What's Your Story?

There's something about a good story.

Well-told stories are the kind that make you stay in your car listening long after you've arrived home.  The ones that feel like a warm blanket when someone tells them for the 100th time.

It's those stories that are at the heart of our movement.  Story telling is at the center of what we do, how we do it, and why.

What part of the story made you get involved and what story keeps you connected and inspired?

Join us as we answer these questions, share stories, and keep going at our annual conference in September.

When: Monday, September 26th at 9:00 am to Wednesday, September 28th at 12:00 pm

Where: Lynnwood Convention Center, 3711 196th Street SW, Lynnwood, WA  98036

Plenary Speakers

Lavon Morris-Grant is the CEO/Founder of MACOSH Healing Network that is the first culturally specific, holistic African American non-profit, domestic violence organization in the State of Georgia. She’s also a social justice and political activist on issues such as domestic violence, mental illness, suicide prevention, and mass incarceration. Lavon is a consultant for many nonprofit organizations, an entrepreneur, and an author. Lavon has written several articles and books, including her first book, Whom Shall I Fear: A Spiritual Journey of a Battered Women and her 2014 release, Who Will Speak For My Children: Healing Through The Trauma, which shows the powerful, devastating, lingering effects that trauma leaves behind and how she and her three children experienced the trauma and came out on the other side of healing. 

Dr. Corrine Sanchez, PhD of San Ildefonso Pueblo is Executive Director of Tewa Women United. She recently completed her doctorate at Arizona State University in Justice Studies.  Dr. Sanchez is trained in sexual assault intervention and prevention. She has worked in the sexual violence field for 20 years and helped refine Tewa Women United’s awareness and healing intervention, “Trauma Rocks”. Dr. Sanchez has been part of the co-creation process of building Indigenous Knowledge through the contribution of TWU’s Research Methodology and Theory of Opide, a braiding of practice to action. Dr. Sanchez was one of sixteen visionary leaders across the country selected as the first cohort of the Move to End Violence. She served on the National Tribal Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) Taskforce to look at policy development for child sexual abuse investigations in Indian Country.

Valli Kalei Kanuha, MSW, PhD is Professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaii at Mnoa. As one of the early activists in the U.S. anti-violence movement, for the past 40 years she has been an advocate, therapist, consultant and researcher with a focus on intimate partner and sexual violence and the intersection of race, gender and sexuality. She has worked as a trainer and consultant with numerous organizations in Hawaii, and around the U.S. and internationally. Her research has included development and pilot testing of Hawaiian culturally-based domestic violence programs, interventions for children who have experienced violence in the home, and studies of intimate violence in women's same-sex relationships. Professor Kanuha recently completed a statewide study of child abuse and neglect for the Hawaii State Department of Health, and is writing a book on the history of the women's anti-violence movement in the U.S. She is a founding member of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, and is currently a Board member of the Joyful Heart Foundation and the National Indigenous Women’s Research Working Group.

Joanne N. Smith, founder and executive director is responsible for moving Girls for Gender Equity (GGE) closer to its mission through strategic planning, development, and leadership cultivation. Ms. Smith is a Haitian-American social worker born in New York City.  She founded GGE in 2001 with the support of the Open Society Foundations to end gender-based violence and promote gender, race and class equality.   Girls for Gender Equity is an intergenerational organization committed to the physical, psychological, social, and economic development of girls and women. Through education, organizing, and physical fitness, GGE encourages communities to remove barriers and create opportunities for girls and women to live self-determined lives.

A staunch human rights advocate Smith is the co-chair of the nations first Young Women’s Initiative for girls of color. She is part of the first Move to End Violence cohort—a 10-year initiative designed to strengthen the collective capacity to end violence against girls and women in the United States. Joanne is an alumna of Hunter Graduate School of Social Work and Columbia Institute for Nonprofit Management.  She has co-authored her first book published by Feminist Press, Hey Shorty: A Guide to Combating Sexual Harassment and Violence in Public Schools and on the Streets, 2011. Girls for Gender Equity's work to combat sexual harassment in schools is featured in the 2014 documentary about Anita: Speak Truth to Power.

Beth E. Richie is Professor of African American Studies and Criminology, Law and  Justice at The University of Illinois at Chicago.  The emphasis of her scholarly and  activist work has been on the ways that race/ethnicity and social position affect  women's experience of violence and incarceration, focusing on the experiences of  African American battered women and sexual assault survivors.  Dr. Richie is the author  of Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence and America’s Prison Nation (NYU Press,  2012) which chronicles the evolution of the contemporary anti-violence movement  during the time of mass incarceration in the United States and numerous articles  concerning Black feminism and gender violence, race and criminal justice policy, and  the social dynamics around issues of sexuality, prison abolition, and grassroots organizations in African American Communities. Dr. Richie is a board member of The Institute on Domestic Violence in the African Community, The National Network for Women in Prison, A Call To Men and a founding member of INCITE!: Women of Color Against Violence.  In 2013 she was awarded an Honorary Degree from the City University of New York Law School and in 2014 she was appointed as a Sr. Advisor to the NFL to work on their domestic violence and sexual assault prevention program.  Dr. Richie currently serves on the Science Advisory Board of US Department of Justice. 

Edith Sargon, Wellstone’s Executive Director, has had multiple roles where she’s been a trainer, holder of key relationships in our movement, has guided strategic direction and crew of political leadership and movement building to win progressive change across the country, the Wellstone Way. Edith convenes several state coalitions that include nonprofit organizations, funders, academic institutions, policy shapers, activists, and a wide-range of community leaders to provide strategic capacity and support in their goals to move a bold progressive agenda. She also trains state-based groups in the hard skills of campaign planning, power mapping, effective advocacy and more, and is passionate about bringing together diverse constituencies, organizations, and people to win change that improve people's lives. Her key partnerships have included the AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), National Education Association (NEA), Communications Workers of America (CWA), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), among many others. 

Edith was born feet first in Tehran, Iran, on the first day of the Iranian Revolution in 1979. She likes to hit the ground running. The year 2000 was a milestone year for Edith. First, she came out as queer to herself, her friends, and to her college campus. Second, she organized to defeat discriminatory California propositions 21 and 22. Proposition 21 was a measure that legalized the racial profiling of young people and made it so youth could be tried as adults in court. Proposition 22 stated that “marriage is between a man and a woman.” Students of color, including Edith, worked to defeat Proposition 21 and white LGBT students worked to defeat Proposition 22. They both passed. All across the state, proposition proponents successfully divided and conquered our communities. 

This experience set her on a path of organizing across constituencies to make movements stronger and more strategic, and she is thrilled to continue this leadership at Wellstone and share it with others.  

Workshops

2016 Conference Workshop Descriptions 

Schedule

Monday

• 9:00 am: Plenary
• 12:00 pm: Lunch
• 1:30 pm: Workshops
• 3:30 pm: Workshops

Tuesday

• 9:00 am: Plenary
• 10:45 am: Workshops
• 12:30 pm: Lunch and Annual Membership Meeting
• 2:00 pm: Workshops
• 4:00 pm: Workshops

Wednesday

• 9:00 am: Plenary
• 11:30 am: Group Photo and Good-Bye!

Welcoming Reception

Meals

Lunch will be provided Monday and Tuesday; breakfast will be provided Tuesday and Wednesday. As always, we will do our best to accommodate any dietary restrictions.

Lodging

You are responsible for making your own reservations and paying for your own lodging. When calling to make reservations, please let them know you are making a reservation under the Group Name: Washington State Coaliton Against Domestic Violence."  Please book early given that we have a limited number of rooms guaranteed at the per diem rate.  Check out our hotel options for more details!

Cost

Please contact Sandi at (360) 586-1022, Ext. 300 to register.

We have contracted with ASL and Spanish Interpreters.

(You may still request an interpreter after the deadline and we will do our best to arrange one, but we cannot guarantee it.)

Scholarships:

WSCADV is able to offer scholarships to our conference this year.

• Scholarsrhips are prioritized for Native people, immigrants and refugees from historically marginalized communities, and people of color who are staff of WSCADV Member Programs.
• Scholarships will be awarded based on diversity and geographic balance.
• For scholarship related questions, contact Traci Underwood at traci@wscadv.org or (206) 389-2515 x213

Scholarship Request page is now closed.

Questions?

• For help registering online, contact Sandi Scroggins at sandi@wscadv.org or (360) 586-1022 x300
• For childcare subsidies, contact Linda Olsen at linda@wscadv.org or (206) 389-2515 x205
• For other questions, contact Ankita Patel at ankita@wscadv.org or (206) 389-2515 x207