TUES. 6/28: Rape, Sexual Assault and Gender Violence Forum at the Onion

TUESDAY NIGHT FORUM AT THE ONION

(http://webcom.com/onion)

Rape, Sexual Assault and Gender Violence

Sexual assault can happen to anyone. No one should suffer alone.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 28, 2005 at 7:30 PM

WHERE: The Onion, Sepulveda Unitarian Universalist Society

9550 Haskell Ave., North Hills, 91343-2013

San Fernando Valley

(Nordoff Exit of 405 Fwy. Near Nordoff and Haskell)

More information: Call Archie Gillett at 818 762 9032 for

WHO: Our guest speakers, Emily Smith of the Valley Trauma Center http://www.valleytraumacenter.org/ and Karen Pomer, founder of the Rainbow Sisters Project will talk about how they are serving survivors of sexual assault.

Emily is a California State Certified Rape Crisis Advocate in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita Valleys who meets with the survivor in the hospital, police station, or court to provide on-site emotional support, information, advocacy, crisis intervention and counseling services.

When Karen Pomer, a life-long activist, survived a kidnapping and rape by a stranger in 1995 in Santa Monica, she publicly took on the local police department and their failures in the investigation of the serial rapist. Her campaign on behalf of victims gained the attention of both the local and national media, including Dateline NBC, ABC Good Morning America, CNN, LA Times, and Democracy Now!,

Karen founded the Rainbow Sisters Project http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/10/06_pomer.html and organized an unprecedented Los Angeles gathering of over 400 rape survivors. The Project's motto ''Free the Innocent and Convict the Guilty,'' took them to Sacramento where their strategy and testimony resulted in getting the laws changed giving the imprisoned the right to post-conviction DNA testing and extended the statute of limitations on rape when DNA evidence is available.

Joining forces with CodePink, the Project organized the first protests against Schwarzenegger, then candidate for governor to bring attention to his history as a serial sexual batterer.

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