Bank of America Screens Telling Amy's Story to Raise Awareness of Domestic Violence

On October 27^th, in honor of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we were proud to partner with our friends at Bank of America and the Verizon Foundation on a powerful screening of Telling Amy’s Story--the first screening of this film by a major financial corporation.

Bank of America’s internal women’s group called LEAD spearheads initiatives, events and programs that may be particularly relevant to their female employees. With LEAD’s internal support, the event was held at Bank of America’s headquarters in New York City. It drew a crowd of nearly 75 men and women from commercial banking, private banking, retail, risk, compliance, human resources and other lines of business.

When Joyful Heart first began talking to Bank of America about hosting an event to raise awareness of domestic violence, we immediately thought of engaging our partners at Verizon and using Telling Amy’s Story as a platform to ignite discussion. In 2001, Amy Homan McGee, a mother of two, was shot to death by her husband in their home in Pennsylvania. The murder was the final act of violence in a history of cruelty and abuse. Amy was just thirty-three years old.

In 2010, with the help of the Verizon Foundation, Penn State Public Broadcasting created Telling Amy’s Story, a documentary chronicling the events leading up to Amy’s death. We were proud to serve as a partner in this film, with Mariska filming an introduction and Joyful Heart hosting the film’s premiere events in Washington, D.C. and New York City.  And on Thursday night, we were proud to help introduce the film to a new audience in the financial sector.

Following the screening, a panel of experts which included Maile Zambuto of Joyful Heart, Melody Brown of the Verizon Foundation, Randi Ingber of Bank of America and Jennifer Decarli of the Brooklyn Family Justice Center led a Q&A session. The audience's questions echoed resounding themes: what do we do if we suspect a friend or colleague is in an abusive situation? What are the warning signs? How do we break the cycle of violence in teens? What can men do to prevent domestic violence?

We know that these are all complicated questions, but there are resources and ways to learn more. Here are just a few of them:

National Domestic Violence Hotline: www.ndvh.org; 800-799-SAFE

The National Domestic Violence Hotline creates access by providing 24-hour support through advocacy, safety planning, resources and hope to everyone affected by domestic violence.

Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence: www.caepv.org

The Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing the costs and consequences of partner violence at work--and eliminating it altogether.

The HopeLine® from Verizon program: http://aboutus.verizonwireless.com/communityservice/hopeLine.html

HopeLine® from Verizon puts the nation’s most reliable network to work in the community by turning no-longer used cell phones into support for domestic violence victims and survivors.

Liz Clairborne’s Love is Not Abuse Campaign (for teens): www.loveisnotabuse.com

Since 1991 Liz Claiborne Inc. has been working to end domestic violence. Through its Love Is Not Abuse program, the company provides information and tools that men, women, children, teens and corporate executives can use to learn more about the issue and find out how they can help end this epidemic.

A CALL TO MEN: www.ACALLTOMEN.org

The mission of A CALL TO MEN is to galvanize a national movement of men committed to ending violence and discrimination against women and girls.

Telling Amy's Story was created to serve as a catalyst to bring communities together to talk about domestic violence. If you are interested in holding your own screening of Telling Amy’s Story in your company, school or community, you can request a copy and download a screening event toolkit by visiting the Telling Amy’s Story website here: telling.psu.edu.