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“All that you touch
You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you.

The only lasting truth
is Change.”

― Octavia E. Butler, excerpt from Parable of the Sower

Over the past few years, the Virginia Anti-Violence Project has grown in tremendous ways. Our staff has grown from two to six. Our services have grown to include free licensed therapy, accessibility in both Spanish and English, emergency services, and wellness-centered events. Our relationships with loving community have grown and continue to grow. We have all experienced the joys, messy lessons, hopes, and opportunities that change has brought. At this point of transition, we are welcoming all that and more, as our first Program Director, Stacie Vecchietti, resigns from her position at VAVP. We wish her well on her journey, with gratitude for the changes Stacie and her stewardship have nurtured.

Most of all, we hope to navigate this leadership transition as a true opportunity to live into our organizational values, especially essential in both the context of a toxic political climate that promotes evil, violence, and oppression and in the context of the United States’ long histories of antiblack, colonial, racist, heterosexist, and transphobic violence. VAVP is committed to showing up for and with our community to end white, cisgender supremacy, knowing that addressing root causes is key to ending violence. We do this work knowing that our communities are resilient and deserve to see themselves reflected in leadership, especially those of our community who are most systematically marginalized. We honor the legacies of all who have contributed to the present manifestation of VAVP, and we look forward with excitement about what (and who) is to come, our future program shifts, and strategic planning to sustain and support our diverse LGBTQ+ communities in healthy, healing, and loving ways. It is our truth that with change, we can shape the future we want.

With the understanding that change and transition can bring up a variety of emotions, VAVP encourages individuals with any questions or thoughts related to this transition to directly connect with us as a resource for community support. VAVP can be reached at info@virginiaavp.org or 804-925-9242.

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Integrity: the active process of working to have my actions match up with the things that are important to me [my values].
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Exploring the concept of integrity is a part of the foundation of the Queer Healthy Love [QHL] classes that VAVP facilitates regularly. While I had heard the word integrity before I participated in the QHL classes, the process of taking the time in community to deeply understand and identify my personal values and reflect on whether and when my actions match up with my values became a particularly sacred practice for me. The classes also allowed me the space and gave me the language to meaningfully explore my own internal sense of integrity on an ongoing basis.

One of the many exquisitely beautiful and hard things about working at VAVP is that because one of our guiding organizational values is community, and I am a member of the broad LGBTQ+ community, our organizational work often connects with my own individual, and very personal, work. It is at the intersection of my never-done work of trying to show up as a person with integrity, and VAVP’s ongoing work that is rooted deeply in the values of intersectionality and racial justice, that an exciting and messy and joyous organizational evolution is occurring.

As a white cis woman that has worked in the hyper-gendered mainstream anti-violence movement for much of my adult life, I have had enormous opportunities, access, and privilege over the course of my career. For the past three-plus years, I have had the honor of engaging in profound work, both personally and organizationally, as the Director of the Virginia Anti-Violence Project. As the organization has grown and more intentionally leaned into the dynamic work of liberation (and in the process of doing that work, done it’s due diligence to authentically center individuals and groups that are disproportionately impacted by violence within and against LGBTQ+ communities), it has become increasingly challenging to hold the position of power that I have at VAVP and continue to feel a solid sense of my own personal integrity.

The insidious and powerful thing about oppression and privilege is that it operates on all levels. We ingest it, it’s relational, and we perpetuate and build systems in our communities and cultures to maintain the status quo. It’s a machine that if left unchecked, will do exactly what it was built to do, maintain and support white cis supremacy. It seems to me, then, that the work of liberation is about dismantling these systems [and building new ones that support equity and beloved community], doing relationships inherently differently, and individually and very personally embodying liberatory transformation.

It is at the intersection of simultaneously exploring both my own internal sense of integrity and VAVP’s deeply rooted values of building power in intersectional LGBTQ+ identities and communities and dismantling white cis supremacy, that the VAVP staff, Board, and I have started to have conversations about the organization engaging in an intentional process of evolution over the course of 2018. This process will include my leaving as a mechanism to create room for a new team member to join VAVP. This transition will allow space for new leadership, vision, skills, and experiences to help support the organization in moving boldly and brilliantly into the future.
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Integrity: the active process of working to have my actions match up with the things that are important to me [my values].

While I feel an absolute sense of certainty that this is the right path forward for the organization and for me, to be transparent, I am holding a complicated mashup of feelings as we make our way through this unique and creative transition process. I feel an overwhelming and deep sense of gratitude to have had the opportunity to listen, learn, and grow in community with so many beloved comrades within the context of the work of VAVP. I feel so proud of the work that I have been a part of over the years (not just the last three as paid staff, but the twelve before that as a volunteer). I feel some nervousness about what my future will bring. But mostly, I feel so excited about the future and the possibilities that lie ahead for the The Virginia Anti-Violence Project and I can’t wait to see how VAVP’s work continues to unfold in community. I know that amazing work will go on and I know that I will do everything in my power to support the leadership and work that will continue to evolve across the state.

We don’t have many specific answers at this moment about exactly what this transition process will look like over the next several months or what the end result will be. We do know, however, that it will be rooted in VAVP’s organizational values and reflect a vision of the organization’s future that centers liberatory healing work and practice. And we know it’s going to be amazing and beautiful and messy.

Rest assured that as we engage in this process, the direct services, community building, and training/education work that VAVP engages in will continue rolling, so keep talking to us. We’re right here.

En Solidaridad,

Stacie

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The Virginia Anti-Violence Project has been made aware of a reported anti-LGBTQ+ vandalism incident that occurred in Richmond, Virginia on October 31st, 2017. According to the Richmond Times Dispatch, someone with white spray paint tagged the side of a vehicle with an anti-gay message between 9:30 and 10 p.m. in the city’s North Highland Park neighborhood. VAVP is deeply saddened to hear of this incident of hate/bias-motivated violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer communities.

While there is still an active investigation happening into this case as an incident of hate/bias-motivated violence, VAVP knows that perceived and actual gender identity and sexual orientation often play a role in escalating harassment and violence against LGBTQ+-identified individuals. The Virginia Anti-Violence Project stands in solidarity with the victim and diverse members of LGBTQ+ communities that have been impacted by this incident and other acts of hate/bias motivated violence and harassment.

As was noted in the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Project’s (NCAVP) most recent hate violence reportreleased in June of 2017, ‘Hate violence is not only physical, nor does it only exist within the moment of an act of violence. Housing discrimination, lack of economic opportunity, and bias and discrimination in LGBTQ people’s everyday lives are all forms of hate violence. This systemic violence adds up, contributing to a cycle of disempowerment that makes LGBTQ people more vulnerable to all forms of violence.’

VAVP will be holding space in community throughout November in various places. We are inviting LGBTQ+ identified folks to join us in community. These spaces are specifically staffed by LGBTQ+ identified individuals, and we will be intentionally focused on providing support related to being impacted by hate/bias-motivated harassment or violence. The upcoming November dates/spaces include:

Wednesday, November 1st, 4 p.m. – 7 p.m., VAVP Pop-Up Advocacy Hours @ Health Brigade

Wednesday, November 8th, 7 p.m. – 10 p.m., VAVP Pop-Up Advocacy Hours @ Minority Health Consortium

Thursday, November 16th, 12 p.m. – 3 p.m., VAVP Pop-Up Advocacy Hours @ Diversity Richmond

Monday, November 20th, 6 p.m. – 9 p.m., VAVP Pop-Up Advocacy Hours, Nationz Foundation

The Virginia Anti-Violence Project works to address and prevent violence within and against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities across Virginia. VAVP offers support services for survivors of hate/bias motivated harassment and violence, as well as intimate partner abuse, sexual assault, and stalking. VAVP also has resources to support training and consultation with agencies, community groups, congregations, and other interested organizations to increase overall community capacity to support LGBTQ+ identified individuals that have been impacted by violence. For more information on the Virginia Anti-Violence Project, visit www.virginiaavp.org, email director@virginiaavp.org, or call (804) 925-9242.

If you are LGBTQ+-identified and you have been impacted by violence, you can contact the 24/7 Virginia LGBTQ Partner Abuse and Sexual Assault Helpline via text at (804) 793-9999 or by phone at 1-866-356-6998.