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Woman's Agenda Celebrates
8th Annual
Women & Policy Symposium on
Violence Against Women
Woman’s
Agenda Celebrates 8th Annual Women & Policy Symposium
on Violence Against Women
On Saturday, May 6, Woman’s Agenda will celebrate
its 8th Annual Women & Policy Symposium called
Beating a Culture of Violence: “I’m a
Survivor.” It will take place at the Lawrence Senior
Center, located at 155 Haverhill Street, from 8:30 am to
3:30 pm.
Woman’s Agenda annually organizes a symposium to
support and encourage the community activism of local
women leaders in the Merrimack Valley. Since its
inception in 1999, Woman’s Agenda plans and
organizes a series of dialogues or symposiums, in which
local women leaders can focus on themselves and the very
important roles they play in every sphere of the
community.
Despite the fact that these symposiums are held only once
a year, it has served to influence policy development in
the public and private sectors. This year the focus is on
attacking violence against women through an
intergenerational dialogue in which mature women will be
engaged in a discussion with young adolescent and young
adult females to develop strategies to prevent women from
falling victims of violence and to ensure women already
in abusive situations that there are avenues for escape.
This year the organizing committee includes not only Dr.
Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez, who is a Lawrence City
Councilor-At-Large and Women Studies Instructor at
Merrimack College, but also Patricia Sanchez-Reyes and
Martina Cruz, Lawrence School Committee Members; June
Black, Congressman Marty Meehan’s Office; Maribel
Serate and Noris Gonzalez, Garden of Options; Janice
Burkholder, Senator Susan Tucker’s Office;
Vilma Lora, Greater Lawrence YWCA; Susan Santos, Women of
Excellence Ministry; Grisel Silva, District B Lawrence
City Councilor; Luz Rosado, Lawrence Senior Center; and
Annia Lembert, New England UNITE HERE; as well as,
community activists Haydee Cuadrado, Felicita Caminero,
and Doris Anziani.
Another important objective of Woman’s Agenda is to
support and celebrate the tireless efforts of local women
through the Maria Garcia Liriano Award and the Women of
Action Awards.
The Maria Garcia Liriano Award is presented to one woman
each year for outstanding achievements and this year it
will go to domestic violence survivor, journalist, writer
and poet Beatriz Perez. The Women of Action Awards
celebrates the extraordinary efforts of unsung heroines
and this year these women are Sandy Almonte, Maria Monica
Alvarces, Paula Callanan, Zoila Gomez Diaz, Rebecca A.
Hall, Anna Ruth Sullivan, Carolyn Traficanti and Rev.
Gladys Tucker.
The more permanent and essential aspect of Woman’s
Agenda is to heighten awareness of women’s internal
strength and to encourage their influence over policy
decisions affecting their daily lives. Woman’s
Agenda does not only seek to impact policy in the public
sector but also in the private sector where women are
managers, workers, and consumers of organizations for
profit and not.
*Send your questions comments to ValleyPatriot@aol.com
The May, 2006 Edition of
the Valley Patriot
The Valley Patriot is a Monthly
Publication.
All Contents (C) 2006, Valley Patriot, Inc.
We publish 8,000 newspapers and distribute in Andover,
North Andover, Methuen, Haverhill,
Lawrence, Dracut, Tewksbury and Lowell.
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