The 16th we will be driving on to Ogden Utah where on Thursday September 17th I will be speaking to the women going through the Transitional Program. This program was designed to help women who have become homeless due to domestic violence, teaching them life skills and giving them a chance to start their lives over again. These women are given an apartment fully furnished, including linens, pots, pans and dishes and everything they need to live comfortably, they then must finish a 24 month program, consisting of counseling, anger management, parenting classes, and how to manage money, etc,. At the end of the 24 months if they have completed all their classes they are given Section 8 housing and are given everything from their transitional housing apartments. After 31 years I will return to the Home for Battered Women where I stayed after I was released from the hospital. The old house is empty now, but the memories are all still there. We will then meet with my ex husband Bill Wheeler, and will be taping an in depth interview around the circumstances that led to my abuse and the healing that gradually has happened over the last 30 years.
On Friday September 18th at 7pm I will be speaking at the University of Wyoming in Laramie. This will be an evening that benefits the Laramie Youth Crisis Center and The Safe House in Laramie. This event is open to the public and all are encouraged to attend. I will be speaking for roughly 45 minutes and then there will be an open dialogue with the audience, a 15 minute break and I will speak for another 15 minutes and once again open dialogue with the audience. One of the most important aspects of this tour is to create public awareness, to teach the public about domestic violence and homelessness and encourage them to take part in the healing aspect, to be present by volunteering their time at least one hour a month. Imagine if just one hour a month could make a difference to a woman who may not have ever had a kind ear that would listen, or suggestions that could change her life, this goes as well to men in crisis who wish someone would hear their cry for help, and actually be there to guide them to it. We will then be traveling through Colorado to New Mexico where on the 23rd of September we will be speaking in Taos at the Community Garden. This event will benefit several groups, MEN (Men Engaged in Non Violence), Girl Time and The Young Mother Programs in Taos. The evening will begin at 6 pm and it will be a very similar format as we will have had in Laramie. Then on to Oklahoma to find Yvonne Adcock...more to follow.
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