The day will begin at 8:30AM, with a morning program featuring Attorney General Letitia James, Senators Liz Krueger and Julia Salazar, Assembly Members Helene Weinstein and Linda Rosenthal, and others. This event is free and open to the public, regardless of whether you intend to participate in other VLDA activities throughout the day. Click here to register.

Following the morning program, VLDA participants will use streaming platforms and social media to send a resounding message to state lawmakers: Significant reforms are needed to ensure trauma-informed, survivor-centered services are available and accessible to New Yorkers experiencing DV. Structural change and additional funding also are needed to enhance and expand the options available for DV victims and their families.

This is because domestic violence is impacting more New Yorkers than ever before. According to the annual DV Counts nationwide survey conducted by the National Network to End Domestic Violence, on just one day in New York in 2020, more than 8,300 victims of DV received services -- 2,500 more victims than the year prior. In fact, in five of the last six years, New York State has had the highest demand for DV services in the country. What’s worse, on that same day in 2020, nearly 2,000 DV survivors did not get the services they requested. That’s more than double the number of unmet requests received on a similar day in 2019.

There is so much more dads can do to honor and celebrate Mother’s Day than buying flowers and a card! Mother’s Day can be a day to honor and celebrate mothers and mothering and be a way that dads can advance gender equality more broadly. As part of our Because We’re Dads Initiative, NYSCADV is inviting dads throughout the state to help craft (with your child(ren) Mother’s Day cards that honor mothers and mothering and help promote gender equality.

In February, NYSCADV launched the “What is Love” art contest for tweens, teens and young adults as a way to acknowledge Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month and raise awareness. Building on the success of that campaign, NYSCADV is inviting dads and their children to create artwork together for Mother’s Day cards exploring our 2021 Mother’s Day theme “Beyond Bouquets.”

You can submit your entry that expresses the theme, Beyond Bouquets, through May 7th at 9:00PM. Voting will take place and winners will be announced on the NYSCADV Facebook page on May 10th.

The National Week of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG,) April 29th – May 5th, is a call for the nation and the world to raise awareness and to take action in honor of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. The week of action leads up to May 5th National Day of Awareness for MMIWG. It is a day of observance to honor the lives of and to acknowledge the staggering number of abducted and murdered Indigenous women and girls across the country. The day is marked annually during May on the birthday of Hanna Harris, a 21 year-old member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe who went missing on July 4, 2013.

NYSCADV invites you to join us in these virtual activities hosted by Indigenous organizations in New York and across the country.

Seven Dancers Coalition is a New York State based nonprofit whose mission is to uplift the families of Indigenous Communities by educating and restoring traditional values with the purpose of strengthening self-confidence and dignity. Click here to learn more.

Seven Dancers Coalition will be hosting a virtual event on May 5th at 7:30-8:30PM to share the history of Indigenous peoples and host a vigil honoring the lives of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Click here to join the virtual event. The Coalition is also conducting an drive-thru event to raise awareness between 10:00AM-2:00PM. See flyer for more details.

May is a time to celebrate our Asian American and Pacific Islander communities' diversity (AAPI). Congress chose the month of May to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869 [1].

This month of remembrance and celebration of AAPI communities comes when the rise in anti-Asian racism is impacting AAPI communities. Stop AAPI Hate received 3,795 reports of anti-Asian incidents nationwide between March 19, 2020 – February 28, 2021 [2]. Fourteen percent of these reports originated in New York State [2]. And many AAPI individuals reported that no one stepped in to help them when they were being harassed or assaulted. We must all strive to be Upstanders and do our part as individuals to speak up against injustice and create positive change in our communities.

The Allstate Foundation Moving Ahead Curriculum is an educational resource to help domestic violence survivors achieve financial independence and rebuild their lives. The curriculum, created by The Allstate Foundation and the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), has been proven to help survivors move from short-term safety to long-term financial security.

May is National Mental Health Awareness Month. NYSCADV would like to honor the efforts of domestic violence, sexual violence, and victims of crime programs who have been tirelessly working to provide services and support during these challenging times. 

Domestic violence, sexual violence, and victims of crime programs, are at particular risk for organizational and individual trauma and the compassion fatigue that can be caused by the empathic and intense nature of advocacy work. A commitment from leadership to address this issue at the organizational level can make all of the difference in fostering an environment in which the commitment and passion that advocates bring to the work is grown, rather than depleted.

The good news is that there are many concrete things that organizations and advocates can do to increase support, self-care, and resilience. NYSCADV has compiled resources around self-care, well-being, and resilience in response to advocates’ need for support during these challenging times and beyond. Included in the resources are webinars, toolkits, and additional resources to help advocates take care of themselves and to support the work that they are doing. Click here to access the self-care toolkit.

This list is by no means exhaustive and we welcome your input if you have been utilizing resources that you have found successfully promote a culture of self-care and community care in your workplaces. Please feel free to send resources to us so that we may grow this collection and share among the domestic violence community. Click here to submit a resource.

Thank you to everyone who supported our Pasta with a Purpose event on April 22nd. The event was fun, informative, and all proceeds were donated to NYSCADV. Special thanks to Allora Pasta Co. for partnering with NYSCADV on this event! 

NYSCADV | www.nyscadv.org