Welcome!

Welcome to the domestic violence and the workplace blog created by the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence -- an opportunity for those involved in creating domestic violence programs in workplaces to share information and ideas.

Today's post is about October 14, 2004 -- the first ever "It's Time to Talk Day" declared by Liz Claiborne and Marie Claire magazine. Imagine a single day where women and men, teenage girls and boys, grandmothers and grandsons turn to each other and actually talk about a problem that is more common than breast cancer and more insidious than AIDS. A problem that by its nature, makes people uncomfortable–domestic violence.

Working together, communities nationwide can assure that on this day, Americans everywhere will be talking in classrooms, offices, homes, and coffeehouses, about the fact that in the US, 25 percent of women, and 7 percent will be abused by someone they love in their lifetimes. (Source: US Department of Justice.)

Law enforcement, service providers and government officials alone cannot prevent people from abusing those they claim to love. But everyone can take this initiative and make it their own – helping to reach millions of people over the course of one day. This important issue is already on the minds of American women: Marie Claire’s August 2004 Gallup poll revealed that 82 percent of women consider violence against women a top concern—above improved education, above child safety, above environmental damage.

You can make a difference on October 14th. Talk to someone in your life about domestic violence. If you’re not sure how to get the conversation started please visit see CAEPV’s “It’s Time to Talk” page at http://www.caepv.org/about/program_h.asp. Now imagine a day when we won’t need to talk about domestic violence ever again. Please join us in making this dream a reality.

For further information about “It’s Time to Talk” or domestic violence issues contact Kim Wells, executive director of the CAEPV at 664-0667 or kwells@caepv.org.