The COVID-19 pandemic intensified intimate partner and family violence.

What does life without domestic violence look like to you?

POV Hosts First Daughter

First Daughter Ashley Biden visited POV’s new Metro Headquarters last week. As part of a tour of Trauma Recovery Centers, Biden met with POV and Downtown Women’s Center, our partner in our Trauma Recovery Center Program. 

Research shows that few crime survivors receive the support they need to heal, and to move past the trauma they experienced: only about one in 10 people who survive a violent crime receive direct assistance from a victim service agency, and this already low number drops even lower when the crime is unreported—and more than half of all violent crimes are not. The Trauma Recovery Center (TRC) model was developed to address the needs of underserved crime survivors—people who often face the biggest barriers to accessing healing services. The TRC model is specifically designed to reach those who have fallen through the cracks of traditional support services.

As a lifelong advocate, Biden shared her passion and support for these programs and the continued efforts of organizations to address mental health services and healing opportunities.

Click here to view the gallery
 

New POV Merch

POV is 50! In honor of our milestone anniversary, we have created special edition buttons, t-shirts and a tote bag. Several of these include the word PEACE translated in several different languages. Check them out and order yours today! Together we can achieve Peace Over Violence.

POV’s People: Where are they now? 

Throughout this year, we will be highlighting individuals or groups that have impacted our work over the last 50 years. 

Keesha J. Clark

"My service at Peace Over Violence started in 2013. I came with a vague idea of what I wanted to be but not a clue of who I was destined to become. I started as a volunteer on the Crisis Hotline as a SART Advocate after a 60+ hour training. This experience inspired me to continue serving at this trailblazing organization. During the next 3 years, I would serve as a Violence Prevention Specialist, Self Defense Instructor and Intern with the amazing Patti Giggans. While an intern, I had the unbelievable opportunity to start Still I Rise, a domestic violence group for Black women at the Pasadena office. I understand that it is still going and that makes me so proud.
 

My time at POV was life-changing.

This organization poured into me much more than I did it, however. Each person that I met on my journey there holds a special place in my heart for always encouraging, empowering and educating me. The work was rewarding but the lessons about how to show up better in the world will remain with me. It is these lessons that have helped to shape the woman I have become. I now serve as a Mental Health Professional with the Black Infant Health program in Fresno County, an Associate Therapist with Expressions Counseling Center serving folx of color and the owner of Born Noir, LLC, a mission-driven cosmetic company celebrating Blackness. Of all the hats I wear, my absolute favorite is being a new mother to my beautiful son. And as a domestic violence survivor, I am grateful to be in a healthy and happy relationship with a wedding planned for 2022.

My time at POV was life-changing. I did a lot of growing up there. POV is always home for me and I can’t wait to return."

Amy Turk, LCSW

"Going through the 65-Hour Crisis Hotline Training was hands-down the best clinical training I have ever received in my 20-year career as a social worker."

Amy Turk, LCSW, joined the Peace Over Violence family in 2001 when she was a case manager addressing homelessness among women at The People Concern. “Going through the 65-Hour Crisis Hotline Training was hands-down the best clinical training I have ever received in my 20-year career as a social worker,” Amy maintains. It was at POV that Amy learned simply believing survivors was one of the best ways to bring about healing. As she sat with sexual assault survivors in the hospital or counseled callers on the hotline for over five years, Amy also deepened her career in the service of women experiencing homelessness. Receiving training and then becoming a POV hotline trainer was pivotal in Amy’s career and was one of many opportunities that led to her current role as CEO of the Downtown Women’s Center (DWC) in Los Angeles. One of the first actions Amy took when she joined DWC was to formalize a partnership with POV, working together as a Trauma Recovery Center (TRC). With funding from the California Victims Compensation Board. The TRC provides supportive services, outreach, emergency and healing interventions to survivors and their families. Amy is thrilled to serve the community through trauma-informed and resiliency-focused interventions provided by professionals at DWC and POV.
 

POV Reads and Watches

MAID

‘I Don’t Want to Hit My Children. I Don’t Want to Hit Anybody.’

Goodbye, Columbus? Here's what Indigenous Peoples' Day means to Native Americans

Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom

Coming up: Women’s empowerment self defense classes

POV is hiring!

• Community Engagement and Training Coordinator