Reauthorize VAWA Now
For the past 19 years, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) has saved lives and strengthened families throughout Colorado and the United States by changing the way our society thinks about - and responds to - domestic violence. But one of the strongest tools we have to combat domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assaults and stalking has languished without reauthorization.
Reauthorizing VAWA will help law enforcement officers confront perpetrators of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse; provide safe and secure support services to survivors of crimes; and establish a National Domestic Violence Hotline. Partisan gridlock stalled the reauthorization of VAWA in the House of Representatives and has left survivors and victims of violence out in the cold-and they deserve better.
Last year, I called on Coloradans to sign my petition and urge Congress to reauthorize VAWA. It passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support, but we have to make another push to finally send it to the president's desk this time. Share the infographic above, tweet your friends, sign my petition and urge your members of Congress to reauthorize VAWA.
- Almost half of all murders in Colorado are committed by an intimate partner. The majority of victims are female.
- VAWA awarded the state of Colorado $6,437,596 in grants in 2012 to support survivors of domestic violence, rape and stalking.
- Without VAWA, over 16 million people are cut off from federal resources, including life-saving services and legal assistance.
- The VAWA Reauthorization of 2011 was endorsed by Colorado Attorney General John Suthers and 11 state and local organizations.