Trauma/Healing

With the upcoming local elections focused on where voters land on public safety needs — the $180-million, 600-plus-person Minneapolis police department being a central piece of the conversation — we are focused on providing information about what solutions are getting committed, long-term resources.

According to data collected by the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS), between 2005 and 2019, there were 46,961 individuals who had experienced both homelessness in Minnesota and domestic violence.

The women in the paintings do not shy away from telling the story of their injuries, but they are not defined by them.

You own your body. You own your mind. You are life.

Individualized responses to systemic issues will never solve the problem at its root.

For the Women in the Dorms

The last year has been devastating regarding violence against women. The statistics we have collected help us understand the increase and nature of violence, which is catastrophic.

Melissa Petrangelo Scaia: “My frustration is not that we do not know how to end violence against women. It is that we have not changed the thinking that women are less.”

“The legal aspect is one thing, but the healing aspect is another. Often survivors have to pay out of pocket to receive services for trauma they endured by the hands of someone else.”

We have to change the thinking that women are less.

excerpted from the archives of Minnesota Women’s Press

I never wanted the rapist in jail. I wanted him to see what happened in that room in the same way I do.