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Breakfast to call attention to domestic violence
YOUNGSTOWN
The Hill Foundation was founded less than one year ago, but its founder says the organization has hit the ground running with a mission to end domestic violence.
The foundation will host a free breakfast to call attention to the topic from 9 to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at the Avalon Golf and Country Club-Squaw Creek, 761 Youngstown-Kingsville Road, Vienna.
Participants must register for the breakfast by calling Sojourner House at 330-747-4040.
Lenora Hill, president and founder of the Hill Foundation, said she was inspired to start the organization in April after she attended a convention in Detroit where one of the points of discussion was domestic violence.
“There were 75 people in this particular seminar with one male on the panel,” Hill recalled. “One lady in particular started talking about her sister who was a doctor and murdered by her husband on Christmas Day in Baltimore. ... That really hit home for me, listening to that particular story.”
Hill is the wife of a physician and originally from Baltimore, giving her a connection to the story. She said the fact the incident took place on Christmas was even more heart-wrenching and added to her desire to do something to help end domestic violence.
Hill decided to start the Hill Foundation with a mission to strengthen the community by “increasing public awareness about the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault.” The goal is to reach out to men and boys as young as 8 years old and start a conversation about domestic violence.
“Domestic violence against women is not going to stop until men stand up and say ‘enough is enough.’ We want to stop domestic violence, and so we have to have this conversation with men and boys,” she said.
She said people often only think of physical abuse and forget about sexual, mental and verbal abuses that are also a part of domestic violence.
“Verbal abuse is one form of domestic violence that people overlook because the person is not putting their hands on you, but that is certainly a form of abuse,” she said.
Tony Porter, co-founder of the national organization A Call to Men, will be the keynote speaker at the breakfast.
He said a key point in the breakfast will be to engage men and boys in discussion on their roles as men and hold abusive men accountable for their actions.
“We have a responsibility to change the mindset and behaviors that encourage this behavior in our presence. ... If we change the mindset of some men, we can put a big dent in domestic violence against women,” he said.
Porter said domestic violence is one of the largest health concerns for women.
Porter added, however, that domestic violence also happens to men, but is grossly underreported with only about 10 percent of those crimes ever being turned over to the proper authorities. He said social norms prevent many men from coming forward.
Porter said the breakfast is one means by which nonabusive men can reach out to and effect change in the estimated 15 percent of men who are abusive.