The Way Forward: Emerging Strategies for Crime Victims of Color #3
Shaping the Future of Organizing: Applying the Lessons Learned from Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Organizers
This virtual panel will explore the successes challenges and lessons learned from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s Movement in Canada as a potential framework for addressing violence against women of color in the United States.
Panelist:
Junetta Jamerson
Junetta Jamersonis an emancipationist, anti-racism expert, community builder, and award-winning Black Youth educator in Edmonton, Alberta. She has worked extensively on issues ranging from discrimination and inequity to women’s uplift and empowerment.She is one of the founding members of Black Women United YEG, an advocacy collective committed to the advancement and protection of Black Women and Girls.While her projects have taken her to numerous international countries, it is her work with women and youth in Edmonton’s African-Canadian community of which she is most proud.
Annika Leonard
Wherever she goes Annika Leonard feels called to create spaces where deep healing can occur, particularly in the lives of Black women, femmes, girls & youth. On a national level, Annika has participated in the ACE-DV Leadership Forum of the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence and has been consulted with the National Resource Center on Sexual Violence under several projects including the 2018SART protocol and the Sexual Assault Demonstration Initiative project. Annika has served as the Chair of the Milwaukee Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault where her organization, Priceless Incite LLC., operates as a sexual assault service provider in the city of Milwaukee. Annika has a Bachelor of Science in Human Services and a Master of Business Administration from Cardinal Stritch University. Her continued studies and 15+ years of experience honoring and holding space for people most impacted by violence allow her to present offerings in the form of workshops, keynotes, and guiding us to be in alignment with our truth through her organization Priceless Incite. Annika has developed a unique culturally specific curriculum for Blackyouth that cultivate their self-awareness, leadership,and wellness to bring about deep, radical, and cultural solutions to ending violence.
Rachelle Venne
Rachelle Venne is the Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women (IAAW). She has over twenty years of experience with building collaborative partnerships in the non-profit, corporate and government sectors. Rachelle has held a variety of positions to prepare her for her current role, including Contract Analyst for Children’s Services, Project Officer for the Urban Aboriginal Strategy in Edmonton and small business owner.
IAAW is a provincial non-profit organization with a focus on eliminating barriers and creating opportunities for Aboriginal women in Alberta. Rachelle leads the organization with a common-sense and collaborative approach. With statistics for Aboriginal women disproportionately high in areas of violence and incarceration, yet very low around decision-making and board room tables, the work can be overwhelming at times.
In 2012, Rachelle received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her community service with REACH Edmonton. In March 2017, Rachelle was selected as one of six Canadian NGO delegates to attend the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York. Her other accomplishments include being appointed to the Government of Alberta’s Métis Women Economic Security Council, Alberta Order of Excellence Council, Alberta Joint Working Group on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & Girls, Alberta Recycling Management Board and recently just joined the Board of the Edmonton Community Legal Centre.
Using innovation and several community partners, Rachelle is guided by her own experience as a 22-year-old Metis single mom going back to school after fleeing violence. Her 3 children are now 36, 34 and 32 years old and a great source of pride. Rachelle enjoys spending time with her 5 grandchildren and travelling with her partner Glenn when she is isn’t working or volunteering.
Moderator:
Zoë Flowers
Zoë Flowers is author, content creator and writer with the Huffington Post. Her poetry and essays can be found in Stand Our Ground; Poems for Trayvon Martin and Marissa Alexander, Dear Sister: Letters from Survivors of Sexual Assault and the new anthology, Love WITH Accountability: Digging Up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse. Her articles and interviews can be found on The Grio, Bloom Magazine, and several online journals.
In 2004, Zoë interviewed women about their experiences with domestic and sexual violence. From Ashes to Angel’s Dust: A Journey Through Womanhood is the book that emerged. ASHES – is a play that breathes life into the original stories chronicled in Zoë’s book and includes new stories about the media, campus sexual assault, body image, and the journey to self-love. ASHES has had many successful performances including; Yale University’s Fearless Conference, The White House’s United State of Women Summit in
2016, National Coalition against Domestic Violence’s National Conference, Smith College and Brown University in 2018.
For the past twenty years, Zoë’s worked at several state domestic violence coalitions and spent the last 8 years at the Women of Color Network where she started as a consultant and transitioned to the Director of Survivor Programs. Zoë also served as a holistic healer at the Joyful Heart Foundation (JHF) which was founded in 2004 by Mariska Hargitay (aka Det. Olivia Benson on Law and Order SVU).
In 2012, Zoë left JHF to launch Soul Requirements, Inc. a healing centered consulting company that combines her artistic endeavors, domestic violence expertise and holistic healing practices. Since then, she’s facilitated individual and group healing sessions, retreats, and workshops from New York to Ecuador. She returned to JHF as a consultant to run the trauma center the organization shepherded after the Newtown school shootings. Months later she joined the organization’s retreat team. The organization’s retreat model and healing techniques conducted by Zoë and hercolleagues were evaluated by Georgetown University and can be found in Traumatology, 23(2), 143–152.
Zoë has appeared on National Public Radio, was the keynote speaker for The Florida Coalition Against Sexual Violence statewide conference, The New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and The Maryland Women of Color Network’s Conference.
In 2019, she presented a workshop entitled, “Utilizing Performance as an Intersectional Response to Violence Against Women in Fez, Morocco and conducted listening sessions in London, UK and Edmonton, CA. She was also the keynote speaker at SUNY Adirondack’s We. Say. No Conference, Delaware’s Victim Service Conference, and returned as keynote for The New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence
Prevention Summit.
In 2020, she’ll be speaking in front of 4 classes at the University of Florida and will speak and teach 1 class at Skidmore College. This fall, she will be keynote speaker at the National Latin@ Institute in New Orleans, LA, the Victim Justice Symposium on October 5, 2020 in Des Moines Iowa, and for the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic Violence on October 7, 2020.
Registration is closed.
Please check the The Way Forward: Emerging Strategies for Crime Victims of Color resource page for the recording.