Alma Center Wins Prestigious Award

For Immediate Release:

Contact:
Marcia Roth
January 16, 2015

Mary Byron Project
(502) 810-8005

Mary Byron Project announces “Celebrating Solutions” and Roth Award winners;

Agencies rewarded for innovative domestic violence prevention efforts

Louisville, Ky. — The Mary Byron Project, fostering innovations and strategies to end domestic violence, has named four programs as recipients of the prestigious 2014 Celebrating Solutions Awards, and one program for the Roth Award.   This is the twelfth year for the annual recognition, which showcases innovations that demonstrate promise in breaking the cycle of domestic violence. Local and national experts help select programs they believe serve as models for the nation.

The 2014 honorees are:

• Alma Center, Inc., Milwaukee, WI. Alma Center, Inc. works locally and nationally to provide pioneering, trauma-informed healing, education, supportive services and a positive peer community to promote lifestyle transformation for abusive men and break the cycle of domestic violence in families. Agency programs have been developed from the core philosophy that violence is learned and can be unlearned—that men who perpetrate domestic violence can change.   In order to change, the Alma Center believes abusive men must identify, understand, and make peace with the trauma they have experienced in their own lives, and in so doing become able  critically to examine and transform their negative and oppressive beliefs and attitudes about gender.   The Alma Center believes that to create true safety for victims and children in violent homes, and to break the cycle of violence—the abuser must change.
• Legal Momentum, National Judicial Education Program, New York, NY. Legal Momentum has been leading action for the legal rights of women and girls for 45 years through targeted litigation, education, policy advocacy, and research. Since its inception in 1980, Legal Momentum’s National Judicial Education Program (NJEP) has worked tirelessly to eliminate myths and misconceptions about gender-based violence from the courts by educating judges and other justice system professionals, so that victims can secure fair treatment. With respect to domestic violence, NJEP focuses on the often-overlooked subset of these cases involving intimate partner sexual abuse and assault, an aspect of domestic violence with critical implications for risk assessment and the safety of victims and their children. NJEP educates judges, lawyers, victim advocates, law enforcement, and other justice system professional about the reality and impact of intimate partner sexual violence, helping the justice system better meet the needs of victims and hold perpetrators accountable.
• National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative, Flagstaff, AZ.  The mission of the National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative is to provide technical assistance for the reviewing of domestic violence related deaths, with the underlying objective of preventing them in the future, preserving the safety of battered women, and holding accountable both the perpetrators of domestic violence and the multiple agencies and organization that come into contact with the parties. The mission is fulfilled by conducting national, regional and local training conferences and workshops; providing onsite, teleconference and videoconference technical assistance to community groups all over the United States; offering extensive on-line services through the website, newsletters and film library; and, working with an array of national, international, regional, and state level partners.
• Rose Brooks Center, Bridge Program, Kansas City, MO.  The Bridge Program at Rose Brooks Center systematically connects medical services with domestic violence services in order to help survivors of intimate partner violence work toward a life free of abuse. The program coordinates with local healthcare facilities to provide resources and support to victims of domestic violence as well as training for the medical professionals who treat them. Bridge advocates and volunteers are located at major metro area hospitals and their affiliated clinics, and the staff trains over 3,000 healthcare workers every year.

Roth Award

This award is the 5^th and newest Celebrating Solution award, created in 2012 specifically for programs that address the needs of underserved populations.  The Roth Award also provides a $10,000 unrestricted prize in recognition of the outstanding work done by the winning organization or agency.

YWCA of Greater Cincinnati

Project CARE (Community, Accessibility, Responsiveness, Education) unites disability and domestic violence victim service providers to develop and implement a community coordinated response model to address domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking against women with disabilities. CARE is driven by the vision that people with disabilities who are victims of violence are empowered to access services that are welcoming, comprehensive and pose no barriers. CARE’s mission is to transform services into a seamless system that fully meets the needs of people with disabilities who are victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking. Project CARE accomplishes its mission strictly through the framework of collaboration.

About the Mary Byron Project

The Mary Byron Project, fostering innovations and strategies to end domestic violence, was established in memory of the young woman whose murder led to the creation of VINE, Victim Information and Notification Everyday.  As a nationally recognized thought leader on domestic violence, the Mary Byron Project cultivates and supports efforts that extend beyond crisis management to attack the root causes of this epidemic and help build a safer and healthier society.  Learn more at www.marybyronproject.org.