Men Stopping Violence is a social change organization dedicated to ending men's violence against women.

Men Stopping Violence works locally, nationally, and internationally to dismantle belief systems, social structures, and institutional practices that oppress women and children and dehumanize men themselves. We look to the violence against women's movement to keep the reality of the problem and the vision of the solution before us. We believe that all forms of oppression are interconnected. Social justice work in the areas of race, class, gender, age, and sexual orientation are all critical to ending violence against women.

Join Men Stopping Violence and help change society for the better!

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About Our Programs:

Because We Have Daughters®

Community Education & Training

Community Restoration Program

Internship Program

Men's Education Program

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Community Organizations:

Take Your Work

to the Next Level!

True safety for all women means looking beyond intervention with batterers and inspiring male allies in communities to take on the work of ending male violence against women.

With 26 years of experience doing just that, Men Stopping Violence can help other organizations doing this work find ways to identify, educate and organize men who want to contribute. At the same time, our trainings can help prepare organizations to apply for funding that will be used to incorporate men and boys in our efforts.

Below is a list of trainings that give community-based organizations throughout the country opportunities to learn about and implement our innovative programs.

Interested? Request a training online or contact Ulester Douglas at 404.270.9894.

Mobilizing Men: Beyond Batterers' Intervention

This training is designed for organizations that are interested in mobilizing male allies to work to end violence against women or those who have already begun working with men.

Read more.

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Men at Work: Building

Safe Communities

Men Stopping Violence's years of experience in conducting men's education classes has allowed us to test and implement effective strategies for engaging men in a classroom setting.

We can train organizations in how to use our 24-week Men at Work course, which offers men the education and tools they need to disrupt cultural patterns that promote violence, dominance and abuse of women.

Read more.

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Because We

Have Daughters®

Men Stopping Violence created the Because We Have Daughters® (BWHD) initiative to engage more men in the work of creating safer and more just communities for women and girls.

BWHD provides an opportunity for fathers and daughters to share fun activities, followed by discussions about what the activities taught them about themselves and each other.

This training combines the experience of conducting a Because We Have Daughters® event with instructions about how to implement a similar program.

Read more.

 

Because We Have Daughters®

Team Works With Dads,

Daughters at Keesler AFB

Photo: Paula Tracy

In October a team of Men Stopping Violence facilitators and volunteers traveled to Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, to present a Because We Have Daughters® session to a group of more than 80 people – servicemen and the girls in the lives – daughters, nieces and others.

“WOW, what a great day that was!” said one father. “I wanted to let you know how valuable that class was. ... I also learned some more things about my daughter and things she wants to do.”

Men Stopping Violence created Because We Have Daughters ® as an opportunity for men who were fathers to invest time and effort in understanding their daughters' realities. MSV believes that this helps men begin to understand that in order for their daughters to live fully and freely, the world that women and girls inhabit must change.

Read more.

The 2008 Annual Awards Dinner

                                                                                            Photo: Ann States

Awards Dinner presenter Pat Mitchell (left)

with honoree Natasha Trethewey.

Through Words and Deeds, Honorees

Stand Up for Safety, Justice for Women

When Natasha Trethewey accepted the Men Stopping Violence Kathleen Carlin Justice Seekers Award on Oct. 11, there was not a sound in the room except her voice, telling us all that it means to mourn a lost mother. George McKerrow, Jr., accepted the True Ally Award and spoke passionately about his unwavering commitment to helping create safe and equitable communites for women.

The nearly 300 people at the Men Stopping Violence Annual Awards Dinner spoke volumes as well, by their presence that night at the Atlanta History Center and by their support of Men Stopping Violence.

Trethewey, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, and McKerrow, CEO of Ted's Montana Grill, join a list of distinguished Men Stopping Violence honorees. That list includes the Right Honorable Baroness Scotland QC, Attorney General of Great Britain; Eve Ensler, playwright and founder of VDay; Dr. Beverly Guy- Sheftall, writer, scholar and founder of the Women's Research and Resource Center at Spelman College; Paul Kivel, anti-violence educator; and Harold A. Dawson, Jr., civic leader and CEO of The Dawson Company.

Read more about the Awards Dinner.

Watch our male allies talk about the

work of Men Stopping Violence.

Mentor Training Program
Initiative Continues Growth
 in Clayton, Cherokee Counties

Men Stopping Violence's Mentor Training Program (MTP) continues to grow on two fronts. In 2008, MSV recruited and trained two groups of mentors: college men from Clayton State and Georgia State universities who will work with teenage boys at Forest Park High School; and mentors living in Cherokee County, Georgia, who will work with boys living in a domestic violence shelter there.

Communities are calling on men to step up and serve as positive role models for boys. However, if these men have not done the hard work of examining the ways in which they adhere to negative social norms, the cycle of violence will not be broken. The MTP trains men to more effectively mentor boys by examining and challenging crippling definitions of manhood.

The college men were trained in November at Southern Crescent Sexual Assault Center in Clayton County. The training consisted of videos, exercises and conversations geared towards educating the young men about the nature of violence against women and sexual assault and preparing them for the challenges of being mentors.

This group of young men will begin working with high school students in mid-February 2009.

Men Stopping Violence also conducted a training in conjunction with the Cherokee Family Violence Center with mentors who will begin working in 2009 with eight to 10 boys who are currently living in domestic abuse shelters.

Seven mentors are expected to be part of the Cherokee County initiative. Men Stopping Violence will continue to serve a supporting role by following up with mentors and training additional men who join the program.

Men Stopping Violence Contributes

to Book on Work With Men of Color

Men Stopping Violence has contributed a chapter to the recently published second edition of Family Violence and Men of Color: Healing the Wounded Male Spirit, edited by Ricardo Carrillo and Jerry Tello.

The book's editors compiled writings that examine the interplay between ethnic and cultural identification, sexism and violence against women. In the chapter "African American Men Who Batter: A Community-Centered Approach to Prevention and Intervention," Ulester Douglas, Sulaiman Nuriddin and Phyllis Alesia Perry of Men Stopping Violence discuss in detail the intersection of racism and male violence against women.

They write:

"MSV asserts that violence against women is not an individual pathology, but a systemic control tactic that cannot be uncoupled from other oppressive systems of control, such as racial discrimination or heterosexism. The work of MSV is based on the premise that these systems are integrated and, therefore, should be addressed as parts of a whole."

Read the book chapter here.

Attendees From 8 States

Twenty-eight people dedicated to the work of ending male violence against women attended Men Stopping Violence's Training Institute for Mobilizing Men (TIMM) conference Feb. 27 through March 1, 2008, in Atlanta.

Men Stopping Violence, in consultation with the New York-based organization A Call to Men, has created TIMM, which helps state coalitions working to end intimate partner violence educate and organize men about the issue.

The recent conference was the first of two such trainings for the eight participating state coalitions -- Idaho, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Read more.

                                          Photo: Craig Norberg-Bohm

TIMM conference attendees pose with trainers

from MSV and A Call to Men.

Article Describes MSV Model

for Mobilizing Men to End

Violence Against Women

Community accountability is the foundation of the work that Men Stopping Violence does to help increase the safety of women and girls. An article published in the February 2008 issue of the journal Violence Against Women explains the philosophical framework MSV uses to do this work and that framework's relationship to the organization's programs.

The article, "Deconstructing Male Violence Against Women: The Men Stopping Violence Community-Accountability Model" was written by MSV staffers Dick Bathrick, Ulester Douglas and Phyllis Alesia Perry.

Read an abstract of the article.