This content was published: January 27, 2011. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Sylvania Women’s Resource Center coordinator tapped to speak at national symposium
Photos and story by Kate Chester
Traci Boyle-Galestiantz, coordinator of the Women’s Resource Center at the PCC Sylvania Campus, will present at Lewis & Clark College’s 30th annual gender studies symposium, “New Directions: Gender in the Future,” to be held March 9-11, 2011. The national symposium is free and open to the public, and boasts speakers and facilitators from around the country.
Traci Boyle-Galestiantz, coordinator, Sylvania Women's Resource Center
Boyle-Galestiantz will lead the talk, “Are We Getting More Violent? Who Cares?” on March 9 at 11:30 a.m. The session will examine trends in domestic and sexual violence; the seemingly symbiotic relationship between the decline of the economy and an increase in violence; and methodology to curtail domestic and sexual violence.
“As a movement, feminists have been talking about violence against women for more than 25 years,” said Boyle-Galestiantz, “and yet based on recent statistics, it seems to be getting worse.
“We need to get to the root cause – and then create methods to mobilize against violence.”
Locally, 18 people lost their lives in November and December of 2009 due to domestic violence (shareinc.wordpress.com/2009/12/17/oregon-domestic-violence-murders). The following year continued in a similar manner, said Boyle-Galestiantz, especially for women and children trying to flee abusive domestic relationships and situations.
“What’s especially troubling is that as a community, we have fewer resources and seemingly more complacency,” she said. “We need to reverse these trends.”
As part of the talk, Boyle-Galestiantz will highlight Portland Community College’s recent grant to fund its rape prevention education program. This resource will offer opportunities to learn about rape prevention in different settings (including the classroom, campus events, social gatherings and student club meetings); provide prevention skills to both men and women; and use a strong culturally competent feminist framework that includes a student advocate, an advisory committee and classroom presentations.
“The program seeks to teach about prevention and to educate one another about how to effectively end sexual violence in our community,” said Boyle-Galestiantz.
For more information about the Lewis & Clark gender symposium, visit www.lclark.edu/college/departments/gender_studies/symposium/info