Get Involved
Join Us Tomorrow for the Second #YourVoiceCounts Twitter Chat
Jan 30th
Approximately 1 in 4 women and nearly 1 in 7 men in the United States have experienced severe physical violence by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetimes. On average, 3 women die each day in domestic violence-related deaths in our country. Over 15 million children witness domestic violence each year.
Yet domestic violence remains a largely hidden epidemic. Because we all have a role to play in preventing violence—and because talking about it is one of the first steps to ending it—the Verizon Foundation and CBS Sportscaster James Brown are helping to get the conversation going during a special #YourVoiceCounts Twitter Chat before the Super Bowl on Thursday, January 31 from 4:00 – 5:00 pm ET.
The Verizon Foundation’s Your Voice Counts campaign is all about equipping bystanders—especially men—with tools to start talking about domestic violence and raising awareness in their communities.
During this special one-hour event the Verizon Foundation (@VerizonGiving), James Brown (@JBSportscaster) Joyful Heart (@TheJHF) and Mariska will talk to fans about what they can do to help end domestic violence and promote healthy role modeling and masculinity. In light of recent tragedies in the NFL community, such as the one out of Kansas City, people are talking about domestic violence, and it’s that conversion we hope to elevate and continue.
We’ll also be joined by Your Voice Counts partners and leading advocates from A CALL TO MEN (@LiveRespect) and NO MORE (@NOMOREorg), who will share insight and resources on this critical topic. The chat will give participants an opportunity to talk with NFL insiders, celebrities and advocates about domestic violence and sports, the role men, fathers and coaches and mentors play in prevention and more.
Joining is simple!
Just log on to Twitter (www.twitter.com) on January 31 at 4:00 pm ET. Search for the hashtag #YourVoiceCounts to follow the conversation and add the hashtag to your own tweets to join in.
Don’t miss out on the chance to get involved!
@VerizonGiving and our partners will be re-tweeting your answers and comments. For more information on speaking up against domestic violence, please visit the Verizon Foundation website www.verizonfoundation.org/yourvoicecounts).
This Twitter chat is designed as an open forum for participants to come together, ask questions and share information about how to speak up against domestic violence. For your own safety, we ask that you not disclose any personal or identifying information during our Twitter chat. To read more about protecting your personal information and safety on Twitter, we invite you to visit: support.twitter.com/articles/18368-safety-private-information#.
If you’re in immediate danger or you believe someone else is, please call 911. If you suspect domestic violence (or any other crime) is happening, don’t think of it as a “private matter” or simply “none of your business.” Use your voice to connect someone to life-saving resources like the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233). Verizon Wireless customers can simply dial #HOPE to be connected to the Hotline
Big Plans for 2013
Dec 27th
Dear Joyful Heart Community:
2013 is just around the corner and we know now, more than ever, how necessary and important our work is.
Thanks to supporters like you, in 2013 we will continue to heal and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse and the professionals who serve them. We will extend and grow our reach and we will respond to new community needs.
We are ready to keep raising the nation’s consciousness around these issues. We are ready to engage policymakers to ensure that our laws and systems provide survivors the justice they deserve, hold perpetrators accountable and prevent future violence. And, we’ll continue to send a clear message to survivors: “We hear you, we believe you, you are not alone and your healing is our priority.”
We know you are ready to help us make all of our 2013 plans a reality. Just click here to donate now,
In 2013, Joyful Heart will be launching a new website, working to replicate our survivor retreat programs across the country and around the world, publishing a groundbreaking rape kit backlog victim notification report, beginning conversations with young men in schools about respect and doing more outreach to supporters like you.
We hope you’ll join us in looking toward a 2013 new year filled with renewed hope, promise and joy. Please support our work today.
With gratitude,
Maile Zambuto
Chief Executive Officer
You Are Our Hope
Dec 10th
This is the end of an extraordinary year. The numbers above attest to growth, action, renewal, and change. And hope. We served survivors, we served the professionals who support survivors, we advocated for historic bills and watched one pass into law, we launched public awareness campaigns, and we grew and strengthened our community across the country.
An extraordinary time indeed. Headlines crowded with stories of childhood sexual abuse. Thirty-one senators voting against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act. The statistic for how many children die every day in this country as a result of child abuse—four when Joyful Heart opened its doors—rising to over five.
Much darkness remains around the issues of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse.
And this is the way we face that darkness: we stand together as a community committed to shedding light. The knowledge that you are with us—that we have your courage, your vision, your determination, your support— strengthens us daily beyond your knowing. Your generosity changes lives, and for this, we are so grateful.
As this year draws to a close, and as we enter this holiday season, our hope is that you would consider a gift that will broaden our reach, fortify our resolve, and fuel, strengthen and sustain our collective light.
To make a donation today, click here.
With gratitude and brightest joy,
Mariska Hargitay Maile Zambuto
Founder & President Chief Executive Officer
How We Can Turn Towards Domestic Violence the Rest of the Year
Nov 16th
“My wife and I were at a dinner in Washington DC earlier this year—it was a cancer event—and this woman sat down and said ‘Nice to meet you I’m so and so, and I’m a 30 year cancer survivor.’ That wasn’t all that she was, but that was simply part of what she had gone through and that’s why she was there. Our vision is that is that someday someone will be able to sit down at a table and say ‘I’m a survivor of sexual abuse; I’m a survivor of childhood sexual abuse; I’m a survivor of rape’, and not have the needle skip off the record and have the person sitting across from them not know what to say. Because it’s not what defines them, it’s simply something that happened to them and it’s not their fault and they don’t need to carry the shame. It’s an unjust stigma in the sense that the shame belongs to the perpetrator and not the victim.”—Peter Hermann, founding Joyful Heart Board member
Every time I read this quote, I think long and hard about Peter’s words—about what it means to really turn towards these issues and about what it would be like if we, collectively, really saw surviving abuse or assault in the same way we see surviving something like cancer. Without blame, stigma or shame. Unafraid to listen to someone’s story and unafraid to say “no more.”
Every year, October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). (Coincidentally, it also happens to be Breast Cancer Awareness Month.) Domestic Violence Awareness Month is one filled with rallies, marches, speak outs and awareness events of all kinds, many with purple ribbons and many with first appearances of the NO MORE symbol. It was a month in which we collectively turned towards an issue that affects 1 in 3 women—the number who are raped, physically assaulted or stalked by a husband or boyfriend in their lifetime—and the 15 million children who witness violence in their homes each year.
In October, staff members at Joyful Heart were proud to participate in the second Shine the Light in Times Square event. We stood with advocates, bystanders and elected officials, including Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Tony Award-winning playwright Eve Ensler, representatives from the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and many others, to literally shine the light on domestic violence, watching as billboards in all directions in the world-famous Times Square lit up purple with messages of support for those affected by domestic violence.
The NASDAQ billboard turns purple for the Shine the Light event in Times Square.
Shine the Light in Times Square.
Shine the Light in Times Square.
Across the country, the lights at LAX International Airport turn purple in honor of DVAM. Photo Courtesy of the City of Los Angeles.
The Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles turns purple in honor of DVAM. Photo Courtesy of the City of Los Angeles.
Photo Courtesy of the City of Los Angeles.
The most inspiring things about events like this one is that they bring issues that are so often kept hidden in the shadows out of the darkness and into the light, something that Joyful Heart believes deeply in doing. So as we move into November and the other 10 months of the year, we’d like to share some of the many other ways to turn towards these issues.
Say “NO MORE”
NO MORE is a movement to end domestic violence and sexual assault with one uniting symbol, like the pink breast cancer awareness ribbon, the red AIDS ribbon or the yellow “support our troops” symbol. In just two simple words, NO MORE is exactly what we’re trying to say: NO MORE domestic violence and sexual assault. NO MORE blaming survivors. NO MORE doing nothing. NO MORE silence. NO MORE bystanding.
In 2013, NO MORE is officially launching to the public and we’re proud to play a big role in rolling it out. You can join the movement and help bring the symbol to your community in the following ways:
- Download the toolkit and use the NO MORE symbol—on your correspondence, on banners and posters, on pins and t-shirts and anything else you can think of. It’s yours to use and share.
- Follow NO MORE on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up to receive updates on the movement at www.nomore.org.
- Add your photo to the NO MORE photo gallery. Through this simple act—uploading a photo and a message—we’re truly delivering a powerful message that you’re not alone and that we say “no more.”
Use Your Voice
We’re proud to partner with The Verizon Foundation, A CALL TO MEN, NO MORE and sportscaster James Brown to spread the message that Your Voice Counts to end domestic violence. Though women and children represent the majority of victims of domestic violence, men are affected as well—as victims, as perpetrators and as witnesses and bystanders. Engaging men is an important part of the movement to address, prevent and—one day—end domestic violence.
The Your Voice Counts campaign invites men to join the conversation to end domestic violence with specific tools aimed at giving men resources and information to speak out against this issue. Take a look at James Brown’s message:
We invite you to share this resource. Pass it on to those in your life—friends, family and colleagues. It’s sometimes easy to think that domestic violence happens to other people who are far removed from our own communities. But when 1 in 3 women are raped, physically assaulted or stalked by a partner, it’s clear that this happens all around us. So please, share this resource and use these tools. Your Voice Counts.
Play with 1BlueString
We also know that 1 in 6 men are survivors of an unwanted or abusive sexual experience in childhood. To raise awareness about this devastating statistic, Joyful Heart is honored to support 1BlueString, an innovative and exciting new awareness campaign from our partner, 1in6, a leading organization providing information and resources to the 1 in 6 men who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse and their family, friends and loved ones.
The concept for 1BlueString is simple: get the string at 1BlueString.org for your electric or acoustic guitar (or both), switch it in for your low E string and when you play—whether you’re jamming with a friend or playing in front of dozens, hundreds or thousands of people, share the 1 in6 statistic. Learn more here on the blog and at 1BlueString.org
Join Us Tomorrow for the #YourVoiceCounts Twitter Chat
Nov 14th
Our friends at the Verizon Foundation recently launched a new campaign called Your Voice Counts. The campaign is helping to break the silence around the issue of domestic violence by equipping bystanders—especially men—with tools to begin speaking up to prevent and end domestic violence.
In an effort to keep the conversation going and to highlight the great work and resources of organizations working to end domestic violence, we’d like to invite you and your network to join the “Your Voice Counts Live Twitter Chat” tomorrow, Thursday, November 15, from 3:00 – 3:30 pm ET.
Hosted by the Verizon Foundation (@VerizonGiving), and Your Voice Counts partners including Joyful Heart (@TheJHF), our Founder and President, Mariska Hargitay (@Mariska), A CALL TO MEN (@LiveRespect), CBS Sportscaster James Brown (@JBSportscaster) and NO MORE (@NOMOREorg), this chat will give participants an opportunity to discuss how and when they can use their voices to end domestic violence, ask questions about prevention and get information.
Joining is simple
Just log on to Twitter (www.twitter.com) on November 15 at 3:00 pm ET. Search for the hashtag #YourVoiceCounts to follow the conversation and add the hashtag to your own tweets to join in the conversation.
Getting involved
@VerizonGiving and the partners will re-tweet your answers and comments. For more information on speaking up against domestic violence, please visit the Verizon Foundation website.
And of course, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more updates.
This Twitter chat is designed as an open forum for participants to come together, ask questions and share information about how to speak up against domestic violence. To read about protecting your personal information and safety on Twitter, we invite you to visit: support.twitter.com/articles/18368-safety-private-information#.
If you suspect domestic violence (or any other crime) is happening, don’t think of it as a “private matter” or simply “none of your business.” Use your voice to connect someone to life-saving resources like the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233). Verizon Wireless customers can simply dial #HOPE to be connected to the Hotline. If you’re in immediate danger or you believe someone else is, please call 911. For more ways to use your voice, visit verizonfoundation.org/yourvoicecounts.
1in6 Thursday: 1BlueString – An awareness Campaign from 1in6
Nov 1st
We are proud to announce our first awareness campaign, 1BlueString. This campaign is aimed at raising awareness for the 1 in 6 men who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
Our 1BlueString campaign is simple. We are asking guitarists at all levels to replace their low E guitar string (one of six strings) with one of our free, blue guitar string to symbolize the 1 in 6 men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood.
Simply go to 1BlueString.org and register to receive free blue strings (acoustic or electric) and free picks. Send us your name and address and we’ll rush them to you—at no cost.
In return, we’re asking that you:
- Play with 1BlueString, sharing the statistic that 1 in 6 men in the U.S. have faced unwanted or abusive sexual experiences before the age of 18.
- Share photos. If you feel comfortable, please upload a photo showing you and your blue string at 1BlueString.org. This is the engine for our campaign. Then click to share via Facebook, Twitter or Google+ to let others see your support.
- Share our resources. Nearly 19 million men in the U.S. have unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in their past and some are in need of support. 1in6.org is the most comprehensive site in the world, providing unparalleled resources for men and their loved ones. Please do whatever you can to let others know about this incredible resource.
- Promote holiday giving that supports our efforts. 1in6 has a text-2-give number set up for micro-donations to support our work. You and others can text “STRING” to 80888 to make a $10 donation, or just direct people to the donate page at 1BlueString.org where you can make a donation of any amount.
Thank you for helping to raise awareness of the 1 in 6.
The mission of 1in6 is to help men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives.
1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.
JHF and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative here.
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of Joyful Heart or 1in6.
1in6 Thursday: The Power of the Personal in Politics
Oct 11th
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the phrase “the personal is political” became the mantra of the women’s movement. Fast forward a few decades and the mantra still applies. Regardless of your political ideology, one can agree that the personal and the political are often intertwined.
Recently, the personal stories of male survivors of childhood sexual abuse have been given a lot of media attention yet the issues that affect these survivors rarely make it onto the political stage. This does not mean that candidates do not have a position on these issues or that they do not have a voting record on legislation that impacts the lives of survivors. What it does mean is that other issues have taken over the political agenda.
A united voice, however, could help make the personal much more political. Imagine the voting power of millions of men with histories of childhood sexual abuse and the influence that can have on municipal, state and national elections. With this in mind, here are some steps that you can take as a survivor or ally to ensure that the issue of male childhood sexual abuse does not get ignored by candidates now and into the future.
Voter Education
- Explore the candidates’ websites to determine their positions on victim/survivor support, holding offenders accountable and their support of prevention efforts. If it is difficult to find a clear, concise position, contact the campaign and encourage them to add language to their website or release a statement on the voting record or position of their candidate.
- Organize a screening/discussion of the film “Boys and Men Healing” in your neighborhood, school, place of worship or work-place and invite candidates for elected office to attend and participate.
- If it is safe for you, consider sharing your story with candidates and elected officials seeking re-election.
- Organize a voter teach-in, candidate forum, town hall meeting, etc.
- Create Voter Guides to ensure that your friends, family members and/or co-workers have all the information they need to make informed decisions on Election Day.
Voter Registration
- Register to vote.
- Register others, especially men who are survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
Voter Mobilization
- Ask the candidates about their voting record or positions at forums, town-halls, rallies or anywhere on the campaign trail.
- Encourage the news media to cover this issue and pose these questions during candidate profiles, debates, etc.
- Donate to or volunteer with campaigns that have taken bold leadership on this issue and other issues that impact your life.
- Participate in legislative advocacy events and activities.
- Protest, march, write letters to editors (local, state and national publications) and utilize online petitions.
- Vote and encourage others to vote!
The aforementioned political actions require that we work together hand-in-hand, break our silence and forge new paths towards living healthier, happier lives personally and collectively.
For those not comfortable or ready to wade into political campaigns at any level, please continue to make a difference with your personal actions by supporting 1in6, Inc. or encouraging musicians in your community to join our 1BlueString campaign.
- By Emiliano Diaz de Leon
Emiliano C. Diaz de Leon is a Cultural Capacity Specialist for 1in6. Besides his work with 1in6, Emiliano has more than a decade of experience working for multiple domestic and sexual violence centers in Texas. Since 2008, Emiliano has worked as a Primary Prevention Specialist for the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA) and since October 2011 providing technical assistance to the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Engaging Men Program grantees around the country as a Men’s Engagement Specialist.
The mission of 1in6 is to help men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives.
1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.
Joyful Heart and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative at men.joyfulheartfoundation.
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the Joyful Heart Foundation or 1in6.
1in6 Thursday: Communicating a Need
Sep 27th
Throughout history, we have watched visionaries change the world. Eli Whitney. Henry Ford. Steve Jobs. Not only did these people isolate a need, but they also found the right way to communicate how their innovation would benefit the world.
In 1928, an inventor named R.A. Duncan had visions of a television set that would broadcast text-based content. This “tele-newspaper” would deliver articles, laid out like a newspaper, with each channel providing content from a different news source. Mr. Duncan’s idea, in many ways, is what we now know as the Internet.
But, the idea was never supported on a consumer level, not because it wasn’t brilliant, but because he wasn’t able to communicate the need to the general public.
Several years ago, as I began to find my footing with the help of therapy for years of sexual abuse as a child, I began to identify a need. The need wasn’t innovative. In fact, I’d say nearly everyone who understands the trauma related to childhood sexual abuse has identified this need. The need is for more people to start talking about childhood sexual abuse and in my case, I wanted to innovate how people talked about the sexual abuse of boys.
So, like any good social media user, I took to Twitter. I’d change the world, one tweet at a time.
Before long, I noticed something a bit sad. After getting a few hundred Twitter followers, and receiving many re-tweets, my Twitter success leveled out. Time after time, I shared my soul to the Twitterverse, and time after time, the same people read and shared my Tweet, with very few new followers. Come on, this is social media, right?!
What I’ve realized since is that this issue takes much, much more than a few tweets, and a book, and a logo, and a Facebook page. Society as a whole isn’t ready to innovate. So, what we need to do is to nudge them along in a way that doesn’t feel like innovation. We must meet them on their turf and make it easy. We need to successfully communicate the need.
This fall, 1in6.org, an organization who’s mission is to help men who had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood recover, is trying to do just that. In a campaign called “1BlueString,” the organization will be asking guitar players, at all levels, to remove their top guitar string, and replace it with a free blue guitar string, to symbolize the 1in6 men who have this trauma in their past.
The campaign is nothing more than that. It’s simple, almost exceedingly simple, but the hope is that this will give a large group of people a clear way to innovate without stepping too far out into the spotlight, and then, maybe others will follow.
While the campaign doesn’t invent a cotton gin, or automobile, or smartphone, it will help people voice their support in a tangential, less awkward and less cumbersome way. Now, it’s up to 1in6, and its partners and supporters, to make sure the campaign continues to communicate the need to the general public, if nothing else, for Mr. Duncan’s ill-fated and brilliant “tele-newspaper.”
–By Chris Carlton
Chris Carlton is the Development Director at 1in6. He is the author of Nice To Meet Me, a book that chronicles his journey through therapy for sexual abuse in an effort to help fellow abuse survivors and those who love them better understand the process of recovery. Chris is a former U.S. Navy intelligence officer and advertising executive living in Richmond, Virginia.
The mission of 1in6 is to help men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives.
1in6′s mission also includes serving family members, friends and partners by providing information and support resources on the web and in the community.
Joyful Heart and 1in6 invite you to visit 1in6.org for info, options and hope, and to learn more about our partnership and Engaging Men initiative at men.joyfulheartfoundation.org.
The views expressed above are not necessarily those of the Joyful Heart Foundation or 1in6.