Each month, Voices4Change partners with organizations around
the country to create interactive webinars to address issues related
to intimate partner violence. Each webinar includes a panel discussion
with experts from the presenting organizations, members of the target
audience and a survivor of intimate partner violence. Each event is
offered live and edited to create a video resource available for streaming.
This tour is being presented with Ferebee International, Life Now Foundation,
Pauling Institute and Ujima - The National Center on Violence Against Women
in the Black Community.
#About the Virtual Tour
Intimate Partner Violence in the Black Community
Gender-based violence has reached epidemic proportions around the world.
In the United States, Black and indigenous women face even higher rates than Caucasian, Latina,
and Asian women. The statistics are staggering: 45% of Black women report experiencing sexual
violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner.1 in 4 Black girls is
sexually abused before the age of 18. 1 in 5 Black women are survivors of rape.
Gender-based violence is a complex problem across races, but for Black communities in the United
States, the problem is embedded within issues of racism, policing, and cultural oppression. Looking
at the systemic issues as well as the individual is imperative for organizations responding to intimate
partner violence. In this webinar, we will hear from women working in prevention, awareness and
treatment to gain a better understanding of these issues and to discuss solutions.
12th OCTOBER, 2021
1PM EDT
Black women ages 25-29 are 11 times as likely as white women to be murdered while pregnant or within the first
year of childbirth.
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Janice Ferebee
Janice Ferebee, MSW, is an internationally recognized personal development speaker, author and global
female empowerment expert, with a Master of Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy &
Practice (SP2). She is the founder & Chief Woman Warrior (CWW) of Ferebee Enterprises
International, LLC, a global female empowerment social
enterprise. With over 40 years' experience and expertise, Janice has
the distinction of being recognized by The Oprah Winfrey Show and ESSENCE Magazine for her award-winning GOT IT GOIN' ON® (GIGO)
empowerment brand | books and program for Black girls, and she was the first Models Editor of African descent for Seventeen
Magazine. Follow Janice on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and www.janiceferebee.com & www.authorjaniceferebee.com.
Sylvia Pauling
Sylvia Pauling is a licensed professional counselor and psychotherapist with over 25
years of experience in treating mental health. She leads counseling sessions for individuals, couples and
families through The Pauling Institute Inc., her mental health agency that provides services that span
from therapy for depression to parenting support, couples counseling and beyond. Sylvia has various areas
of speciality for treatment including anxiety, depression,
trauma, grief, domestic violence and relationship issues. She works with traditional and non-traditional
families. Sylvia believes in holistic treatment, helping clients to develop a treatment plan for clinical
psychotherapy that is tailored to their individual needs. Her treatment includes a collaborative client-therapist
approach, and because of this, she prioritizes building positive and trusting relationships with her clients.
Sylvia is an activist and advocate in the movement to end domestic violence. She holds domestic violence victims
and survivors very close to her heart and has dedicated her life to helping victims break free from the vicious cycle.
Sylvia has extensive experience working with survivors and perpetrators of domestic violence. Her domestic violence
work builds on the survivors’ strength and holds the perpetrators accountable, offering services in a safe
environment. Sylvia was the first Domestic Violence Specialist for the District of Columbia Child Welfare Agency,
where she served for 15 years. She went on to become a Program Manager for the Office on Violence Against Women,
and she has been in this role since 2016.
Luana Nelson-Brown
Luana Nelson-Brown, MSPH is the Executive Director of the Iowa Coalition for Collective
Change, an organization the provides training and technical assistance to culturally specific anti-
violence organizations, homicide response programs and organizations and corporations
wishing to adopt and implement anti-racist policies and procedures in an effort to end
violence. Luana has an extensive history of leading violence prevention and intervention efforts
on a local and national level. In 2003 Luana
headed the serious and violent offender re-entry
program aimed at improving public safety by providing intense and necessary wraparound
services to offenders convicted of serious and violent crimes as they were released from
incarceration. In 2005 Luana steered the statewide efforts surrounding the prison rape
elimination act to support incarcerated victims of sexual assault and their families. Shortly
thereafter Luana redefined the parameters of certification training, by advocating for an
increase in essential training modules for sexual assault advocates in Iowa. After a short time
away from victim services she continued to advocate for families and communities by providing
education and assistance to individuals on risk management, the effects of exposure to
oppression and the general improvement of quality of life. In 2011 Luana returned to victims
services and supported several federal initiatives aimed at building capacity in organizations
providing services to marginalized communities in Iowa including the African American, Asian
Pacific Islander, African Immigrant/refugee, Meskwaki settlement, Deaf and hard of hearing,
LGBTQ, and Latinx communities. Overall, Luana has over twenty five years of experience in
victim advocacy, activism and systems change. In 2018 she founded ICCC to work squarely at
the intersection of anti-racism and violence understanding that oppression is violence. In 2020,
the world came to understand the unique intersection of racism and violence which landed
Luana and ICCC at the center of the racial justice and liberation movement. Today Luana is
sought after to provide presentations and consultation to organizations and communities
wishing to gain a better understanding of anti-racism and liberation. Luana holds a Bachelor of
Science in Sociology from Tennessee State University and a Master of Science in Public Health
from Meharry Medical College. Both are historically black universities of which she is a proud
alumna. Luana believes in an all-encompassing approach to end violence that includes the
recognition of racism and other systemic oppressions as a public health issue of violence that
has a direct effect on societal epidemics such as homelessness, poverty and premature death.
Lovern Gordan
Lovern Gordon is a two-time sur-THRIVER of domestic violence (a child witness
until she was 15 years old and a 2-year, young adult relationship).Ten years after escaping, she
subsequently became the Founder of Love Life Now Foundation, Inc. (LLN), where she used 2 back-to-back
pageant wins to increase awareness around the issue in 2010 and the following year, LLN was formed.
Today, she conducts DV Awareness Workshops worldwide, hosts events that raise
thousands of dollars to benefit DV shelters and points people in the right direction for DV resources.
Lovern is the author of the DV awareness memoir, The Legacy He Left Me and has appeared on numerous
radio and television shows including: CBS This Morning nationally and NBC’s This is New England locally.
She has been featured in the Huffington Post and Boston Voyager Magazine.
The Boston Celtics named her one of their ‘Heroes Among Us’ and she was featured as part of
Instagram for Business’ – entrepreneur 'togetHER' mini- docuseries for Women’s History Month.
Stephanie Hargrove
Dr. Stephanie Hargrove serves as the Chair of the Research and Evaluation Work
Group for Ujima: The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community. Dr. Hargrove
has conducted participatory and community-based research with Black women gender-based violence (GBV)
survivors. Her recent research is focused on Black woman-centred wellness after experiences of GBV.
Dr. Hargrove earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from George Mason
University and completed her predoctoral internship at Duke University Medical Center. Currently,
Dr. Hargrove is a Clinical Associate at Duke University Medical Center. At Duke, Dr. Hargrove
works as a researcher on an interdisciplinary project named Trauma-Informed Teaching and Learning
in Education (TITLE). The aim of the TITLE project is to develop practice-relevant recommendations
for trauma-informed teaching and learning by facilitating focus groups and in the undergraduate
college, the divinity school, and the medical school at Duke University. Clinically, Dr. Hargrove
works with adolescents and adults with mood, anxiety, and personality disorders and specializes in
treating the impact of trauma. Dr. Hargrove has extensive training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
(CBT) and third wave behavioural frameworks such as Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). Dr.
Hargrove’s research interests are focused on implementing liberatory and trauma-informed practices
at the system, interpersonal, and individual levels utilizing critical, participatory and action-based
research methods such as Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR). Her clinical interests are to
facilitate healing from trauma-broadly defined, including the impact of various forms of oppression.
Through research, consulting, and clinical work, Dr. Hargrove’s mission is to be a resource for
oppressed groups and marginalized communities.
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