Annual Walking In Silence for the Silenced: DV Solidarity Walk

November 2013 was the first year that Women of Concern Professionals & Strategic Conscious Networking's (WOCPSCN) facilitated it's domestic violence Solidarity Walk. My co-workers graciously gathered with me in a Sacramento CA park as we honored loved ones and our community. I recall that morning was cold and dark, as I held my daughter's picture and cried.

Facing the Facts of Domestic Violence

It was a hard task to finally address the heartbreak of the loss of my beloved DaNeen Sarah-Latish Green. She was just 23 years-old when her boyfriend took her life, April 30, 2001. Her violent death pledged me, as I wondered if I could have done something to have stopped the loss of my child. If only I was stronger; if only I knew the signs; if only I were more loving; if only if I knew what to do. As the years went by, I realized I was utilizing my time to waste time because I was not ready to face my lost time. However, through much prayer, soul-searching and tears, I designed WOCPSCN's Walking In Silence for the Silenced: Domestic Violence Solidarity Walk.

Trying To Find Solice

The death of my daughter was a harsh discovery. I didn't know much about domestic violence. However, through the years, I became an advocate for a cause that I was bound to for the rest of my life. I knew that the Walk needed to bring community awareness of this issue and how it's socioeconomic losses takes the breath away from those who are left behind. My family and I conducted a memorial service in California, and then funeralized her in New Jersey, where most of my family resided.

My family faced the devastating loss in multiple ways-from lost work time to family isolation. While I too went through such devastation, I searched out for physical evidence to understand why. I constantly communicated with the DA's office wondering how justice would be served for my daughter's death. Yet, within all of this, we all had to continue our lives. The tragedy that loved ones must face as they are left behind is the socioeconomic component of our communities that the Walking in Silence Walk addresses.

The Walk is in silence in honor of my daughter. I will never hear her voice ever again; and that one of the first things one loses in such a crisis is their voice/themselves. Each year the Walk grows as it affects participants from different perspectives. During it's first year, a man from Australia created a Walk because it is conduced in silence. He was raped, 16 years prior, but couldn't find a place to inform or express his feelings. The Walk gave him a platform to speak-out and he created a men's dv support group. That same year, Ronni Savage (founding member and Board President) created UCLA's first Walk. Out of it evolved the Solidarity 5000, on the UCLA campus that purpose was to eradicate campus violence. Two years ago, a Walk evolved in Atlanta. The coordinator for that group was awakened with the knowledge that her daughter felt her family was in crisis because of how her parents interacted. Yes, our Walk is an Awareness Walk. Senovia Byndon is in her 5th year, Annual Domestic Violence Solidarity Walk where she addresses youth violence.

Walk With Us

So, please accept this invitation to Walk for someone you know that may not have survived; for someone that has gone through and is still among the living; for communities that have experienced community violence, which I identify as domesticity violence. Walk because your heart also hurts; because you have had enough; because you know that love supersedes hate. Walk because you want to stand up for those who cannot Walk for themselves.

Join me Saturday, November 2, 2019, 8:00 am, at Morningside Park, 116th and Morningside Ave., Harlem, NY. Also consider becoming a Walk Coordinator for your community for 2020. We Don't Walk for the Cause, We Walk BECAUSE.