Imagine, you are a vibrant fresh – faced sixteen year old girl from the suburbs of Memphis, TN. Everything in your life is going well until one night everything changes. On May 19, 2003 you find yourself home alone when a strange masked man ravages your body without an ounce of sympathy. Once this brutal degradation of your body has surpassed, this masked man leaves you with a threat of death if you go to the police. Now, you have to make the difficult decision to stay silent, or potentially lose your life in the pursuit of justice. This is the nightmare that was Meaghan Ybo’s life (Haas). Meaghan decided to pursue justice in an attempt for closure for the crime committed against her. Meaghan was given an extensive four to six hour physical …show more content…
The first step in promoting recovery while also keeping agencies accountable is the creation of agencies such as the Joyful Heart Foundation. This foundation was created by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actress Mariska Hargitay. Hargitay created this foundation after reading numerous never before told fan testimonials of the struggles they had suffered as rape victims. The mission of Joyful Heart is to eradicate sexual and domestic abuse throughout communities through reform, legislation, and funding. They are founded on three main principles: healing, education, and advocacy. Joyful Heart wants to aid in the healing of survivors so they can re-claim a joy of life. They want to educate everyone on the statistics, facts, and legislation in regards to sexual assault and domestic abuse issues. Finally, Hargitay aspires to open up peoples’ eyes and get them interested in being an activist for Joyful Heart’s causes (“Our Story, …show more content…
House Bill 1388’s demise was a lack of funding (Parkinson). Republicans shot down a bill that proposed $2 million to begin eliminating some of the backlog. Republicans felt as if the $2 million was a band – aid for the situation, and rather wait another year before making a way for funding the complete processing of the backlogs statewide at once. It is perplexing that there was so much resistance to this proposal after considering the amount of readily available resources within the general assembly’s reserve account. The general assembly’s reserve account has $40 million waiting to be spent (Terkel). That is a menial 5% of the reserve state’s account. Similarly on a federal level, President Obama proposed a bill that would grant $41 million in the 2015 budget to a new program that would help lessen the backlog in states and communities. The bill was passed by the House, but when it entered the Senate things began to take a turn for the worst. Republicans wanted unnecessary irrelevant amendments added to the bill, so a Democrat pulled the bill (Eichelberger). People are concerned that both nationally and locally a distribution of funds will never
The beautiful thing about writing is that it can take many different forms, yet still be centered around one topic. United among the same front, authors Brian Doyle, of “Joyas Voladores” and Rita Dove, of “Heart to Heart”, expertly use different formats of writing to illustrate the complexities of the heart. Although one piece is more explicitly about the organ in respect to animals, and the other primarily focuses on those in humans, both pieces take the similar routes in telling their stories. By beginning with physical attributes of the heart and finishing with the emotional ties, a special kind of tone emerges that sticks with the reader well beyond the concluding words of the piece.
On March 13th, 1964, in New York, a young woman by the name of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was just coming home from her late shift at work. It’s three a.m., and as she’s walking to her apartment building, she notices a suspicious, hooded man some distance away. Rightfully concerned, she goes to the phone booth, aiming to call the police, but never makes it in time. She’s stabbed in the back, and then in her gut. When her screams cause the neighbors to turn the lights on, all they do
Tonier Cain, a nationally- known public speaker and traumatic event educator has inspired many women across the nation, she tells her story to audiences filled with men and women who specialize in substance abuse programs, mental health agencies, corrections facilities as well as trauma survivors and many more. Tonier, also known as Neen was introduced to the jail system at an early age and has a criminal record of 83 arrest followed by 66 convictions. Cain’s story is empowering, inspirational and unforgettable. As of today, her efforts to uplift women who have experienced trauma has given her a position as the team leader for the newly funded National Center for Trauma.
The PEACE Domestic Violence agency’s mission is to “reduce victim trauma, empower survivors, and promote recovery through direct services” (University of Phoenix, 2012, para. 9). Also, according to University of Phoenix Appendix B (2012),PEACE also strives to reducing the occurrence of sexual assault and domestic violence by educating the abused and the community and proposing ways to fight against social norms and beliefs. It will reside in the city of Portland, a large metropolitan city, that has been experiencing a rise in reports of not only domestic, spousal, and child abuse, but also youth violence, assault, and road rage over the last five
Laura Jackson spoke as a guest speaker at Texas A&M University-Commerce (where I am proud to be a student) on September 22nd to discuss the importance of healing from sexual, physical, mental, and psychological abuse. Her life story was horrific, but somehow she survived to tell about it. She addressed different topics such as raising awareness about domestic violence and the importance of a personal relationship with God. I was honored to hear her speak and acquired knowledge from her that I can apply to my life and my surroundings.
As mentioned by Thompson (2010), in the Associated Press, “Lawmakers bridged a $19 billion shortfall, more than 20 percent of the $87.5 billion general fund spending plan”. This shows that the state was heading towards a financial crisis and more deficit creation. Moreover, Thompson (2010), in the Associated Press also points out that “It includes no tax or fee increases but uses a combination of cuts, funding shifts, delayed corporate tax breaks and assumptions about money the state hopes to receive”. The budget gave rise to other dependent costs such as delayed tax refunds. It was uncertain that the State will receive the required funds from the federal government to ensure that the important programs will function the way it used to be until the funds are received.
Like all stories of healing, communication was such a vital part to a survivor’s success story. Victims of domestic violence or those interested in learning more about available resources can reach ACT to learn more about this topic. Community education presentations can be customized for workplace trainings and ACT is happy to work alongside human resource management divisions to be a part of health and wellness planning as it relates to domestic and sexual violence, as well as human
The story of the movie The Pursuit of Happyness directed by Gabriele Muccino portrays a family who struggles with finding enough money to pay taxes and afford living expenses. The movie takes a place in San Francisco during the 80s. The two main characters are the father Chris Gardner and his son Christopher, Will Smith and Jaden Smith respectively. Gardner tries to support his family. But every time he attempts to make things better, they always end up worse. Gardner in the story wonders on "how to be happy?" He earns his money by selling the bone density
In Steven Donoso’s essay Beyond Happiness and Unhappiness, Ekhart Tolle makes his views concerning how individuals attempt to establish and define their personality clear. He constantly emphasizes the points that “life and Now are one” (6) and that “we live in a world of mental abstraction, conceptualization, and image making – a world of thought” (6). Essentially, what Tolle states is that one usually do not have much say in who they are or who they are becoming, people are merely conditioned by external forces such as family and the past, society, technology, and religion to think the way they do and unless they can see the conditioning in themselves they will be unable to get free of it. According to Tolle, one of the biggest influences that help to define who we are is our family.
The poems “The Journey” by Mary Oliver and “The Laughing Heart” by Charles Bukowski had different meanings to them. “The Journey” includes the author experiencing a life that was overwhelming for her until she finally took control of her life. “The laughing Heart” includes the author expressing the fact that you need to make more out of you're life. The poets used figurative language and tone to develop their themes.
One of my daughter’s favorite movies is Soul Surfer. Julia loves this movie. It is about a surfer named Bethany Hamilton. Bethany was only thirteen when she was attacked by a 14-foot shark off of the coast of an island in Hawaii. She lost over 60% of her blood supply and her arm was severely severed and had to be amputated. What most do not know is that Bethany is a Christian who gave her life to Christ when she was just five years old. It is this faith that has brought her through some tough times in her life. She is now very active in being a role model and inspiration to others who have been through the same experiences. Both she and her husband, who is a youth pastor, strive to be the best at whatever God calls them to be. Bethany found joy at loving and serving people. I am not telling you this story so that you can think you need to have some horrific trauma in your life in order for find joy in Christ. Bethany just happened to be someone who found joy in her struggle.
Mother’s Love Moving from hometown to another city is always hard for people, imagine moving to a whole new country, where people speak a different language, different culture and different lifestyle, it will take us years to blend in the new environment, some people won’t blend in forever. In the novel The Joy Luck Club generation gap is a big problem between four mothers and daughters. The author Amy Tan herself is a first generation Chinese American, she was born in Oakland, California, her parents emigrated from China to America two years before she was born. She moved to Santa Clara after spending much of her childhood in the bay area. Sadly Tan
Americans constantly find themselves desiring happiness. However, what is happiness and how does someone achieve it? According to Webster-Dictionary.org, happiness is “An agreeable feeling or condition of the soul arising from good fortune or propitious happening of any kind; the possession of those circumstances or that state of being which is attended with enjoyment”. Every American seeks happiness, but achieving it is the struggle. Americans search for fleeting happiness, therefore, we often find contentment in mediocre living.
I tried to stand and fell again, like a toddler still attempting to walk. I felt someone grab me and I was onto my feet again, a police officer stood there. He was speaking but I could not hear his words, like a movie on mute. All I heard were Megan’s words repeating over, and over. The way she screamed this horrific information to me. The police officer’s words were finally not on mute, “Are you okay?” “Do you need to sit down?” “Can we call someone for you?”, everything was all happening at one time. I start walking not knowing where I am even heading, and again someone else grabs me and holds me close. I don't even look to see who this person is, I just embrace and squeeze still screaming and sobbing. I glance to see who the person is, she's an African American woman, a complete stranger. The smell of fresh cleaned laundry of her and the soft cotton sweatshirt was comforting. She repeated in my ear “it's okay baby, it's okay.” Trying to calm me. I turned and walked toward the apartment and lay in the wet grass, sobbing. Bright white lights flashed from Cameron's window, then the living room, and the kitchen. It was the forensic man taking pictures of the scene. Images of what they were taking pictures of haunted my mind, I could see it in my head and it made me sick. Michael, Megan and I lay together, sobbing, looking at the night sky filled with
The Human Services Organization I analyzed is New Beginnings. New Beginnings is an agency that provides sexual assault support services in Daviess, Hancock, Henderson, McLean, Ohio, Union, and Webster counties. The clients of this organization have all been affected by sexual assault or child sexual abuse. Issues within clients are best described as acute trauma responses or chronic trauma, such as sexual difficulties or loss of trust. In order to analyze this agency as efficiently as possible, I interviewed Terri Crowe, the Advocacy Coordinator, from New Beginnings. Terri was able to provide very useful information regarding this organization and how it ticks. Although New Beginnings provides services to seven different counties, there are