by Karen Castellon, AWC Berlin and FAUSA, Human Rights Team Co-Chair
Paula Lucas, founder of Pathways to Safety, invites a member of FAWCO to participate in a task force that will interface with the Office of Victims of Crime (US Department of Justice) on behalf of Pathways to Safety. The OVC has funded Pathways for 10 years, but has not done so this year. Therefore, this task force will lobby for funding (short-term) and legislation to support American victims of sexual assault abroad in the long-term.
Interested? Contact Karen Castellon at .
Join Pathways to Safety
in forming a task force representing different American overseas organizations, study abroad programs, etc. that can assist in our efforts to secure federal government funding to serve American victims of gender based violence abroad.
Marnie Delaney, Chair of the Violence Against Women Task Force, Democrats Abroad is already on board. Paula Lucas, Board member, and Keri Potts, Executive Director of Pathways to Safety are, of course, also on board.
Duties:
- Advocate to Office for Victims of Crime (OVC – US Deptartment of Justice) to release a grant opportunity to serve American victims of gender-based violence abroad in Spring 2023 for funding as of October 2023. (This will most likely be a task force online meeting with OVC and another letter of support.) This does not require legislation and is a shorter-term effort.
- Assist with efforts to secure congressional sponsorship of a bi-partisan bill for American victims of gender-based violence abroad.*
- Help with email advocacy to get sponsors and co-sponsors for the bill.
- Help with an advocacy day in Washington DC in March or April 2023. (This person does not have to attend, just help organize in the background.) We aim to find 20–30 American survivors of gender-based violence abroad to join us on the Hill.
*In terms of the bill, we would be looking at something similar to the recent Campus Save Act.
Commitment: In terms of a time commitment in hours per week/month, we would work with each task force member individually to ensure that we are honoring their time constraints and assign tasks accordingly.
Interested? Contact Karen Castellon at .
| Crisis line: 833-SAFE-833
Pathways to Safety International
Website: www.pathwaystosafety.org
Empowering victims of interpersonal & gender-based violence abroad
Paula Lucas' memoir: Harvesting Stones: An American Woman’s International Journey of Survival. www.harvestingstonesbook.com