Praying for you..
Hello Rina N. Risper,
May today be all that you need it to be today. May the peace of God rest in your thoughts, rule in your dreams tonight and conquer all your fears. May God manifest himself today in ways that you have never experienced. May your joys be fulfilled, your dreams be closer and your prayers be answered. I pray that faith enters a new height for you. I pray that your territory is enlarged and I pray that you step into your destiny with assurance. I pray for peace on the job, health, happiness and true undying love for God.
Knowledge is power! Ignorance is the only 100% curable disease. It is not a crime to be ignorant, but it is a crime to remain ignorant when knowledge is available.
Tyrone Allen
Questions on the mind of a Lansing resident who is a woman and survivor of violence.
(1) How do Lansing’s stats about violence against women compare to the state’s?
The Michigan Resource Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence web site
<http://www.mcadsv.org/mrcdsv/resource/stats/stats.html> provides details about the nation and the state. Here are some Michigan facts about violence against women.
"One out of five, twenty one percent, of Michigan women with current partners reported sustaining some type of violence in that relationship."
– from the fact sheet titled Prevalence of Domestic Violence
"Based on Michigan data from 1999–2000, about four of every ten females (39%) seen in selected emergency departments (EDu) for injuries related to assault were there because of intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW)."
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"From 1999–2001, a total of 316 violent deaths connected to intimate partner relationships were registered in the Michigan Intimate Partner Homicide Surveillance System."
– from the fact sheet titled Intimate Partner Violence in Michigan
"38% of women have experienced physical violence by a man since age 16. "
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"40% of women have experienced some form of sexual violence, ranging
from unwanted touching to forcible rape, since the age of 16."
– from the fact sheet titled Violence Against Women in Michigan
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(2) What is the state’s Homicide Prevention Task Force doing these days? (The last bulletin was published online in January 2007.) How
does the HPTF work with the City of Lansing government in response to murders resulting from domestic violence (the latest publicized murder
being that of Debra Waidelich)?
The Michigan Dept. of Human Services web site
<http://www.michigan.gov/dhs> reads:
"In 1999 Michigan newspapers reported forty-one (41) homicides in Michigan as a result of domestic violence. In response, Governor John Engler established the Homicide Prevention Task Force, chaired by Lt.
Governor Richard Posthumus, to develop specific recommendations to eliminate further domestic violence homicides in Michigan."
– from the web page titled Domestic Violence Homicide Data
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(3) How might Mayor Bernero’s safe city plan be improved to keep women safe(r) according to the Michigan Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence publication A Vision for Prevention: Key Issues and Statewide Recommendations for the Primary Prevention of Violence Against Women in Michigan (2003) by Wendi L. Siebold?
A Vision for Prevention is available online at
<http://www.mcadsv.org/products/index.html#vision>. According to its table of contents, key issues are:
– Integrating violence against women prevention messages into every local community in Michigan.
– Building relationships and partnerships across organizations within local communities.
– Increasing the capacity of current coordinated community response efforts to prevent violence against women and create
prevention-focused coordinated community responses.
– Promoting violence against women prevention education throughout our state and local communities.
– Improving prevention education by strengthening linkages between prevention educators.
Melissa Dey Hasbrook
Lansing, MI