News & Events
Tax Form Change: please note and help get the word out!
Unfortunately, this is the first year that Stop Domestic & Sexual Violence will be rotated off the front page of the Oregon Tax Form. We need everyone's help to get the word out to their friends and family to write in the Stop Domestic & Sexual Violence code.
The write-in code for Stop Domestic & Sexual Violence on the Tax Form is 22 and will never change.
Each year the donations from the tax forms are distributed evenly to member domestic and sexual violence agencies of the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. Programs across the state count on these funds as part of their direct service budgets.
Thank you for helping us get the word out!!
Monday January 11th is the first National Human Trafficking Day.
Portland City Commissioners Amanda Fritz and Dan Salzman joined other city and state officials across the nation in officially declaring this day and every year here on to be Human Trafficking Awareness Day.
Human Trafficking victims are actually slaves who are held against their will and are subjected to sexual exploitation, forced labor and a host of other deprivations of freedom and dignity. Oregonians are human trafficking victims, right here in Portland!
The Washington State Office of Crime Victims Advocacy names Portland as one of the main hubs in human trafficking between Seattle and California, places with large trafficking problems because of their ports and location on national borders.
The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies has recognized Portland’s booming sex industry - the largest per-capita in the nation - as a reason that female trafficking victims are plentiful here. A Portland State University branch - the Daywalka Foundation - says Portland’s location on two interstate freeways exacerbates the problem.
Why is Human Trafficking (slavery) still going on in 2010?
The profit to be made is huge, around 5 billion to 7 billion dollars a year.
What is Sex Trafficking?
Sex trafficking or slavery is the exploitation of women and children, within national or across international borders, for the purposes of forced sex work. Commercial sexual exploitation includes pornography, prostitution and sex trafficking of women and girls, and is characterized by the exploitation of a human beings in exchange for goods or money. Each year, an estimated 800,000 women and children are trafficked across international borders- much higher numbers when you count the additional numbers of women and girls are trafficked within countries. The average age at which girls first become victims of prostitution is 12-14.
To learn more about Human Trafficking (slavery) visit:
http://nwcat.org/
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/
http://www.humantrafficking.org/combat_trafficking
http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/index.html
On December 4th, 2009, in response to the rash of recent domestic violence killings in our community, the Portland Women's Crisis Line in collaboration with all the Domestic Violence agencies in the Tri-County area held a vigil at Terry Schrunk Plaza downtown in the memory of those who have been killed. Many people attended to show unification and solidarity around ending domestic violence in our community. Read more about what occurred at the event in the Oregonian's coverage.