From a handful of women...
A little more than 25 years ago, a handful of women took groundbreaking steps that initiated a national movement to restore the fundamental right to live free from fear and violence in our own homes.
The Battered Women's Movement in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States began in the early 1970s as a grassroots effort to provide emergency shelter and support to women and children who had limited, if any, options to escape domestic violence—abuse that systematically shatters lives and destroys families.
Legal protections were unheard of and hotlines and shelters were non-existent until a small group of women reached out to offer a lifeline to safety. They began organizing themselves for the purpose of support, consciousness-raising, and political action
By 1975, nine domestic violence programs had been founded in Pennsylvania and were being operated by volunteers who possessed few resources beyond their own ingenuity and dedication—and who often had experienced violence in their own lives.
This handful of women joined forces for the first time in 1976 at the state Capitol in Harrisburg to successfully lobby for passage of Pennsylvania's first domestic violence law, the Protection From Abuse (PFA) Act. Discovering they shared a profound understanding that the struggle of battered women is the struggle for the rights of all women, these advocates decided to unify their efforts and build a network of services for victims that would eventually extend to all corners of the Commonwealth.
With a passion for the possible, they transformed their personal efforts into a movement with a vision for social change. Their collective work provided the foundation for establishment of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV), the first state domestic violence coalition in the country.
To a statewide network...
A private, nonprofit membership organization, PCADV is dedicated to ending domestic violence and helping battered women and their children re-establish physical, social, and economic dignity.
PCADV ensures the availability of effective and appropriate services to victims through training, program development, and monitoring of programs for compliance with federal and state requirements as well as the Coalition's comprehensive program standards.
Since 1976, PCADV's statewide network has grown from nine to 65 community-based domestic violence programs that offer a lifeline to safety in every county of the Commonwealth without regard to age, sex, race, religion, physical ability, sexual orientation/identity, or economic status.
These programs serve more than 100,000 victims of domestic violence each year—more than one million since 1976—through intervention services that are provided free of charge and include 24 hour hotlines, crisis centers, individual and group counseling/support, shelter, assistance in filing PFA petitions, court accompaniment, children's programs, and referrals to other community resources.
PCADV also works to eliminate the crime of domestic violence through public education and school-based programs as well as training and technical assistance to organizations, communities, and policy-makers.
PCADV advocates on behalf of battered women through the promotion of public policies and the development of legislation that strengthens their legal protections.
Since the enactment of the PFA Act in 1976, PCADV has successfully advocated for the passage of PFA Act amendments in 1978, 1988 and 1994; the Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Services FundingAct in 1982; the Spousal SexualAssaultAct in 1984; the Probable Cause Arrest Statute in 1986; child custody amendments in 1990; a marriage license fee increase to support domestic violence services in 1990; the Stalking Law in 1993; the federal Violence Against Women Act in 1994; and amendments to the Unfair Insurance Practices Act to prohibit insurers from discriminating against battered women, as well as Jen and Dave's Law, which increases legal protections for children involved in custody cases, in 1996.
To a national leader...
PCADV is recognized as both a state and national leader in the movement to end violence against women and children.
PCADV operates the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, is a partner in the national Battered Women's Justice Project, and coordinates the National Electronic Network on Violence Against Women.
The National Resource Center on Domestic Violence serves as a central resource for the collection, preparation, analysis, and dissemination of information on domestic violence.
The NRC identifies and supports the development of innovative and exemplary intervention and prevention resources.
The NRC maintains a comprehensive database to coordinate resource development and technical assistance throughout the nation.
The Battered Women's Justice Project provides training, technical assistance, and other resources on civil court access and representation, criminal justice response, and battered women's self-defense issues.
The BWJP assists legal advocates, law enforcement personnel, corrections agents, judges, attorneys, domestic violence organizations, government agencies, students, and concerned citizens.
The National Electronic Network on Violence Against Women (VAWnet) enhances the ability of state domestic violence coalitions and allied organizations in maintaining effective intervention and prevention initiatives through a national electronic resource network.
VAWnet offers access to database publications, resource listings, and research information; connects state coalitions and other network members by electronic mail; and provides a forum for on-line discussion.
PCADV is also a founding member and active participant in the National Network to End Domestic Violence, which brings together state domestic violence coalitions and national organizations to address policy-making at the federal level.
Into the future...
Despite great milestones over the past two decades, women and children continue living in fear in their own homes — and dying at the hands of those they loved and trusted.
It is the victims who instill in us the strength and determination to pursue our mission to end violence against women and children ... to challenge a society that fails to acknowledge the brutality and lethality of domestic violence ... to confront a criminal justice system that is reluctant to hold batterers responsible for their violence ... and to empower battered women so they may regain control over their own lives.
Today, PCADV builds upon the groundwork laid by a handful of advocates who, a little more than 20 years ago, had a vision — a vision of a society where women are equal, life is cherished, home is sacred, fear is unknown, and violence is unthinkable ... a planet where women and children are safe.