Nys Senator Eric Adams Joins Jonah Village To Sponsor A Pre-mother’s Day Walk To Raise Awareness Of Domestic Violence And Teen Dating Violence (the Walk Is More Familiarly Known As “walk A Mile For Your Momma”).

Eric Adams

March 26, 2009

NYS Senator Eric Adams, serving as parade Grand Marshall, will join other elected officials and community leaders in a partnership with Jonah Village, Inc. (a not-for-profit organization seeking to eradicate domestic violence) to lead a pre-Mother’s Day walk to raise awareness of domestic violence and teen dating violence.

Senator Adams states: “Domestic violence is a prominent social ill that impacts negatively on all segments of society and threatens the personal growth and development of our youth. Domestic violence occurs among people of all economic and cultural backgrounds. Women are much more likely than men to be targeted, with almost one-third of American female murder victims each year killed by a current or former partner, usually a husband. Children are often involved, either directly (as victims of the battering) or indirectly (as witnesses to the violence). We cannot tolerate an atmosphere in which the sanctuary of the home is unsafe or insecure; a family thrives only when its most fundamental and essential haven, its home, is tranquil. We must prioritize the eradication of domestic violence by establishing and maintaining prevention programs that include education, counseling, and legal services, by offering victims the support of government officials, community leaders, health care professionals, teachers, employers, friends, and neighbors, and by holding domestic abusers accountable to the full extent of the law.”

Senator Adams further states: “Teen dating violence, like adult domestic violence, is a behavioral pattern of exploitation in which one partner exerts manipulative or coercive authority over the other in an attempt to establish and maintain power and control. Some studies have shown that one in five teen girls has suffered sexual or physical abuse from a boyfriend. In addition to being more likely to smoke, use cocaine, acquire eating disorders, and have unsafe sex, high school-aged girls who have been abused by their boyfriends are more likely to become pregnant than teens who are not abused. And teen girls who are in abusive relationships are much more likely to make a serious suicide attempt.