You Don't Have to Wait for Summer for Dog Days

I’ve got a standing date every Saturday and Sunday morning with the most adorable guy in my life… my pooch, Andy, and I are regulars at our local dog park (my other special guy, my husband of 25 years who is more distinguished than adorable, joins us there most days too—I’m a lucky gal). However, this Saturday we’ve all got different plans. We’ll be at Impressions of Saratoga for Dog Days.

They’ll have fun activities for pups, kids and adults, as well as pet adoptions, photos by Tracey Buyce, and barrels of doggie biscuits. DVRC will be there promoting our Safe Pet Partnership. Marianne Barker and her whole staff at Impressions have been long-term supporters of DVRC’s Safe Pet Partnership, which helps the furry, feathered and finned family members who also suffer when there’s abuse in the home.

Stop by this Saturday and say hi (and give Andy a tummy rub) at

Impressions of Saratoga
368 Broadway, Saratoga Springs NY 12866
518-587-0666

From Academics to Art to Social Action

To me, one of the greatest tragedies of domestic abuse is that it happens in private and no one talks about being abused in their intimate relationships. As a result, victims often think they, alone, endure verbal, emotional or physical abuse by someone who purports to love them.

I think increasing awareness is the key to not only helping survivors, but more importantly, to changing the norms in our society so that we can END abuse. And DVRC recently found a terrific partner to help us do this. Skidmore College's Spring 2012 Feminist Theories and Methods class, led by Professor Mary Stange, partnered with DVRC of Saratoga County to research, design, and produce 3 video vignettes which communicate the prevalence, dynamics, and impacts of domestic violence. This group of talented and enthusiastic Skidmore College students help viewers to recognize the signs of domestic violence early in relationships through powerful depictions of the impact of abuse in real life scenarios.

What a project… taking classroom learning and applying it to create social change! Help us to increase awareness by sharing these videos. Together we can END relationship abuse! I invite you to watch the videos and share your thoughts:

Does This Count?

Catch Domestic Violence Early

Did You Know?

Want to prevent drug abuse? Clean out your medicine cabinet this Saturday.

Sexual Assault... It's not very common, is it?

Here are the fact. You decide:

According to new findings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner in the United States. Over the course of a year, that equals more than 12 million women and men. Those numbers only tell part of the story – more than 1 million women are raped in a year, and over 6 million women and men are victims of stalking. These findings emphasize that sexual violence, stalking, and intimate partner violence are major public health problems in the United States. In addition, they underscore the heavy toll that violence takes on Americans, particularly women.

·         Nearly 1 in 5 women have been raped in their lifetime while 1 in 71 men have been raped in their lifetime.

·         Approximately 80% of female victims experienced their first rape before the age of 25 and almost half ex­perienced the first rape before age 18.

·         About 35% of women who were raped as minors were also raped as adults compared to 14% of women without an early rape history.

·         28% of male victims of rape were first raped when they were 10 years old or younger.

• Only 30% of sexual assaults are ever reported to the police (Source: RAINN). Even so, that means somebody reports a forcible rape every 6 minutes in this country (Source: FBI).
• The majority (73%) of sexual assaults are perpetrated by someone the victim  knows or is acquainted with. 40% of sexual assaults take place in the home. (Source: RAINN)

This Definitely Isn’t Casual Dress Friday

Next Friday, April 27 all over the world people wear jeans to work in recognition of Denim Day. They’re not paying tribute to Levi Strauss or enjoying a dress-down Friday; they’re taking a stand against sexual violence.

Here’s the story:

In 1988 in Italy, a teenaged girl was picked up by her 45 year old, married driving instructor for her very first driving lesson. He drove her to an isolated road, dragged her out of the car and pinned her to the ground.  As she fought him off, he got one leg out of her jeans and raped her…then made her get back into the car and drive home. He threatened her life if she told anyone. She had the courage to tell her parents and report the rape to the police. The driving instructor was arrested, convicted and sent to prison.

He appealed the decision and a male Supreme Court judge overturned the conviction reasoning, “…because the victim wore very, very tight jeans, she HAD to help him remove them, and by removing the jeans it was no longer rape but consensual sex.”

This decision enraged the public.  Women in the Italian Parliament wore jeans to work the next day to express their outrage. More than two decades have passed… but, sadly, sexual assault victims still encounter stigma and victim-blaming.   

Please take a stand to raise awareness about sexual violence on April 27^th, 2012. Wear jeans and something teal  (e.g. a t-shirt or scarf) to support survivors and rally against sexual violence in our community. 

Send pictures of your group to dvrc@crisny.org as we recognize on our website our community partners who are taking a stand (in denim) to end sexual violence.

APRIL IS SEXUAL ASSAULT AWARENESS MONTH

Allowing Past History to Shed Light On The Present:New York State Launches a New Approach to Domestic Incident Reports

Yesterday was a transformational day for domestic violence advocates, domestic abuse survivors, and the criminal justice system in New York State. The state unveiled a new Domestic Incident Report (DIR) Repository that will give immediate access to law enforcement about past domestic incidents, providing amore cohesive criminal justice response to domestic incidents. This information in a DIR is invaluable as it helps responders to better understand the pattern of abuse as they respond to an incident. It also provides judges with information about past course of conduct, thereby painting a picture so the judge can better understand the pattern of abuse.

The DIR report is nothing new. Police officers regularly fill out very comprehensive forms whenever responding to a domestic incident. The problem is that those forms, until now, have not been accessible to law enforcement and court personnel in other counties. So as District Attorney Murphy explained yesterday, a victim may live in Saratoga County and work in Albany. There may be a history of domestic incidents in the home, but when that victim is stalked in the workplace responding officers are unaware of the repeated police interventions at the home and the pattern of abuse and threats.  

The domestic incident reports are submitted to the Division of Criminal Justice Services where they are methodically filed chronologically. DCJS received almost 800 of these reports a day! They have an entire storage area filled with pallets, each pallet containing a quarter of a million reports!

And that’s the problem. Each report contains valuable information about whether the abuser threatened the victim’s life, whether a weapon was used, and whether there is an order of protection in place… but that information is buried in a mountain of other similar reports. It’s the proverbial needle in the haystack… at least until yesterday.

Now within seconds that information can be called up as the officer is heading to respond to the incident. Judges can access the past history when reviewing a case … and victims can be assured that when they are in fear or in danger and need to call the police, that their safety is the highest concern. Yesterday was a day to give thanks for the hard work being done to ensure safety and respond to domestic abuse.

My thanks to the many people who had this vision and who have been working for over a decade to make this happen!

Let Me Tell You About Teens These Days

We always hear grumbles about "teenagers... or...this generation"… well I’d like to give a big shout out for all the community-oriented good works that kids do, locally and globally.  This Saturday is a full day festival of youth-organized opportunities to celebrate the holiday season by giving to others. Come celebrate the Spirit of Giving by participating in the “Youth for Change: Community Giving Fair”. It is a fun and unique “Alternative Market” that encourages people, young and old to make a difference in their community through donations, wish list gifts and volunteerism.

I went last year. The fair touched my heart, opened my eyes to the problems globally, and gave me ideas for easy ways to give back.. plus I was entertained and fed yummy soup!  What a day- click here for my thoughts after last year’s fair.Youth2 Community Giving Fair 2010

So please support Youth^2- Youth Helping Youth by attending this Year’s Community Giving Fair:.

Date: Saturday, November 20th, 2010
Time: 10am-3pm
Place: United Methodist Church- Fellowship Hall
175 Fifth Avenue, Saratoga Springs.

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What to expect?
 Many free experiences-listen to live music, view performances of “The Giving Tree”, make “Smart Kits” and “ Good Health Kits” for children in need, play the Community Service Rewards Board Game, draw for the “Quilt of Visions”, pick the pocket of “Pockets”, Roll for Change. Free “Youth2cookies.” Buy delicious Thanksgiving Bake Sale items and enjoy a bowl of “Stone Soup”.

The Women in Business Committee of the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County has done it once again-- brought hope, compassion, and comfort to women and children fleeing abuse. On November 9^th the committee assembled 167 baskets filled with personal care items to be given to clients at Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Services (DVRC). Over the years the group has donated 3,160 baskets to help abuse victims as they become survivors.

They’ve delivered a lot of hope, but their biggest hope is that someday…not tomorrow, but soon… there won’t be a need for more baskets. They’re helping DVRC to work toward this goal by bringing attention to the issue of domestic abuse and letting people know that places like DVRC exist to provide no-cost support.

Click the link to see these amazing women in action.Women in Business Committee distributes Baskets of Hope

At DVRC, we

dream of a tomorrow without relationship violence, and

achieve it by creating opportunities to …

transform lives.

What's NOT on the Thanksgiving Menu... drunk driving

I LOVE Thanksgiving.

Not only do I crave an excuse to spend hours in the kitchen, but I love the traditions. My husband and I have already had our annual kvetching about the menu. He’s a traditionalist: turkey, plain mashed potatoes with gravy, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream and Ocean Spray jellied cranberry sauce from a can… “What else could you possibly need? “ I’m a vegetarian so the whole turkey thing doesn’t excite me… and if I’m going to spend a day cooking I like to try something different … or as my husband says, “You’re serving company things no one has ever eaten… ever.”  So along with the traditional fare we’ve had chestnut soup served in  mini pumpkins, salmon soufflé in turkey molds, sweet potato biscuits , roasted vegetables (my brother in law quipped that the roasted turnips looked like shrunken heads so whenever anyone ate one the table erupted into  gales of cannibalistic laughter) and  sushi rolls. After 25 years of marriage we’ve worked out our differences about the menu… I just cook EVERYTHING and we have more food than imaginable. But out of respect for holiday traditions I vow to never even consider a tofurkey.


This year will be especially memorable as both sons will be home from college. It’ll be the first time in months we’ve all sat together at a table for a meal. I also know that my youngest just can’t wait to get home-- because as soon as the pie is served he’ll borrow the car keys and head out to spend as much of the holiday weekend as possible with all his friends, whom he hasn’t seen in months.


Did you know Thanksgiving is the #1 holiday for drunk driving? Not New Year's... Thanksgiving! We all know that teen drivers are at higher risk for drunk driving accidents and fatalities, but once the kids have gone off to school parents hesitate to lay down the ‘house rules’  as their teen heads out the door, since at school no one is there to nag them.


So as I hand over the car keys I will, as always, have the ‘no drugs/no drinking’ talk and hug my son and tell him I love him;  he’ll roll his eyes  and I’m sure the first words to his friends will be , “I can't believe my mother…” Hopefully they’ll all laugh and relate similar experiences.
So let’s be thankful we’re all together… and also safe and accident free.

So I'm committed to upholding traditions; I'll greet guests with a sushi roll appetizer (or something equally non-traditional), take the family picture early in the day and fill up the gas tank to make it easier for those home from college to escape, and won't hesitate to 'have the no drugs/no drinking talk' and give a hug.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today the Stillwater Police Department distributed over 100 cell phones that they collected to local agencies that  assist victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.  Why is this important? Because:

1)      That old cell phone that sits unused in the drawer after we’ve upgraded to the new model is a lifeline for someone who lives in fear of an abuser. The ability to call 911 for assistance can literally make the difference between life and death. Each agency that received the cell phones knew of specific instances where a survivor is alive today because they were given a 911 phone.  

2)      Intimate partner abuse often happens at home where the only witnesses are the victim and the abuser. Thus our community often underestimates the prevalence of domestic abuse. In our day-to-day activities we tend to focus on what we see… by collecting and donating cell phones we are reminded that although we may not have seen it today domestic violence occurs at staggering rates. One in four women and one in four men are victims of domestic abuse in their lifetime.

3)      Unlike the general community, law enforcement officers do see the prevalence of domestic abuse. In fact, domestic incidents are some of the most common calls they respond to. At DVRC we recognize the efforts of our local law enforcement agencies in working to end abuse. When they  take that extra step to increase community awareness, they send a message that they respond to domestic abuse seriously. We thank them for the many ways they make this extra effort to promote awareness, e.g.,  the NYS Police and Saratoga Springs Police whose patrol cars have domestic violence awareness ribbons during October and the Stillwater Police department who have distributed over 3,500 cell phones to help victims become survivors.

Sergeant Cordani discusses how the cell phone collection project began and why it is so important.