As I "blurted" yesterday, I spent the day at the Ending Violence Against Women policy summit in Los Angeles.  I was honored to be a facilitator for one of the workshop sessions--"Effecting Positive Change From Lifespan Perspectives."  The workshop focused on identifying gaps in service for female victims of violence in marginalized or underserved sectors of the greater community: LGBTQ women, girls, elderly women, disabled women and immigrant women.

Before the workshop began, we heard from two speakers who outlined the global and local issues of violence against women.  I heard a number of horrifying statistics yesterday.  One was that a woman falls victim to a violent act in the United States once every 15 seconds.  That's five women since I started this blog entry.

The other, perhaps more staggering, statistic is that one in three women will fall victim to a violent assault over her lifespan.  1 in 3.  That's higher than the rate of breast cancer.

In the plenary session, listening to the speakers--it was a bit overwhelming to consider those numbers.  The problem seemed so huge and unmanageable.

But once we got into the workshops and started delving into the issues of underserved populations, my sense of being overwhelmed by the numbers was reversed.  The policy summit attracted professional women (some of them survivors) and men from across public and private sectors who had a depth of experience that was truly impressive.  More importantly, they had a passion for effecting change and the creativity to design new ways of solving the issues.  I found them downright inspiring.

I've been absent from the nonprofit world for about 18 months now.  It was humbling and rejuvenating to connect with people who are determined to make a difference in this world, right now.

One way you can make a difference is to follow this link to sign the Unifem Petition to end violence against women.  It's a small gesture.  But if you add your voice to the voices of hundreds of thousands across this planet, it may be just enough to give one woman hope.  And hope is what it takes to survive violence.  I know.  I'm a survivor.