From your service experience, what issues have you identified that influence the problem

they are trying to solve?

Gender-based violence continues to devastate communities across the United States. It

can be classified into three types: physical, psychological and sexual. Physical violence includes:
beating, kicking, choking, throwing objects, etc... Psychological abuse is comprised of yelling,
constant criticism, humiliation, discriminating, denying opportunities, expressing negative
expectations, etc Sexual abuse includes: harassment, rape, touching in a sexual manner, forced
prostitution etc The CDC National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence 2010 Survey reports
that more than 1 in 3 women (35.6%) and more than 1 in 4 men (28.5%) in the United States
have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by a partner in their lifetime. Many of
these people dont even report the cases due to fear of their abuser, embarrassment or failure to
recognize its wrongfulness. Gender-based violence on college campuses has always been a
problem. Statistics indicate that college-aged women are four times more likely than any other
age group to face sexual assault. Again, cases on college campuses are often times not reported.
Women Helping Women recognizes these startling statistics and takes measures in the Cincinnati
area to stop these types of things from happening. The organization provides hospital
accompaniments, crisis intervention, legal advocacy, and support groups. Hospital
accompaniments provide 24/7 support to sexual assault survivors in hospital emergency rooms.
Crisis intervention sessions help victims with the after effects of abuse. Legal Advocacy aids the
victims in reporting the assault to the county. Lastly, support groups help survivors cope with
confusion, anger and fear that often accompany abuse.

What have you learned about the organization, the people, and/or the community?

Prior to working with Women Helping Women, I had never heard of the organization.
Volunteering for the organization has helped me learn about just how much they help the
community with gender-based violence. Women Helping Women changes lives through their
programs and services. Last year, the organization aided 16,429 survivors through crisis
intervention services, 1,756 community members were trained to recognize abuse and intervene
to reduce violence and 3,977 youth were educated through their prevent & empower program. I
also learned about the event they hold in order to raise money and continue their services. The
event is called Light Up the Night. The 80s themed event has gourmet foods from different
restaurants in Cincinnati, raffle prizes, wine pull and a silent auction. Their main goal is to raise
awareness and $125,000. Our LC helped prepare for this big event by doing various jobs for the
organization.

What role have you taken within the group?

Our LC divided up into three main jobs: the presenting team, the infographic team, and
the video team. I was put into the video team. I felt like I could work iMovie pretty well and be
of good use towards the creation of it. A couple different groups went to the Women Helping
Women office and collected pictures/ videos of the facility. We captured pictures of us working,
artwork displayed and Ellen (the Development Director at Women Helping Women) talking
about the organization. These were collected throughout a one-month period. We then put them
all into a shared folder on Google. Nick Leviseck, Evan Willoughby and I met up outside of class
to create the video. We used iMovie to put all the video clips and pictures together. It was a little
tedious at times downloading the pictures and videos to iMovie, but we persevered. We added
slide transitions, music, voice overs, etc After about two hours, we finally completed the
video. We were pretty proud of the work that we did when we presented it in our Business
Pathways class.

Provide additional thoughts youd like to share about your experience.

I was really sad that I could never actually visit the Women Helping Women facility. Our
LC was given a list of dates & times that we could go and volunteer. Unfortunately, I always had
a class during the specific times. We also had to notify Ellen (the Development Director at
Women Helping Women) two weeks in advance if we could attend the times. I had to experience
our volunteering through the pictures and videos that some of our LC members took. It was kind
of disappointing that we were helping them with their Light Up the Night event and we could
never go to the event since it was required that you were 21 or older to attend. I feel like there
was huge disconnect when our LC was told that we could not go. It would have been fun to see
our hard work pay off!