This update describes three local events, two of which focus on issues around violence. In addition, there is an opportunity for residents of Santa Clara County to participate in a Domestic Violence Needs Assessment through a special web site. Santa Clara County has made a commitment to create more transitional housing for battered women needing a safe place to stay. In order to develop support services for the women who will live in this transitional housing, the County's Domestic Violence Council has created a needs assessment survey. You can participate by filling out the survey at http://www.seamless.com/dv.
On a personal note, Marilyn Fowler, Rose Jacobs Gibson, and I are the only women I know of from the Bay Area who will be attending the National Women's Conference in Washington, DC, Nov. 20-23. If you or anyone you know will be going, please let me know. For more information about the conference, check out the web site at http://www.natwom.org or call 202-444-0085.
The two-day conference will have 28 workshops, 35 round tables, and keynote speakers will be Police Sgt. Mark Wynn, therapist Alyce LaViolette, Judge Linda Dakis, and Professor Jeffrey Edleson.
There will also be a rally to end domestic violence on Thursday, October 30, 5pm at Plaza de Cesar Chavez, San Jose, and a reception to honor California State Assembly Speaker Pro Tem Sheila Kuehl on Thursday evening.
The conference will launch the first year of a longterm violence prevention effort in Santa Clara County. As a working conference, it will have four tracks: Community Assessment and Data, Policy, Public Awareness and Education, and Community-Based Initiatives.
Women of Vision and Action, a worldwide network, invites you to attend the Northern California-Bay Area Chapter as they link up with women around the world on November 1 for their biennial linkup day. Women of Vision and Action is a spiritually-based social action network. Contacts: Brooks Anderson, 707-785-2127, e-mail < bothand@mcn.org>, or Bonnie Bell, 510-652-9340.
This online update, published weekly in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, covers events, resources, and information related to follow-up to the UN Fourth World Conference on Women and the issues covered in the Platform for Action document. You are encouraged to send in information and news to Judy Kramer at jahkramer@aol.com. Past updates are available on the web at http://womenswork.org/beijing-sf/