#EndVAWHIV   #pwnspeaks   #DVAM For women living with HIV, trauma and violence are often deadlier than the virus. Join Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN-USA), the premier voice of women leaders with HIV in the US, in saying ENOUGH! to the epidemic of violence against women with HIV. You’re invited to join our National Day of Action to End All Forms of Violence Against Women Living with HIV. When: October 23, 2015 Where: Everywhere (Click here to check out events already scheduled nationwide! Find one near you!) How: Organize an in-person or online event, write a statement, blog or press release, get involved! Who: Led by women living with HIV and those who love and support us Why: Women living with HIV face alarming rates of interpersonal, community, structural and historical violence. Interpersonal and intimate partner violence, lifetime abuse, and the trauma they produce, must be considered and addressed for women living with HIV (WLHIV), who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder at a rate five times the general population. Rape culture, misogyny, and patriarchy place women, girls, trans and gender-nonconforming folks, and people on the LGBTQ spectrum at disproportionate risk of violence in their communities. Structural violence, in the form of HIV criminalization laws, the gender wage gap, restrictions on sexual and reproductive rights, and policies that require people living with HIV to be poor in order to access lifesaving medication and care, must be addressed as part of this picture, as they intersect with and perpetuate interpersonal and community violence. These problems are especially exacerbated for WLHIV who are poor, women of color living with HIV, sex workers, and women facing other forms of systemic oppression and marginalization. Click here to view the webinar we presented October 2 with lots of great information on the Day of Action chock full of ideas for ways to own it and promote it! 5 things you can do right now to support the Day of Action: 1. Sign on to endorse the Day of Action. Then get everyone else you know to sign on! 2. Plan an in-person or online event on or around October 23, 2015. (Click here to check out the calendar of events happening nationwide!) Folks are organizing community events, teach-ins, direct actions, twitter chats, and more! Let us know what you’re planning. Contact us at [email protected] with the following info about your event:
  • Your name or organization
  • Location, date, and time of the event
  • Event description
  • Any relevant links
3.  Write a blog (as an individual), or plan a statement or press release from your organization, talking about why you support the Day of Action.  See our factsheet and talking points linked below as reference.  Submit your blog or statement to [email protected] and we’ll run it or link to it. twitter chat graphic final4. Promote the Day of Action to get others to sign on!  Join our Thunderclap and share with others! (Make sure to click “Support on Facebook” or “Support on Twitter.”) Check out our Social Media Toolkit with sample promo tweets here and commit change your social media profile pic on October 23 to our Day of Action image! Join our Twitter Chat, co-hosted by the National Network to End Domestic Violence, the Well Project and SisterLove, Inc., on October 23 at 11 AM Eastern time! 5. Make a donation to support and sustain PWN-USA’s work to advance trauma-informed care in HIV programs and to build leadership among women living with HIV. RESOURCES: We thank all the individuals and organizations that have already signed on as partners or endorsers of this important day of action! Click here to add your organization to this list! 30 for 30 Campaign A Sister’s Gift Women’s Center, Dallas ACT UP London African Services Committee AIDS Alabama AIDS Foundation of Chicago AIDS Project Los Angeles AIDS United Albanian Association OF PLWHA APLA Health & Wellness AS – Center For The Empowerment Youth Of People Who Are Living With HIV And AIDS Aspirations BABES-Network YWCA Being Alive! Bill’s Kitchen, Inc. Caracole Cascade AIDS Project Center for Health and Gender Equity Chicago Women’s AIDS Project Christie’s Place Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) Counter Narrative Project CoyoteRI emPOWERed Legacies Federal AIDS Policy Partnership Structural Interventions Workgroup (FAPP SIWG) Fierce Caucus and Black Womens Caucus of Union Theological Seminary FORCE Baltimore Forward Together Oakland G III Associates Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) GIRL U CAN DO IT, INC. Global Justice Institute, Metropolitan Community Churches Global Network of People Living with HIV, North America GMFA The Gay Men’s Health Charity (London) HAART Inc., Baton Rouge Healthy & Free Tennessee Hektoen Institute of Medicine HIV Disclosure Project HIV Prevention Justice Alliance HIVE Housing Works Brooklyn Houston AIDS Research Team Cross-Network HIV CAB Howard Brown Health Center In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda International HIV Partnerships International Network of People Who Use Drugs Justice for All Coalition Lambda Legal L.A. Latino Commission on AIDS Lee’s Rig Hub National Female Condom Coalition National HIV/AIDS Disability Project National Network to End Domestic Violence National Press Club,Nepal National Working Positive Coalition NYTAG Older Women Embracing Life, Inc. Pediatric AIDS Chicago Prevention Initiative Philadelphia Center Philadelphia Department of Public Health Ambulatory Health Services PrEP Program Positive Living Women Malaysia PowerSource Tucson PWN-USA Colorado PWN-USA South Carolina PWN-USA San Diego PWN-USA Bay Area PWN-USA Louisiana PWN-USA Ohio PWN-USA Michigan PWN-USA Philadelphia PWN-USA Georgia ReShape Ribbon Consulting Group Sero Project Sexuality Information and Education Council of the US (SIECUS) SisterLove, Inc. SisterReach, Memphis SisterSong Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care Kansas City SKUC (Slovenia) The Afiya Center The Empowerment Program Denver The Praxis Project The Sophia Forum The Well Project The Women’s Collective Washington, DC Transgender Law Center Tunisian Association of Positive Prévention Women & Life WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Diseases) Women With A Vision, Inc. Women’s HIV Program at UCSF