justice is truth in action
Our mission is to transform community responses to violence and trauma through forming alliances, enhancing policies, and creating sustainable change.
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gap
After decades of work on the front lines, RESPOND was established to fill identified gaps in the system that impede justice, healing, and advancement of reform.
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strategy
Our approach integrates the experience of individuals, practitioners and communities to collectively improve the systemic response to violence and trauma.
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commitment
We are committed to improving systemic response to violence and trauma by facilitating solutions that move professionals, individuals and communities from awareness to action.
SURVIVING STRANGULATION: FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE
In cases involving gender-based violence, practitioners often rely on physical violence and injury to determine criminal accountability, and the limits and complexities of the legal system are not designed to fully consider contextual evidence. As a result, investigations and prosecutions can fail to identify the impact of trauma, the necessity of survival, or the role coercion plays in the decision making of survivors. When this happens, survivors can be criminalized, predators avoid accountability, and we miss valuable opportunities to prevent further harm.
Not Today Campaign
points to the strength of women and the resilience that we have to stand up to others who try to overpower and control us.
-Lynn, Survivor & Creator of “Not Today” Campaign
Do No Harm
Female Healthcare Workers and Their Supporters Against Intimate Partner Violence
“The fact that you’ve gone this far, this long, without any real
consequences for your behavior is amazing to me”
- Jennifer Pena, District Judge