Cambridge Celebrates Five Year Anniversary of Domestic Violence Prevention Initiative Feb. 26

The City of Cambridge and its community partners will celebrate the five-year anniversary of the Domestic and Gender-Based Violence Prevention Initiative (DGBVPI) Wednesday, February 26, from 4-6 p.m., at the Cambridge Senior Center, 806 Massachusetts Avenue. The event, which is free and open to the public, will include welcome remarks from Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, City Manager Louis A. DePasquale, Deputy City Manager Lisa C. Peterson, State Representative Marjorie Decker, and Transition House’s Community Liaison Shameka Gregory. Light refreshments will be served.

The theme of the event - Many Partnerships, One Initiative - will include a showcase of the major projects and work the DGBVPI has accomplished to prevent and respond to domestic and gender-based violence in Cambridge. This will include a “speed meeting” poster session, where members of the community can walk around and engage in conversations with local community partners and service providers about:

• Cambridge Police Department’s trauma-informed law enforcement initiative and training;
• Examining racial justice within the Initiative’s Steering Committee;
• Training, protocol development, advocacy, and supportive housing through the Cambridge Housing Authority and Transition House partnership;
• Creation of The Sexual Assault Response Team, a collaboration between the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center and Cambridge Police to better coordinate citywide response to sexual assault;
• Educating and engaging youth to promote healthy relationships and prevent teen dating violence;
• Engaging men in prevention efforts, including the work of Mending Cambridge, a group of men in the city dedicated to taking an active role in preventing domestic and gender-based violence;
• Community outreach through the Community Engagement Team;
• Preventing elder abuse through Transition House’s advocacy and services; and
• Citywide trainings on domestic violence prevention and response.

Cambridge has a long history of domestic violence prevention, including the historic resolution to declare the city as a Domestic Violence Free Zone in 1994. Building on this groundbreaking effort and with leadership from State Representative Marjorie Decker (then Cambridge City Councilor), in 2011, the city hosted a Domestic violence summit to stimulate interest in revitalizing Cambridge’s work to prevent domestic violence and undertook a 21 Days of Questions/365 Days of Action Campaign to engage the Cambridge community on questions they had about domestic violence. The campaign led to the official establishment of the Domestic and Gender-Based Violence Prevention Initiative. 

“Since its creation, the Domestic and Gender-Based Violence Prevention Initiative has been engaging and mobilizing the entire Cambridge community to prevent and bring attention to domestic and gender-based violence,” said Cambridge City Manager Louis A. DePasquale. “Under the leadership of Elizabeth Speakman, the Initiative’s coordinator, Cambridge has emerged as a leader in providing training and building collaborations to ensure we are creating and fostering compassionate and supportive environments for survivors.”

“We are proud that the City of Cambridge is so fully committed to preventing domestic and gender-based violence and ensuring survivors can get support when they need it,” said Elizabeth Speakman, Coordinator of the Initiative. “This event will recognize the tremendous work of our community partners and the city leadership, while imagining what is possible in the future and hopefully inspiring other communities.”

For more information, contact Elizabeth Speakman, espeakman@cambridgema.gov.

Link to event flier.