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Alianza Training Available
As part of its training and technical assistance services, Alianza organizes national conferences and other training forums that help advocates and services providers who serve Latina/o survivors enhance their knowledge and skills. Alianza also provides trainings for organizations that want to work with men and boys. These are the trainings that are currently being offered:
Support and Empowerment Group Facilitator Training: this a 2-day training designed for facilitators of support and empowerment groups for Latina survivors of domestic violence. The purpose of the training is to make the role of support group facilitators a little easier and as effective and successful as possible. The training can be provided in English or Spanish
Working with Men and Boys to Eradicate Domestic Violence is a training that will assist organizations that want to learn how to engage men and boys as advocates in the struggle to end violence against women. Alianza provides this training in partnership with the National Compadres Network.
On the Road to Social Transformation: Utilizing Cultural and Community Strengths to End Domestic Violence is a two-day cultural proficiency training for domestic violence service providers and advocates, with an emphasis on DV state coalitions and other OVW grantees. We can also tailor the training for shorter sessions.
All trainees will receive copies of training materials and access to other resources.
To request a training for your organization email: ivonneo@dvalianza.org.
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| Alianza and NCN Training Partnership
Alianza is excited about a renewed partnership with the National Compadres Network (NCN). The two organizations, represented by Jerry Tello (NCN) and Ivonne Ortiz (Alianza) will be delivering Alianza's Working with Men and Boys to Eradicate Domestic Violence trainings in various parts of the country. The first such training will be held in Reading, Pennsylvania with the Centro Hispano Daniel Torres and Berks Women in Crisis. The two organizations received a CLSPP grant from the Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) to do Outreach to Men & Boys in the Latino Community. Alianza and NCN will provide training and technical assistance that will help them carry out this work.
Alianza firmly believes that the eradication of domestic violence from Latino communities requires the on-going and committed participation of both Latinas and Latinos. Women and men need to work together to prevent and end domestic violence and to jointly promote healing in our families and communities. At the forefront of Alianza and NCN's training and work is the underlying commitment to keep women and children, who are the primary victims of domestic violence, safe and secure.
Alianza and NCN's focus in this area is on reinforcing the positive involvement of Latino men in the lives of their families, communities, and society. Healing and recovering positive aspects of their cultural traditions, men can find real balance in their lives, recapture a sense of belonging, and become productive members of our communities--nurturing fathers, good husbands/partners, role models for other men and for youth, and advocates for nonviolence.
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| Welcome Back Adelita M. Medina and Ivonne Ortiz
Alianza welcomes back Adelita M. Medina. She rejoined Alianza in April 2010 as Interim Executive Director. We also welcome Ivonne Ortiz back to our Training Department, as Bilingual Project Coordinator. They both bring a wealth of experience, skills, and a deep commitment to ending violence and to strengthening Alianza.
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Message From Our Director
I am delighted to be back at Alianza. I arrived in mid-April, and, together with other Alianza staff, have been able to accomplish many wonderful changes during this brief period, which we want to share with you.
We moved into a beautiful new office space--smaller, but cozier with loads of natural light and a small balcony overlooking a park. We are also within walking distance from the zoo, aquarium, botanical garden and the Rio Grande. Perhaps someday soon we can take time to visit these beautiful places.
We have been busy rebuilding our website, which includes an online resource center with our major publications and other resources available for downloading, a searchable annotated bibliography, and other information and resources.
We also updated our directory of organizations that provide services in Spanish and that, too, is now on our website. Please visit and send comments or suggestions to Deanda Montoya: DeandaM@dvalianza.org
Since her return to Alianza, Ivonne Ortiz has been providing trainings in different parts of the country. See page one for trainings available. To request a training for your organization: ivonneo@dvalianza.org. We are also pleased to introduce our first electronic newsletter which we plan to publish quarterly.
I look forward to re-establishing contact with old friends and colleagues, as well as reaching out to new friends and building new partnerships.
-- Adelita M. Medina
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Alianza's Rebuilt Website
Thanks to funds from the Office on Violence Against Women, our website has been rebuilt and updated to more adequately serve the interests and needs of advocates, service providers and other visitors who want and need information and resources to better understand and address domestic violence in Latino families and communities.
We have ensured that our major publications (booklets, brochures, position papers, research summaries, and manuals) have been restored and made available for downloading. We have also uploaded our National Directory of Domestic Violence Service Programs Offering Services in Spanish and our annotated bibliography, which is now searchable by name and topic.
To download publications go to the Resources section of our website and click on any item on the resources list. Some of the materials are also available in hard copy in limited amounts. Please download order form to submit your request.
National Directory of Domestic Violence Service Programs Offering Services in Spanish
Alianza's updated National Directory of Domestic Violence Service Programs Offering Services in Spanish is now available online for your use in finding service providers in your state.
We have organized the Directory in a format that we hope will be easy for you to use. Programs are arranged alphabetically by state, then city. The Directory is designed for referral purposes only and Alianza is not responsible for either the claims of services made by the programs listed or for the quality of the services provided.
Please note that the toll free numbers given for both local programs and state coalitions may be available only from within that state.
Thanks to all the organizations listed for taking the time to assist us with this directory.
Annotated Bibliography Back on Our Website
Alianza, under the leadership of Dr. Julia Perilla, who for several years headed El Centro, Alianza's small research center at Georgia State University, created an annotated bibliography for the purpose of presenting a compilation of literature regarding the issue of domestic violence in Latino/a populations in the United States as well as in Latin America and Spain. The articles, chapters, and books are presented in alphabetical order by author, and the language in which it is written is noted under each title. (The bibliography is now searchable by topic, author, etc.)
The bibliography is a work in progress and we invite the reader to join our efforts to continue adding new and existing literature to our list.
Please send your information to: info@dvalianza.org
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Alianza's 2010 Conference
Alianza's 2010 conference, Healing Generations and Transforming Communities: Si Se Puede, Yes We Can, was held March 17-19 at the Newport Beachside Resort in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. More than 170 people from diverse parts of the country attended the conference.
Dolores Huerta, a strong advocate and a leading voice in the Latino community, was our featured keynote speaker. Conference attendees joined Dolores in the familiar and widely popular chant: Si se puede, yes we can! Other keynote speakers included Debra-Romero-Seeley, Special Domestic Violence Commission, 2nd District Court, NM and Dr. Carmen Inoa Vazquez, Board Certified Clinical and Forensic Clinical Psychologist-Resources for Cross-Cultural & Immigrant Mental Health, NY.
| | Dolores Huerta and members of Sacred Circles |
Presenters from around the country provided various strategies regarding topics such as Domestic Violence and Latinos, Teen Dating Violence, LGBTQ & Latinos, Sexual Assault & Stalking, Immigration, Coordinated Response, Working with Men & Boys and Culture & Healing.
A special thank you to the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice, who made this conference possible (through Grant number 2009-TA-AX-K067).
For more details about specific workshops go to our home page and click on Training and Technical Assistance
Bride's March Against Domestic Violence
As part of its national conference activities, Alianza organized a Brides March along Miami Beach. In keeping with domestic violence bridal march tradition, many of the women in the march wore wedding attire and the men wore black.
For more information about this and other brides marches, please visit our website at www.dvalianza.org/en/community-education/public-events/brides-march or go to www.bridesmarch.com
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Alianza board and staff members were joined by dozens of conference attendees at the brides march against domestic violence in Miami, FL.
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Justice Department Issues Guidance Letter Regarding Courts' Obligation to Provide Language Access
WASHINGTON - On August 11, 2010, the Justice Department issued a letter to chief justices and administrators of state courts clarifying the obligation of courts that receive federal financial assistance to provide oral interpretation, written translation and other language services to people who are limited English proficient (LEP). August marked the 10th anniversary of Executive Order 13166 which requires federal agencies to ensure that recipients of federal financial assistance comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by providing meaningful access to LEP persons.
The letter provides state courts guidance regarding the requirement to provide meaningful access to their programs and services for LEP persons through the provision of language services, pursuant to the prohibition against national origin discrimination contained in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, and their implementing regulations. The letter includes an overview of applicable civil rights laws, Supreme Court precedent, guidance and illustrative examples of situations that would warrant the provision of language services.
The letter explains that applicable civil rights laws require courts receiving federal financial assistance to provide meaningful access to all civil, criminal or administrative hearings, at no charge to LEP individuals. It further explains that such access should be extended to LEP parties and other LEP individuals whose presence or participation is appropriate to the court proceedings; should be provided in court programs or activities outside of the courtroom; and should include language services for communication between LEP individuals and court appointed or court managed service providers. |
Puerto Rican Women Face Rising Tide of Violence
By Firuzeh Shokooh Valle
WeNews (August 24, 2010)
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (WOMENSENEWS)--Despite its groundbreaking 1989 law against domestic violence, Puerto Rico suffers one of the world's worst rates of intimate-partner violence. Advocates blame the situation on inadequate funding for women's rights policies and weak political support for implementing the law. They direct particular criticism at the Office of the Women's Advocate, originally formed in 2001 to establish public policies with a gender perspective.
Verónica Rivera Torres, vice president of the Women's Commission of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico, said that the Women's Advocate, headed by Ivonne Feliciano, should fight for the funds that were cut under a major tightening budget in 2009.
The nongovernmental organizations "are the only hope right now, the shelters, the ones that offer financial services," Rivera Torres said. "But they are also in crisis because the Office of the Women's Advocate has had to cut its budget and therefore cannot distribute funds to these organizations."
Island Leads Survey of Intimate Killings
An international survey that compared women's lives on the island, a U.S. territory, to other nations indicates that more services, not cuts, are needed. It concluded that a Puerto Rican woman is more likely to be killed by an intimate partner than women in 35 of the countries surveyed in 2006. The report was published earlier this year by the Reina Sofía Center, an international research center on violence located in Valencia, Spain.
The survey found an improving trend, with the prevalence of women killed by an intimate partner in Puerto Rico down by more than 12 percent between 2000 and 2006. However, the trend may be going in the opposite direction this year. In August 2010 the annual death toll was already 15, close to the total of 17 in 2009. Six women were murdered in the month of June alone.
The Movimiento Amplio de Mujeres de Puerto Rico-MAMPR (General Organization of Women of Puerto Rico), a rights coalition, has denounced the government for not doing more to confront this issue. On International Women's Day this year, March 8, coalition members visited the offices of female legislators and heads of agencies. They gave them gift boxes containing women's clothes that symbolized the absence of gender perspective in legislation and public policies. One of the "honored" public officials was Feliciano, the head of the Office of the Women's Advocate.
The group has organized artistic performances and demonstrations to raise awareness, including a "Men Sweeping Sexism," in front of the Capitol, in which men carried brooms that symbolically swept sexism away.
Island In Midst of Severe Crisis
The Caribbean island is in the midst of a severe economic, social and political crisis marked by rising unemployment, public sector cutbacks, declining property values, bank closures, rising murder rates and massive strikes and social unrest. Amárilis Pagán, executive director of the Caguas-based Proyecto Matria, an advocacy group for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, says those problems--along with inaction on the part of pro-statehood Republican Luis Fortuño's government--have worsened the situation.
"The climate is so tense that it foments violence at all levels of our society, but especially domestic violence," said Pagán. "This is not a priority for the government either, contrary to previous years when we had specific campaigns that condemned domestic violence and made it clear that perpetrators would be punished. But right now, not even the Office of the Women's Advocate has had a prominent or proactive role. There is a general sense of impunity."
In 1989, Puerto Rico approved one of the first and most progressive laws against domestic violence in Latin America and the Caribbean. It provides civil protective orders for victims and criminalizes physical and emotional violence perpetrated by partners or ex-partners legally married or not. It also eliminates the right of a married man to non-consensual sexual intercourse with his wife or partner. |
President Signs Tribal Law and Order Act of 2010:
A Step Forward for Native Women
On July 29, 2010, the President signed the Tribal Law and Order Act -- an important step to help the Federal Government better address the unique public safety challenges that confront tribal communities. The Act includes a strong emphasis on decreasing violence against Native American women who suffer from violent crime at a rate three and a half times greater than the national average.
The Act will strengthen tribal law enforcement and the ability to prosecute and fight crime more effectively. The Indian Health Care Improvement Act will require that a standardized set of practices be put in place for victims of sexual assault in health facilities. Now, more women will get the care they need, both for healing and to aid in the prosecution of their perpetrators.
Readers are encouraged to watch the video of the signing, including the moving introduction from Lisa Marie Iyotte, a survivor of sexual assault and now an advocate for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assualt at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/29/tribal-law-and-order-act-2010-a-step-forward-native-women.
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Alianza Trainings
a Success
Since Ivonne rejoined Alianza, she has been busy conducting trainings across the country.
On June 1 and 2, she and Elsa Rios conducted a cultural proficiency training, On the Road to Social Transformation: Using Cultural Strengths to End Domestic Violence, in NYC for the Violence Intervention Program.
On July 20 and 21, another well attended On the Road training was delivered to the Maryland Network to End Domestic Violence.
On August 2, a third On the Road training was conducted at the annual NCADV conference in Anaheim, CA.
On September 9, Alianza delivered "Strategies for Working with Abusive Personalities - A Focus on Workplace Violence" for the Latino Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence in Indianapolis, IN.
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UPCOMING TRAININGS
09/14-15/10 Baton Rouge, LA and Shreveport, LA
Louisiana Coalition Against DV
10/25/10 Reading, PA
Centro Hispano Daniel Torres and Berks Women in Crisis
11/9-11/10 Springfield, IL
Illinois Coalition Against DV and Mujeres Latinas en Accion
01/11 Fort Smith, AR
Crisis Intervention Center |
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What People Are Saying About Our Trainings
After day 1, I felt connected with others and learned more about resources. Today was invaluable in that I learned about the barriers and what to do within my organization to promote change.
Very educational and beneficial to my time and work. Thank you!
Speaker/presenter was great! Knowledgeable and charismatic. Presentation was great as a general training for cultural competency.
I loved the training and I will take this information to the office.
The information received challenged me to be more passionate about "spreading the word" in terms of the diversity issue.
I received more knowledge/awareness relating to various cultures, especially Latino.
I liked the open ended style of the exercises.
The trainer was excellent-very energetic and engaging!
Very interesting, liked it being interactive.
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Purchase a cookboook,
Remembering the Sabores of My Cocina and receive a Sabores poster FREEAlianza's Latino cookbook sales continue to be successful, but most importantly they continue to raise awareness about domestic violence in our communities.
The cookbook contains a collection of 275 Latin-inspired recetas/recipes submited by domestic violence and sexual abuse advocates, survivors, celebrities and other professionals in mainstream organizations.
The cost of the cookbook is $20 (plus $3/S&H).
Proceeds from the sales will help strengthen and expand Alianza's services and resources.
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Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) is coming up soon. If you have any DVAM events or forums you would like us to share on our national website, please send your information to stephaniec@dvalianza.org
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For a partial list of news articles about Alianza's work and the work of other Latina organizations go to: www.womensenews.org
Women's eNews is a wonderful source of substantive news covering issues of particular concern to women. It was founded by Rita Henley Jensen, now its Editor in Chief.
The independent daily news service has won 28 journalism awards.
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Please make a contribution to Alianza to support its work on behalf of our families and communities.
Alianza relies on the generosity of its supporters to carry out our mission and provide quality services to our communities.
Send your check or money order to:
Alianza
P.O. Box 7886
Albuquerque, NM 87194
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