Karen's Story

She continues to turn her tragedy into triumph as she gives a voice to domestic violence issues. She served on the LA Domestic Violence Council and as the Community Education Coordinator for the Sojourn DV shelter. This allowed her to be a guest lecturer and be interviewed on local and national TV as well as radio. She has spoken for Women’s Studies and Psychology classes at USC, UCLA, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Dominguez Hills, and Cal State Long Beach

Her DV journey was part of the California Coalition on Domestic Violence lobby efforts for passage of the First Domestic Violence Bill written by Sen. Robert Presley, which became law in 1984.

She also helped develop the Attorney General's Task Force curriculum and then used it to train L.A.P.D. and various other Los Angeles County law enforcement officers on how to respond to Domestic Violence calls.

Ms. Karen recruited, trained and supervised volunteers in each of the city Attorney’s offices in order to develop a domestic violence advocate program for LA city attorney's office.

She has been recognized for her work by the Governor of California, the Southern California Commission on Battered Women, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women.

We are thrilled to have Ms. Karen on our team. She has the following accolades:

• Survivor of Domestic Violence

• Community Educator for Sojourn Women’s Shelter

o   Local and National Television and Radio interviews

o   Guest Lecturer in Women’s Studies and Psychology Classes at USC, UCLA, Cal State Northridge, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State Long Beach

• Lobbyist with the California Coalition on Domestic Violence on First Domestic Violence Bill by Sen. Robert Presley, which became Law in 1984

• California Attorney General's Task Force to write a curriculum to train law enforcement officers on how to respond to Domestic Violence calls.

• Trained L.A.P.D. and various other Los Angeles County law enforcement using the curriculum developed by the Task Force.

• Served on the LA Domestic Violence Council.

• Developed a domestic violence advocate program for LA city attorney's office on DOJ grant which was composed of recruiting volunteers, training and supervising volunteers in each of the city Attorney’s offices.

Awards:

• County of Los Angeles award of merit

• Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Award Certificate

• Governor of California Victim Service award

• Southern California Commission on Battered Women's service award

• Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women award

Ms. Karen's journey dovetails nicely with the Mission of the IEEF, which is to educate, motivate, and empower individuals, families, groups, and organizations so they will identify, respect, utilize, and share their inner resources to empower themselves, their community and environment.

She has volunteered to be the treasurer of our organization, as well as to revive and expand the Women’s Peace Campaign, a program of the IEEF, that

focuses on Domestic Violence Awareness and Support. The previous version of the program included ways to reclaim the women pushed to the side by society due to abusive circumstances. We supported transitional shelter staff to make the most impact with this population.

Our vintage website can help visualize the track record of our program – www.WomensPeace.com. We were supported by the community, corporations and individuals to accomplish the task. Here is an overview of the Adopt-a-Shelter program: https://youtu.be/UsoUuP6x9ug?si=i6RLit0fC82E7kXt 

We started working more intimately with the residents after one of the ladies (we'll call her Sharma) requested an opportunity to have her dream of raising money and awareness to prevent Female Genital Mutilation.  After her 18-month stay at the shelter ended, Sharma moved out of the shelter and into the next phase of the shelter’s program, supervised living.  We supplied some additional resources for her apartment and occasionally checked up on her. Unfortunately, we received a call that she had stopped following the rules of the program, got caught up with a religious cult that admonished women, went back to selling her body, and started taking drugs to deaden the shame of her failures. We were heartbroken that this happened, despite all the resources poured into helping Sharma be successful.

What if we could’ve done something more to assist Sharma's transition?  We’ll never know. However, Ms. Karen Connell, knows how to grow from this, based on her own personal experience. The expansion of the WPC will include aftercare support for the DV survivors who successfully participated in transitional shelter programs.

We hope that you share our passion for The Women’s Peace Campaign and will provide the necessary funding for Karen Connell to run our expanded program and give a voice to the voiceless!

Donations of $100 or more will receive a digital copy of her book, Beyond Surviving.

For donations via Zelle, please email us at WomensPeaceFundraiser@gmail.com