At Blackburn Center, we envision a world free from domestic and sexual violence and other forms of violence. We can all work toward making this vision a reality through taking action in our own lives. As we discussed in a previous blog post, What Can YOU Do?, there are many ways that you can take action, like donating or volunteering, speaking out, or educating others. This week, we are discussing the importance of standing up against domestic and sexual violence in a visible

Throughout the world, women face extreme levels of violence, including sexual assault, domestic abuse and human trafficking. At Blackburn Center, we understand that many immigrants and refugees seek to leave their countries of origin to escape gender-based violence. That is why we are joining the National Task Force to End Sexual & Domestic Violence in calling on Congress to rescind the Executive Order that would deny victims of violence a refuge here in the United States.

Last week, the Pittsburgh region was shocked by the news that a local woman had been murdered by her husband. Domestic violence homicide is unfortunately not a rare occurrence in Pennsylvania, with 146 deaths due to intimidate partner violence (113 victims, 33 perpetrators) in 2015 alone. But the facts of this case were particularly disturbing, as the victim’s husband was out on bail after kidnapping and torturing her for nearly two weeks earlier in the summer. Tierne Ewin

Our annual Walk a Mile In Her Shoes event is one of Blackburn Center’s signature opportunities to showcase the role that men can – and do – play in supporting our vision of communities free from domestic and sexual violence. While our walkers include women and children as well as men, the focus of the walk is on engaging men in Blackburn Center’s mission to end gender violence. Men from the community participate in a public reading of our pledge, Ten Things Men Can Do To End

For many victims of sexual assault, it may take years — or even decades — for them to fully come to grips with what they have experienced, and to acknowledge that they were sexually assaulted. This is also true for childhood victims of sexual assault, who may have not understood that what happened to them as children was abuse. Because it may take a number of years for a victim of sexual assault to come to terms with what has happened to her or him, we join our statewide orga