The Jane Velez-Mitchell Journalism Award is named after award-winning journalist Jane Velez-Mitchell, on HLN.  "I am proud to support such an honorable and urgent cause by encouraging journalists to cover the critical issues affecting women.   Fighting the 'war on women' must become a priority in our society...this can be accomplished only by making it a priority in our national dialogue," said Velez-Mitchell.   

"Keli Rabon, was nominated by a rape survivor for the Jane Velez-Mitchell Journalism Award; although all of the nominees are outstanding in their field, it was the nomination of Keli that won the vote from our judging committee for her ongoing efforts to expose the truth about untested rape kits throughout the Denver Metro area," said Natalie Brand, JVM Journalism Award Chairperson.  

According to one of our coalition partners at the Joyful Heart Foundation, ending the backlog starts with knowing that a backlog exists and determining the number of untested kits sitting in police and crime lab storage facilities. Few state or local governments and no federal agencies track this rape kit data, making it difficult to determine which states and cities have backlogs, and which do not. Much of what we do know about the backlog has been uncovered by journalists, human rights researchers and-less often-city or state officials.

"In the three years of presenting the JVM Award, this was the first time we actually had a nomination from a survivor for a reporter's investigation and story," said Michelle Bart, President and Co-Founder of NWCAVE. "Keli's investigation and ongoing persistence has had numerous outcomes that will forever be a part of her legacy as a journalist.  Honoring her was not only on behalf of NWCAVE and Jane but rape victims throughout Colorado that deserve to be heard and their rapists be prosecuted," said Bart.  

Thank you to Kelly Binder for telling her story and nominating Rabon for this year's award!

Michelle, Kelly Binder, Natalie