998 V was enacted in 1994 and the fact that all of this is fruition in before my lifetime and during during my lifetime like I mentioned before I might not be here because my stalker he wanted me dead he found another victim but if it weren't for VA I wouldn't be here and that's that's incredible to me and thank you so much for everyone that has put in the work and that continues to put in the work because it's incredible but we need to continue with this work we need to keep training we need to especially in the rural areas ones where they're limited with resources I think there needs to be a standard set of resources based on each County and I mean that's going to be challenging but it's something that can be done uh but would I I believe Courtney would love to to add to that um I'm so glad that you're here as well um and I I have a bit of a different story um coming from the Bronx and as a survivor of uh cyber sexual abuse criminal impersonation stalking um and sexual violence I was told no I was told well is it really a crime uh are you sure it's even him this doesn't seem like one person could possibly do who has that much time to devote to you um every instance of of everywhere I tried to turn for help I was turned away I had to become my own Champion I had to become my own Advocate and I was supported by vawa because of the network that is that it's created created there was one person who listened to me when I called the uh National Domestic hotline uh there was one person who took that note and said I think I I know someone just hold on one second I'll give them your email I was transferred to sores for families I was transferred all across uh the state of New York because one person knew one person knew one person and that fueled me and that pushed me to to turn those NOS until I told you so um I was told old I think most notably it's too bad you don't live in Brooklyn it's too bad you don't live in Manhattan it's too bad your ZIP code is 10451 um and I think you know it took that push um to really to really make it make it possible um and I wish I I wish every yeah it took multiple protective orders no one came to me I had to go to everyone I took my own notes I solved my own case I learned more about Facebook and meta and only F I learned more about the dark web than I ever want you to know um but it took me solving my own case and keeping my own notes and learning everyone's name and doing everything I possibly could to save my life to get help um and now I'm able to help others which is incredibly important to me um but it I really wish that everyone's story was just as easy as as someone doing the right thing the first time there was a detective assigned to my case I had to call back so many times and someone said oh I'm so sorry he just put a Post-It note that says can't prove can't solve closed three words um can't can't solve close and it because there were so many layers and I just needed someone to believe and see how all of these things were connected um to to prove that I had a right to exist and a right that if I just lived in Brooklyn or I just lived in Manhattan I would be afforded so um I'm grateful to the network that V has created um because without it I don't think I would be here so thank [Music] you um and as I mentioned um going through that process I was undocumented and we all know in this space that when someone is an immigrant especially undocumented or refugee Asylum Seeker it's so frightening to call law enforcement it's the primary obstacle to seek any type of support because of law enforcement the fear of deportation having your kids taken away and that was the most difficult decision I ever made but it was the best decision that if it wasn't for that decision to report it to law enforcement I I don't know if I would be here today alive um um law enforcement agency my detective were amazing I was very one of the fortunate ones that they really came together at a family Justice Center um The First Family Justice Center in San Diego actually and I am so deeply grateful because they kept me safe with my three children however that was just the beginning of the journey moving forward the were many other agencies that helped me in my healing journey and my children too I when a Survivor goes through that Journey sometimes there's a miscon session that that we're perfect and that we have to be the perfect parents to our kids and that's not true we need help to be the best parents for our children to help them in their healing Journey as well and I went from crisis into intervention services to after crisis intervention services for myself and that's where I was able to find a community of survivors like my peers here who really inspire me to share my experience and be a voice for our immigrant population going through those situations and in that journey I also found Rosie mentioned yesterday Camp hope America which is an amazing program that brings healing to Children exposed to trauma and that program help me help my children uh in their healing journey and thanks to all of these programs in a lapse of 14 years my children and I are safe and joyful and most importantly doing our best to give back to those who are going through similar situations [Applause] I think a lot of people know that people in tribal Nations experience High rates of violence but we don't talk about is um how often um or how many times so my Village um 100% of the people living there have experienced domestic violence sexual assault or some type of violence there was a a phenomenal quote I have it on my email signature that was in one of the reports um from a tribal member that said most people in the lower 48 which is what we call the states um below Alaska um believe us but we all live here we know the truth um so the first time that I experienced um violence I was about 2 years old um and then I went on to continue to experience violence I was 12 years old when my father finally went to prison for abusing his children and um and VA wasn't um inacted at that time and so I have the experience of um experiencing violence before vaam and then um and then after V was was enacted while I was in addiction and an incarceration um I think it's really important to look at what services look like for people who aren't deemed as perfect survivors versus my most recent experience I had court yesterday for a sexual assault that happened four years ago by an Indian Health services provider which is another really important part because I thought that if I wasn't in addiction if I wasn't experiencing homelessness or incarceration that I wouldn't be harmed again and that's not true um so many of the people who I grew up with have experienced High rates of harm throughout their entire lifetime so while I was in my addiction I was told that if I hadn't been using substances that I never would have been um sexually assaulted that if I hadn't gone to that flop house then I never would have been trafficked and they didn't understand that it was my trafficker that introduced those substances to me and they didn't understand that I was more likely to to be incarcerated than the people who were harming me and they didn't understand all the things that I had to do to survive and they shamed me for how I had survived which is and they didn't they didn't understand that when you are experiencing that level of pain that people will end your we will end our suffering in any way that we can and for some of us that's suicide and I tried many times and for some of us that's substance use which is why we have to make Services as easy to access as alcohol heroin Fentanyl and methamphetamine I refuse to be ashamed of what I've had to do to be here today and I just have to say that yesterday was like a Cinderella experience for me that was I really I cried the entire day and it's so important for other survivors to know what is possible and that we paved that way um I'll tell you what vawa did for me that when I had this huge burden of of Shame and anger and honestly rage for programs that were meant to help me that did not and I started volunteering at a shelter many years years ago um cleaning up trash and to and cleaning toilets um as part of my recovery pathway I didn't want to carry all this anger that I had and I had a wonderful Mentor that was working with me and I met the most fantastic Advocates and I fell in love with them and they fell in love with me and if you call them right now they'll say that we grew Christina love and she grew us and they listen to me they listen to me say that I did not like the way that we talked to survivors I didn't like the way that we treated survivors I didn't like that we were screening survivors out for mental health and substance use I didn't like that we couldn't have our pets there and we changed those policies together and I love that they was called an indoctrination um shelter because because I learned so much I I learned so much um about the tactics of violence I learned so much education was so liberating to me I was given um education about the science of addiction and the science of trauma and that liberated me to not carry shame and grief and guilt about the things that I had done and I and it allowed me to work with other survivors and when we talk about this movement the next part of the movement is from moving from being focused on trauma um from being trauma informed to trauma responsive to centering and healing and healing centered engagement and healing centered practices um um invite people who have experienced this harm to be at the front in the center and when I get to do this right now when I get to tell you the things that I have it is so healing for me and that's what it has allowed me to do and so this last time when I was sexually assaulted I was able to work with a law enforcement officer of my choosing who had also experienced harm and who was so gentle and who primarily works with children and I was able to have an advocate and a proone attorney who protects my rights and a full team and so this last time um it was completely different and it will be completely different and so whether or not there's prosecution or not my healing Journey could start immediately Quiana [Applause] well I think this leads into actually the next question right around intersectionality and broadening Pathways to safety and Justice and healing and we know many times the criminal justice system might not be that place where survivors are able to get safety Justice and healing so let me ask this next question how can we expand these pathways so first of all you all are I'm going to start balling in a minute um but um I'll just take a couple of minutes and just to my experience um um post vaa and what I've experienced and saw and observed and all of these wonderful people out here and the conversations that we've had over time about what else right because that's really the question I think this panel has done a very very good job of talking about um what the differences are and how we respond as a nation as advocates whether we intend to or not sometimes the responses no matter vaa are not what we need but how do you figure out um continue to address the fact that survivors are not monolith number one um that every experience matters and we must address every experience um and that's difficult I I wish it were easy for any of us here or any any one that would need to respond to that um but I think that that the broader perspective on Bawa is that we've got to continue to make sure sure that we understand that survivors are not a monolith and um we've been so pleased over time that the the reauthorizations have happened because that's exactly how we addressed vawa is understanding oh times have changed we haven't done this this is the gap um and we've never addressed survivors from this perspective so how do we continue to do that um so that's just my thought and uh that broader perspective peace and um and um in the present I'm a victim Advocate myself and I get to serve my passion is to serve our immigrant population and it's heartbreaking to see that there's so many challenges that immigrant population still face until this day um um many don't report to law enforcement they just figure out a way to get out of that situation without reporting because it's so it's so fear they're so afraid of law enforcement and it's so ironic that that's one of the main requirements to qualify for the U Visa in vawa and we need to come together as a community how can we better respond to this specific population how can we help them to to connect with law enforcement agencies and how can we help law enforcement agencies to be better prepared to respond to this specific population just to keep them safe we are all connected we are all a community and when we serve everyone we all stay safe and we Thrive as a nation and I I am so um thrilled to be here but it's also I want to bring to the awareness that when I received when I was a recipient of the UV zimbwa I had to wait about two years to three years and it seemed a lifetime because I couldn't Thrive I was working on my healing but I couldn't Thrive I couldn't work legally I couldn't qualify for public benefits I couldn't qualify for health insurance and today on this day that waiting period is longer it's more than 5 years and that really puts immigrants in a vulnerable situation to be revictimized with labor trafficking how can they support their children how can they Access Health Care Healthcare is still not available for this population in most of the nation and it will be so amazing that we all regardless of our status have access to the same support and services in safety to report incidents alone enforcement if that's what they wish to do to bring them safety it's important to empower survivors to utilize their voice in a way that they wish and desire and also to help them make an informed educated decision about what their situation is and what options are available to them but also an opportunity to give them hope in the same way in the same situation because that's what why we are here together today to give them hope to be like it is okay to take away the shame and to help them find that pathway to Healing into hope and a much better future for themselves and their children and all of us too so one of the the challenges that exists is the fact that violence against women doesn't simply start when someone turns 18 or when they're 16 or 15 this is something that begins often times when people are children and when we think about the world of intersectionality and what that means think about what it's like to talk to a child they don't have those intersections in their mind they don't have all of those prejudices that are that are muddying the waters and changing how they view the world than each other and in my mind I think about vawa as this pillar to say we are fighting against all of these forms of violence and now it's our chance to start swimming Upstream even further and say how do we address the issue of violence against children as well that is a significant Milestone that helps us address all of these issues cohesively collaboratively and to recognize that in this modern world that we have there border don't exist the same way that they used to there are challenges that are being there are crimes that are being perpetrated in all corners of the globe that are being facilitated by online tools that are being recorded in a family home in Tennessee that then gets shared with people in Europe through a data server that then gets passed over to someone that's based in Africa and by the time you see all those data pings you recognize that the harm of a child happened globally that is a new world that we are in and that means that we have to have new tools the likes of which we've never seen before and for me that's both an exciting opportunity where we're coming together and addressing this like never before but the existential risk of it is also greater this is a a moment for us to try and capture all of the interlocking challenges that we have and Safeguard all of our world's children too and and when I think about this true Next Step carrying violence against women to address violence against children as a whole I think about upcoming opportunities like the new Global ministerial conference on ending violence against children that's happening in bogatha in just a couple of months in November that's a once in a generation opportunity the first time that has ever happened with delegations and Civil Society coming together to address that issue and for me that is the power that is what something like follow means it says we put our foot down we established a foundation and now we get to expand the scope the work is not done the work is only begun and we have a chance to really carry it over the Finish Line go ahead thank you and just to build on what you said thinking through through the lens of of cyber seexual abuse I would like to see us educate the Department of Education more and get a curriculum for students in school understanding what consent is understanding that cyber sexual abuse is a real crime and it is a real thing and we know that the trauma has ripples um sorry I would like us to also educate the police more we've all talked about our impact with the police um and helping them understand that these are crimes um they may not look like a traditional domestic violence crime they may not look like a traditional abuse Against Woman crime but it is a real crime and educate the courts and help them understand why a Survivor might need to log on virtually in order to show up in court that is something Co actually helped that is something that helped in my fifth protective order uh not being not having to sit next to him in the waiting room for my for my court case to start not having to sit across from him physically not not allowing him to stalk me and follow me home um so we need that education uh at the court level so we can use the 20 verse use the the technology that we have to support survivors I think that is how we can expand Pathways thank you hello there it is intersectionality I think is one of the most important terms for us to understand and it's also important that we give credit where credits due this is a term created by Kimberly kensaw a black woman for black women to talk about their experiences um Audrey Lord says It Best in um we don't live single issue lives and so it's really important that we don't have this single issue and sometimes we Silo experiences when I started working with shelters I had to explain to them that I could not leave my substance use at the door and by asking them um by them asking me to choose that I jeopardize my own safety that I'm when I'm working with the trafficking um victim who's seeking safety um that her her continuing to use substances would take so much time and and for for people who are navigating systems it takes a lot of time and effort to try and to get into treatment to access harm reduction resources or medically assisted treatment um and so when we shift that priority then we take away from what might be the priority that is saving their life and we have to have the ability to be able to move I think it's it's really important to understand the root cause that it um why women are abused more than men where that is a gender issue and that it isn't a coincidence that um black Trans um people who don't have the same access to resources um people who have disabilities are experiencing the highest rates it's not a coincidence so we have to ask these big questions about who is being harmed who is doing the harm and their ability to be able to access services and once you are accessing services that doesn't guarantee that you will have compassionate um Equitable Services and so it's it's this larger picture where we look at um the beginning it's 2024 it's been 104 years since um the the Women's Suffrage and and 54 years since the anti-rape movement both of those movements were originally LED um by black activists who were then asked to sit in the back 104 years ago there were um black activists who talked about their rape that they experienced from the white community and they were some of the first women to testify before Congress there is a Schism um that has separated us and sometimes it's referred to as the white feminist movement um but I think it's really important for us to make a very bold statement to say that there have been people who have been left out of this movement and as a result of their identity and expertise at every level of government there are incredible gaps and with that acknowledgement right then um we acknowledge the harm that has happened as as their their representation not being present and we reconcile that we repair that we make amends and we invite them to be at the front and the center and we listen to their expertise and we we and we work with people that we haven't worked before and that's going to require incredible skill set on our part to be able to do that and incredible humility um for programs for States for services to also make that bold statement that other agencies and individuals have made to say that we didn't know what we um what we didn't know but now that we do know as my Angelou says we will do better I just want to add a couple other pieces uh so for me I uh come from a household of a my my my parents are divorced divorced young and my mom began dating at a young age but during that process uh my mom educated me on what to look out for when dating and I think educating young adults on this information is crucial because it's not happening in every household things need to be taught right from wrong at an early age and I think if we begin starting that education process early we can prevent a lot of these violent crimes from happening but also what everyone else hit on as well as big part for me the educating law enforcement I mean I was grateful that to have a compassionate law enforcement officer and a law enforcement officer that educated me on the next steps that needs to happen all the time it can't close you can't close a case if you can't find any any more information you need to be able to collaborate with your peers so that you can do so why aren't their organizations within law enforcement to incentivize them to learn more these training programs they're trained on domestic violence but they are not trained on Stocking any I mean not everyone but a majority of people who are murdered are stocked before they're killed and that's why this needs to be educated on quickly and why action needs to be taken quickly but what everyone else mentioned I mean it's that's what we need to do we need to keep going with this this momentum and doing what we can to improve Vala for future [Applause] Generations you all are right I heard earlier right when we stay connected we stay safe we don't live single issued lives so if we when intersectionality is so important and we have to bring in all of the aspects of Our Lives that's the beauty of Vala in promoting a coordinated Community response how do we get systems organizations s agencies Advocates you name it get to the table and look holistically when it comes to Survivor needs so let me ask you this next question and this is a question uh so you have a audience here policy makers decision makers and folks who can really influence the trajectory of B what are some last thoughts for them in terms of of making sure that we really Center a coordinated Community response when we're looking at addressing Survivor needs I am holding a microphone so I will start so when when we think about where action is happening there's different ways in which we've all uh touched on this point but action always starts always begins from the Grassroots it begins from people that are working in every single community that have been doing it since the dawn of time we talk about different movements that have happened in just the past few decades or past few uh centuries but people have been working to address violence against women and violence against children and violence against different oppressed groups for all of time and what we're doing is we're opening up space to make sure that those groups continue to be at the center that if you're in your community and you're taking some form of action especially if you're building collaboratively you're finding opportunities to work with uh different advocacy centers mixing with law enforcement mixing with people that are uh engaged in community activism whether it's at the municipal level or the state level starting from the Grassroots on up is how you build something that is not just a moment but a movement and when I truly think about the best version of that when I think of all the groups that come together and have that that feeling of true solidarity and uh true longevity it's this idea that there's a there's a feeling of hesitancy when you engage the Grassroots because it is a little bit of extra effort it does go a little bit slower but you go so much further in the long run we all we always always underestimate what we can do in a few years and we overestimate what we can do in just a few short months so don't rush it take the time to get it right take the time to engage survivors engage Grassroots Advocates engage people that you may not be engaging otherwise because I assure you they're the ones that are bringing the insights I was waiting for this question um so um I'm the oldest on this panel I'm very proud of that you can't prove it but but um my experience over the years and particularly I'll just use the state that I'm from which is that often times we go into a community and we tell them what their communicated uh Community coordinated response is huge mistake because you immediately set up resistance rightfully so uh we go back to what Tom just said which is um you have to have that Grassroots Place perspective within that CCR shows you that I was also a government person because I know what CCR is um but let them Define it give them the resources to work on that because it's going to take a minute but every Community has a different need every community has a different perspective you know sometimes we just group them by rural and urban don't we all wish it were that simple it is not so allow them the space to do that and give them time again back to what Tom said give them the time to do that because you're asking them to do something different I guarantee you once they all begin to sit in those rooms together whether it's judges law enforcement Advocates survivors all of that they'll begin to realize they have far more in common than they have that's desperate let them do that so just be patient and um give them the resources to do that I'd like to add two points we we know that there are profiles of certain types of abusers we know that we right we know that soers have a profile abusers have a profile how is law enforcement using the information resources that they have available to them to do what happened do what they did in to to protect how are the patterns being followed and and how are other people being educated in order to prevent crime I was told well he's not doing anything right now so we can't do anything he should have found I should have had you on my case um so I think that is the that is one way I I would like to to move forward one thing that can can move us forward and the other is holding these tech companies accountable especially as crime changes and abuse changes Facebook meta everybody I mean those are the same Instagram only fans the the Deep fakes we have to hold they these companies hide behind what one law we have to hold them accountable especially as our children are being more and more vulnerable online um I would like to see that happen and I'm very passionate about making sure that we can ensure safety for for everyone thank you okay I'm going to give you a I'm going to give a high level of U what I hope for and then I want to give like some very specific asks for all of you I think it's in uh let me say this let me figure out what way through this um let me start with a small story um I I responded to a sexual assault call um by somebody that I've worked with and unfortunately had been sexually assaulted before and um she knew that I had recently been sexually assaulted and she was concerned about me when um and I assured her that um that I have a lot of support and that I wasn't all right that I would be but that I was there for her the nurse that came in um to work on that sexual assault call was incredibly abrasive she had no heart response and in that moment I knew that me and my friend were going to be all right but I didn't know how long this nurse had been this way and I didn't know what had led to that um but I could imagine that some of the things that led to it were burnout and lack of pay as well as um internal lateral violence hierarchy so I think it's really important that we understand that um we can look at the the larger picture of a coordinated response I can talk to you about um the metrics and the methodology of a beautiful coordinated response but individually people can't give something they don't have so that means that we can't I'm sorry for the for the sake of time that um when I'm talking about law enforcement that we have to address sexism and racism and law enforcement that we have to address sexism racism ableism all of the isms within the judicial system there is a reason why we have the lowest rates of prosecution ution that it's not a coincidence that they're calling for um the same punishment for for I'm I'm I'm trying not to go down a hole there let me bring myself back so I for time um that um that we look at organizational transformation um that the that the panelists that sat here before talked about the sexism that they experience in an effort to try and bring vawa to fruition so I would my first ask would be that you clean your own house and there are metrics for that that you address racism sexism cism um and your staff will tell you everything you need to know there are 360 evaluations that give us a very clear picture um Equity audits are another thing that that you can do so that when the the the federal government is working with tribal Nations and agencies that they have the tools they have the skill set um that they have the education and that they can demonstrate it that's the other thing there's there is so much information on what it means to be in trauma for and what we lack is the accting ability to demonstrate that um and and when we when we bring that um to systems that that the small is all so the the skill set to work with one is the exact same skill set that it takes um to work with a larger group and and you do um and you grow I'm trying to think for time are we okay I think we're going to be quick I am um maybe maybe ask me later and I will give you entire summaries and very specific policies Elizabeth you get the last thank you um like I mentioned before there's so much work to do when it comes to policy to address intimate partner violence and other types of victimizations when it comes to the Immigrant Community when we talk about immigrant Community we talk about someone coming from another country but many of them they come with different statuses like I said undocumented refugees Asylum seekers in the milit there's so many uh victims that their abusers bring them to this country to isolate them take their documents away so there's all these different issues and I just hope that we are more flexible when it comes to having all these different issues addressed we all know that one size doesn't fit all and we should address individuals as an individual as you would like to be treated when someone lives in a relationship they're not just leaving that abuser they're leaving their family sometimes they lose friends uh family especially um in the Immigrant population where Rel religion is so important you leave your whole support system and the only thing that is left is yourself and the other people who are around you to support you and help you try to help you but I am as a victim Advocate I have a hard time when it when I'm not able to help someone it's like how can I help them I don't have the tools I don't have the flexibility when funding to help them to hire an immigration attorney so they can file for their case as soon as possible because I know that's going to take time when they don't speak the language and in the criminal system that's another language apart from the language barrier I we don't speak the language in the courts how can we provide legal advocacy Immigration Services family law custody all of these issues that are you know part of a healing Journey that are going to take years most likely to solve how can we better serve and address those issues and when we serve the most marginalized th share we serve everyone and that's how we move forward thank you thank you well you all heard from the experts right so to I hope that for most of you in here like today's conversation is a catalyst for continued progress so I'd like to thank all of my panelists for being here today thank you very much so this this was a little bit of a heavy conversation we do have a quiet room if you require a quiet room there's uh you can go to someone in the registration table and we will take a 10 minute break or so and we'll see you in a bit e [Music] [Music]