Zonta Club of Charleston

The First Zonta Breakfast: Collaborating to Prevent Violence Against Women

The Zonta Club of Charleston carefully collected and tabulated all of the discussion points and ideas for the Zonta Summary Report (click here for the Zonta Summary Report).  An appendix was added with helpful links on the topic of interpersonal violence (IPV).

The Directory was assembled for use in our local community, you will find the Directory under “Links.” It is the first step towards creating a network of professionals who can work together to prevent interpersonal violence as well as help victims move into a safer, more productive life.

Next Steps:
Please email ideas and comments to us at info@global-eze.com – subject line FEEDBACK. We are eager to hear from you.

We also create a group on LinkedIn.com titled “Preventing Domestic Violence in Charleston” where anyone can post information about upcoming events and projects. Please join us and sign up on LinkedIn.com.

Zonta will be hosting follow-up coffees for all breakfast attendees and their colleagues to expand networking opportunities and further indentify needs and responsibilities.
Look for an announcement for the Zonta coffee!

The Zonta Club of Charleston has prepared a series of workshops with a focus on preventing domestic violence and abuse for the National Women and Girls Summit that will take place on October 16-18, 2009 in North Charleston, SC. Our workshops for girls are titled “Love Doesn’t Beat You Down.” Registration fee is $40 for girls and $85 for women. Workshops and presentations for women include:

HEALTH PANEL
Diabetes, Heart Disease, Stroke, Breast Cancer, Mental Health, Obesity, Hypertension, Menopause

FAMILY
No more Glass Ceiling
Time Management
Financial Management

ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Balancing Family & Work
Budgeting
Single Parenting/Blended Family
Workshops for girls include:

HEALTH
A Child Having A child (Teen Pregnancy Prevention)
Dealing With Weight
Sexual Transmitted Diseases Are Real!

IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU
Do You! (Self Esteem)
Love Doesn’t Beat You Down (Domestic Violence)
You Can Reach The Sky (Entrepreneurship)

BEING A TEEN IS OK!
Having Fun Because You Can!
Dance, Fun-Aerobic

More info at: http://www.natlwomengirlsummit.org .
Contact us at  info@zontaofcharleston.com. We can email you a flyer if interested.

Photo by the Post and Courier

The event was attended by counselors, law enforcement, community outreach organizations, emergency shelter staff, educators, advocates, clergy, medical professionals, a state legislator.

Following suggestions were made at the breakfast:
Educate children at a younger age about healthy relationships.
Incorporate information on domestic violence into the existing curricula in all schools.
Impose stiffer and consistent penalties for abusers and enforce current laws.

Improve training for first responders on how to screen and refer involved parties to available resources.
Work toward equal treatment of women on the job and in other areas of society.

Make communities aware that anger and violence is not an acceptable or effective way to communicate

Link the available resources so organizations can find each other and victims can find the resources they need.

Kristen Hankla, Moxie report from the Post and Courier, attended the event and wrote an article that was published on June 19. Please read more at: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/jun/19/round_table_brings_agencies_together_tac86427/

The Zonta Club of Charleston is preparing a leadership breakfast/roundtable titled “Collaborating to Prevent Violence Against Women,” scheduled to take place on June 11, 2009 at the Harbour Club from 8 -9:30 AM. The event is sponsored by Verizon Wireless.

South Carolina is number one in the nation for female homicides by known assailants and number three in the nation for reported incidents of domestic violence. As a club, our goal for the breakfast is to discover how best we can support the community to prevent violence, what programs or presentations we might be able to develop and deliver, and how we can work to link and promote existing community resources.

Zonta will invite a cross-section of community leaders to the breakfast to discuss violence against women and girls in our community. We plan to seat people at seven round tables —divided by expertise. We have made a preliminary list of invitees, which will include the following groups:

1. Clergy and religious advisors
2. Advocates from the Police Departments of Charleston, North Charleston and Summerville
3. The legal professions
4. Educators and Guidance Counselors
5. Organizations that support victims of violence
6. Groups like Zonta that provide funds and support to existing organizations
7. Local leaders from organizations that work with girls like Girls Scouts and the YWCA

We are anticipating 50 people will attend this event.

There are many excellent organizations, which give support to victims of violence. Since our focus is on prevention we will present the following two questions to the attendees:

1.      If one thing could be done to prevent violence against women in the greater Charleston community, what would it be?

2.      What resources are currently available to prevent violence?