Empowering Victims of Violence

United Way of Central New Mexico, seeking to create systemic change in the issue of family violence in our community, decided in 2002 to establish the Initiative Against Family Violence, which has evolved into Empowering Victims of Violence. The mission of the Initiative is to change the culture to eliminate tolerance for family violence in central New Mexico. The Initiative is funded by Corporate Cornerstone Companies and is in addition to program funding for direct service providers.

United Way believes that it will take all parts of the community, working in collaboration with one another to effect real and significant improvement to the quality and range of services offered to victims and abusers. No one organization can do this alone. United Way is best suited, because of our relationships, to serve in leadership capacity to specific portions of this community-wide process.

After meeting with several state and local funders of family violence programs, United Way agreed to commission a study by The Urban Institute of Washington, D.C. The study was presented to the community at a Summit on Family Violence in May of 2004. As a result of the Summit, United Way chose to focus its own efforts on the following areas:

In order to change the culture to eliminate tolerance for Family Violence we created The Better Man Advertising Campaign. We wanted to change attitudes about this emotional topic in the hope of empowering everyone, whether effected by family violence directly or not, to safely and effectively deal with family violence in our community.

We created a consumer website, separate from the United Way site, as a community-wide center for information and resources for people affected by all forms of family violence.

Statistically 25% of the women and 7% of the men in any company are dealing with the issue of family violence. For most victims, the eight hours they spend at work are the safest hours of their day. Yet, many risks to the employee, to coworkers and to customers are associated with this problem. New Mexico has one of the highest incidents per capita of family violence in the United States. It is a root problem that results in many other kinds of trouble for employees and their families. American businesses pay $36 billion each year for health care, absenteeism, and other costs associated with family violence alone.

Family violence in the workplace is a serious problem which requires the best information and training available. The family violence information linked from this page is intended to provide information and resources specifically geared to employers related to this issue.