November 2019
Women Against Gun Violence (WAGV) is one of the oldest grassroots gun violence prevention nonprofits in the country. We’ve been around for over 25 years and we know what it takes to get things done — networking, coalition building, and perseverance. Our Board of Directors and constituents represent many different communities and many points of view but we all agree that to make our communities safe we must do more than react to gun violence, we must prevent it.
Please donate to make our work possible. We promise to be good stewards of your gift and are proud that almost 90% of all money we receive goes to support our programs.
This is just some of what we accomplished this year.
WE’RE INNOVATIVE
WAGV coordinated and hosted its first Gun Violence Survivors’ Resource Summit and Advocacy Training.
To answer questions, provide services to gun violence survivors, and to teach advocacy skills, we brought together:
- over 150 gun violence survivors, family, and friends;
- 27 service providers representing housing, healthcare, mental healthcare, legal services, grief support, financial assistance, and other critical services; and
- speakers representing policymakers, gun violence survivors, and activist organizations.
Previous WAGV Summits include:
- Firearms and Suicide
- Firearms and Domestic Violence
Each year in the U.S., almost 75,000 people survive gunshot injuries and go on to face significant health challenges.
Audience members ask panelists questions
Hollye Dexter, Summit Chair with Ruett Foster, Keynote Speaker
Lorraine Morland at the WAGV’s resource table
WE’RE PERSISTENT
After years of WAGV advocacy and perseverance, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) passed a resolution requiring all student households to receive specific information about state and local regulations pertaining to the safe storage of firearms. Distribution has begun but we haven’t stopped there. WAGV is working with other school districts, private schools, and unaffiliated charter schools throughout Los Angeles County to distribute safe gun storage information. And we have developed a “How To” protocol to help other organizations and individuals approach their school districts throughout the country to get this lifesaving information out to households where it can make a real difference in preventing suicides, unintentional shootings, and school shootings!
In 1993, when WAGV was founded, one of our front burner programs was Keeping Them Safe, a program that reached out to parents and caregivers to teach safe gun storage and other strategies to keep our children and communities safe from gun violence. In 2013, that program became our TALK Project and our School District Campaign was born.
With the focus on getting school districts to send out safe gun storage information to student households, WAGV works with partners like All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, QueensCare Health Centers, the Venice Family Clinic and LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl to distribute our TALK Project brochures available in English, Spanish, Korean, and Armenian.
Celebrating the City Council of Culver City passing a safe gun storage ordinance
Celebrating with LAUSD School Board
WAGV founder Ann Reiss Lane preparing mailing to charter schools
Over 75% of school shootings start with kids having access to guns at home.
WE’RE FEISTY
So far this year, WAGV has averaged more than 5 outreach activities per month from large events like the Sherman Oaks Street Fair and Fiesta La Ballona to smaller community events like the Van Nuys Health Fair. Letters to the Editor, radio and television interviews, speaking engagements and panel discussions at private and public schools, theater productions, and religious institutions as well as testimony before local governments and meetings with policymakers, are all part of our efforts to share strategies to prevent gun violence.
Talking about gun violence prevention at Ouchi High School
Talking about safe gun storage at the Van Nuys Health Fair
Talking about safe gun storage at Fiesta La Ballona
4.6 million children in the U.S. live in homes with access to unlocked or unsupervised guns.
Every day in the U.S., 8 children and teens are shot with a gun improperly stored and found in the home.
WE’RE AHEAD OF THE CURVE
With WAGV’s urging and support, the City Council of Culver City passed an ordinance requiring the posting of suicide prevention information at gun stores and gun ranges. A similar ordinance passed in Los Angeles was inspired by WAGV’s 2016 Firearm and Suicide Summit.
And now, a new California law requiring gun dealer signage showing the suicide prevention hotline number will take effect in 2020!
Here we are mailing our suicide prevention posters
Approximately 2/3 of all gun deaths are suicides.
Studies have shown that a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide.
This year, WAGV updated its use of technology to bring our services and programs to previously underserved communities. We unveiled our Legacy Pavilion, funded by The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, where survivor stories — memorialized on video — are shared with the community.
Our use of QR codes on pins, t-shirts, and postcards allows for easy voter registration, and fast and accurate signups for our weekly Action Alerts.
Also this year, WAGV’s websites — www.wagv.org and www.thetalkproject.org — became available in four different languages. Our website users can now get critical information about gun violence and gun violence prevention from our websites in English, Spanish, Armenian, and Korean.
WAGV introduced its PodCast, Piece Out, hosted by high school student Saba Johnson. Available on podbean.com as well as through the Apple iTunes Store, Saba talks with other young people about guns and gun violence and what they want their parents to know about how they are feeling. SUBSCRIBE TODAY!
