October was Domestic Violence Awareness Month and a great opportunity to reflect on the national and international movement to stop domestic violence. From day one, everyone on our team was working hard to collaborate with many others and bring awareness to this important struggle – we held trainings and workshops around the country and locally, including the San Diego County Bar Association.  We participated in the San Diego Domestic Violence Council and the YWCA Domestic Violence Awareness walks and rallies. As we were wrapping things up the last week of October here in San Diego, a small miracle happened. Lt. Lori Luhnow (Director of the San Diego Family Justice Center), Yvonne Coiner (member of the VOICES Committee) and I were invited by KUSI to talk about Domestic Violence for 30 minutes on October 29th. Paul Bloom, the host, wanted to help us bring even MORE awareness to the issue of domestic violence. I was stunned. We didn’t ask him or the station to do this show. Nothing tragic or horrible happened that particular week.
 
As soon as the show started, I knew Paul Bloom had done his homework. He had the statistics. He asked all the right questions. Although the show flew by, he gave us a chance to define domestic violence, the cycle of violence, power and control, describe the early warning signs, how to help a friend or a family member, where to go to for help, the scope of the problem in San Diego and around the world, the efforts of the San Diego Family Justice Center to help hurting families, the leadership of the San Diego Police Department, the work of the National Family Justice Center Alliance and the VOICES committee, as well as an update on California’s budget crisis.
 
Then Paul Bloom surprised all of us — after learning about the budget issues he immediately asked the audience to help out and do something to address domestic violence. After the show, I was truly amazed by Paul’s compassion and the station’s leadership to address this issue. Curious, or maybe skeptically, I visited their website and learned KUSI has done many shows on domestic violence – more than I realized.
 
I later learned the show we taped garnered 39,000 viewers on a Sunday morning.  To this day, calls are continuing to come into the San Diego Family Justice Center and the Alliance from caring citizens in San Diego offering their support and help.
 
I immediately became KUSI’s number one fan and plan to tell the world about their leadership and commitment to bring awareness about domestic violence to the forefront. The experience was also a reminder to me about the power of the media and the importance of domestic violence professionals to continue to partner with the media.
 
In a national poll cited on KUSI’s website, we are clearly making progress. One article notes: “A majority of U.S. adults think domestic violence is a serious problem facing this country, according to a new Harris Poll.  Furthermore, majorities of U.S. adults broadly recognize some of the major identifying characteristics of domestic violence. Finally, many U.S. adults feel that certain services should be provided to domestic violence victims and their children. …Among those who recall seeing or hearing about domestic violence in the past year, by far the single most prominent source of information is television. Over eight in 10 (84 percent) cite television followed by radio (33 percent), Internet (26 percent), billboards or signs on buses or trains 23 percent) and friends and family (22 percent).”  And, of course, a lot of media attention has happened since then with stories about domestic violence touching the lives of celebrities.
 
Needless to say, the experience with KUSI, the national poll on domestic violence and the recent session I attended at the annual domestic violence conference on “Domestic Violence and The Media” have opened my eyes about the media. We truly need each other. 
 
Days later at the National DV Conference, Casey Gwinn moderated a panel on “Working with the Media” and asked all the panelists (Police Col. John Guard, Deputy District Attorney Paul Greenwood, Paul Venema, KSAT Anchor, Cary Clack, Reporter with Express Newspaper, and Samuel Belilty, News Director for Univision KWEX) to share their experiences and tips with the attendees in addressing the issue of domestic violence. To a person, they all shared the same thing: it’s all about relationships. It’s about treating each other with respect and honesty and being available when the media calls or even calling them when a story needs to be told and following up. 
 
The speakers pointed out that the domestic violence community has an important story to tell and the media is looking for stories to tell – 365 days out of the year.  But the media can’t tell our stories unless we bring it to them. We should not sit and wait for the media to come to us. Don’t be bashful — go to the media with our messages. And don’t give up.
 
Casey also reminded the panelists and the audience that despite our progress, we still have a long way to go. He shared sobering statistics that are being tracked by Cathy Church at www.domesticviolencenews.blogspot.com: 180 individuals dead as a result of domestic violence in August, 175 dead in September, 200 dead in October, 15 police officers killed in the last 11 months and over 120 children since January — yet all of these deaths happened without significant media coverage. Why? Is it really the media’s fault? Or can we also take responsibility for our actions as well? Are we doing all we can to get our message to the media?
 
Thanks to the encouragement of the media panelists — Paul Venema, Cary Clack, Samuel Belilty and now my new local hero, Paul Bloom, we will be calling the media this week and every week. We plan to say hello to our local media, invite them to come see the San Diego Family Justice Center, learn about the work of the Alliance, as well as share the great work of others. It is very clear to me – domestic violence awareness month needs to occur every day.
 
Let’s see what happens.