A Town Hall event on preventing domestic violence will be held January 27th at the Tempe Center for the Arts. “Touchdown for Tenderness” will feature former NFL players, wives and staff along with experts at preventing domestic violence. Allie Bones, chief executive officer of the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, will tell us more about the event and domestic violence.
Ted Simons: Last night we discussed how the issues of domestic violence and human trafficking can be eliminated by major events such as the Super Bowl. Tonight we hear about another event that's specifically targeting social norms that can lead to domestic violence and sexual assault. With us is Allie bones to talk about sexual assault and violence. Touchdown for Tenderness, what have we got here?
Allie Bones: The weekend of the Super Bowl, a lot of attention on sexual violence and sexual assault over the last several months, there would be a lot of attention here with media and everything. We wanted to bring people together to talk about the issue and what needs to be done as community to address it. We're bringing in a national speaker, Tony Porter, he's with A Call to Men. And he's going to be talking largely about how men can get involved in addressing the issue of domestic and sexual violence.
Ted Simons: A call to men is basically the title of the event?
Allie Bones: His organization is a call to men, we're calling the event a call to men Arizona. He will do the lecture in the morning. Then in the afternoon we have two panels in a town hall format being moderated by Cory woods, the City Councilmember from Tempe. The first panel is made up of form players and their wives to talk about their experiences of being in the NFL, support for players, what it meant if there was someone who was in a domestic violence situation, what they would do, things like that. Then there will be an expert panel that we'll talk B. if the NFL asks any of us what we think they should do, what would that be. We have folks who have done that intervention, community counseling, things like that who are going to address those issues.
Ted Simons: Sounds like a major event toward shifting the societal norms of being a man.
Allie Bones: Absolutely. Tony talks a lot about getting out of what he calls the man box. And thinking about how in our cultural norms we have men treating women and things like that, really rethinking those things. We are really talking about creating a culture shift in our society where relationships are seen as partnerships, where there's equal treatment, and we don't use power and control over another person. It's about those opportunities to have that conversation, how do we make that happen.
Ted Simons: Is account accident part of the conversation?
Allie Bones: Absolutely. It has to be part of the conversation. From the coalition's perspective accountability can come in many forms. Not just from the criminal justice system, it can come from your community, the media, your church, family and friend. It's really important to talk about ways that our community can hold offenders accountable.
Ted Simons: Issues like the Ray Rice issue, very public and very noisy, what does that do to this issue?
Allie Bones: It raises the profile. The conversation has just been elevated so much in the last several months. We see it on the news on a regular basis. There's ads playing during football games. We see hits to websites that address domestic and sexual violence, going up with enormous percentages. It kind of raises the level of the conversation. Our hope with this event and moving forward each past the Super Bowl is to keep that conversation going.
Ted Simons: When the conversation is ongoing, what are the questions you most often hear, especially from those who maybe find themselves involved for the first time.
Allie Bones: Well, of course the question we still so often hear is, why doesn't she leave? Why does she stay? What we want people to start asking instead, why does he or she, why do they abuse? Why are they hitting? Why are they using words to put someone down? We want to turn the question over on its head and really ask those questions that get to the root causes of the issue and hopefully turn it around.
Ted Simons: Okay. Where is the event? When is the event?
Allie Bones: The event is Tuesday the 27th at the Tempe Center for the Arts. The lecture from Tony Porter is from 9:30 to 11:30, and the Tual, from 1:30 to 4:30 in the afternoon.
Ted Simons: Good to have you, we appreciate it.
Allie Bones: Thank you.
Allie Bones:Chief Executive Officer, Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence;
