This is a moment of deep pain. Black communities are hurting all over the country.

View this email in your browser ([link removed])

This is a moment of deep pain. Black communities are hurting all over the country. We see it and we feel it. It is a pain that speaks to the truth of the Black experience in the United States. That truth has been spoken and testified to by Black people for 400 years - since the first slave ship hit the shores of America in 1619. More people see it now. Finally. We see it in our families, our staff and volunteers, survivors, our partners and our sibling movement warriors. It is pain that is inflicted by the consistent, unescapable threat that structural and systemic racism presents to the health, well-being and the very lives of Black people every day.

Black lives matter isn’t an argument, nor is it a hierarchy. It is a statement of values. How many more Black people will lose their lives at the hands of law enforcement? What will it take for Americans to allow Black people to breathe?

We all can be and do better. We must be radical and honest in our listening, in our love, in our practices and actions.

At Peace Over Violence, we work at the intersection of gender and race. Racism and sexism are oppressions that thrive off of abuse of power and control. We have to explicitly confront the root causes of these issues: white supremacy & the patriarchy. As violence preventionists, we study and teach the isms and the roots of violence. In our trauma-informed and resiliency work, we witness traumas - present and past - that people are able to overcome while also recognizing the scars that never go away. We remain committed to being part of the transformation that will leave no one behind, left out, at the margins or marginalized.

This is an unprecedented time and we are all witness-participants. We are in the middle of a pandemic and economic crisis that is exposing how inadequate and inequitable our socioeconomic systems are. The wounds of society are bleeding profusely. So much so that thousands of people have taken to the streets, risking their own health, to fight for change.

We stand with their families and communities as they grieve and seek justice. We stand with the parents who fear for their Black children every time they leave the house. We stand in the midst of a historical moment and on the cusp of a renewed movement that stands for justice and a changed United States that repairs the harm that’s been done.

Peace Over Violence is our offering. It is an equation we seek to resolve every day. We know that peace without justice is an illusion. But we believe that a world with peace and justice is possible and worth building.

We stand for that! Please build it with us.

Patti Giggans
POV Executive Director/CEO

Christina Mauro
President, POV Board of Directors

#DefendBlackLife
#SayHerName
#BlackLivesMatter
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
24/7 LA Rape & Battering Hotline
626.793.3385 (tel:6267933385)
310.392.8381 (tel:3103928381)
213.626.3393 (tel:2136263393)

Domestic Violence Shelter Assistance Hotline
310.281.2822 (tel:3102812822)

Information
Support
Referrals
Accompaniments
Advocacy
Counseling
Self-Defesnse

Committed to social service, social change and social justice.


[link removed]

peaceoverviolence.org

============================================================
Copyright © 2020 Peace Over Violence, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you are a POV supporter.

Metro Headquarters
Peace Over Violence
1015 Wilshire Blvd.
Suite 200
Los Angeles, CA 90017
USA
** Update preferences ([link removed])
or ** Unsubscribe ([link removed])