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SAIV • THE SPIRITUAL ALLIANCE TO STOP INTIMATE VIOLENCE
A Public Service Project of the Center for Partnership Studies
Co-founded by Riane Eisler, President of the Center for Partnership Studies
and Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams
 

The Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence (SAIV) brings the scourge of intimate violence – and its link to national/ international violence – to the attention of policy makers, religious leaders, and the public at large. SAIV enables action to build solid foundations for cultures of peace and partnership locally, regionally, and globally.

Intimate violence is a training ground for using force to impose one’s will. Cross-cultural research shows that there is a direct link between violence against women and children and political violence, terrorism, and war. People first learn either respect for human rights or acceptance of abuse and violence in family and in other intimate relations. Yet many customs and public policies condone and even promote intimate violence.

Any realistic hope of building a more peaceful and just world requires attention to and elimination of abuse in the primary human relations between men and women and parents and children. Intimate violence is a major factor in perpetuating cycles of violence – from youth violence and adult crime to tribal and national violence. It lies at the root of a host of ills – from loss of economic productivity to terrible human suffering and untimely deaths. Intimate violence exacts enormous personal, economic, and social costs. Adequate education and sound public policies can make the difference.

Mission:
The purpose of SAIV is to lay solid foundations for peace and justice by promoting enduring change in cultural patterns and public policies that perpetuate intimate violence. SAIV works on both the leadership and the grassroots levels. SAIV is building a global multicultural and interreligious movement to raise awareness of the pandemic of intimate violence and its systemic effects. SAIV provides cutting-edge interpersonal technologies that facilitate community study, reflection, and growth. SAIV brings together key individuals and organizations to create action projects that nurture cultures of non-violence and partnership.

Action:
SAIV promotes action in seven critical ways:

  1. Creating a movement: Enlisting and leveraging the active support of informed and concerned individuals from all walks of life
  2. Bringing key groups together: Networking with partner organizations to support existing programs and develop new ones at local, regional, and global levels
  3. Providing the tools: Developing and distributing materials – including the SAIV CD–Rom – providing statistics, analysis, interpersonal technologies, and links to groups creating positive alternatives to violence in its many forms
  4. Raising a moral voice: Actively involving global spiritual and religious leaders to speak out against intimate violence and the national/international violence it engenders
  5. Creating a forum for inspiration and action: Working with the global SAIV Council to provide a critical platform for engaging spiritual and cultural leaders, policy makers, and influential activists to promote urgently needed changes in attitudes, behaviors, and policies
  6. Nurturing projects to end intimate violence: Working with SAIV’s partners, committed individuals, the SAIV Advisory Group and the SAIV Council to identify, create, and support existing or new projects to end intimate violence
  7. Generating the materials, momentum, expertise, moral authority, exemplary projects, and practical models necessary to change customs and public policy: This is the heart and soul of the Spiritual Alliance to Stop Intimate Violence; every aspect of SAIV supports this vital and realizable goal.

The SAIV Council:
Internationally known leaders from religion, spirituality, politics, education, business, science, civil society, and culture are lending their voices to the work. Already on the SAIV Council are prominent leaders such as Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan; Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams; Canon Lauren Artress of Grace Cathedral; theologian Walter Wink of Auburn Theological Seminary; Jim Kenney, Executive Director of the Interreligious Engagement Project; Riane Eisler, President of the Center for Partnership Studies; Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi of Naropa University; Millicent Obaso of Kenya; and Dr. Durre Ahmed of Pakistan. Additional members have been invited and the list will soon be expanded. The development (2003) and convening of the SAIV Council (2004) are essential steps in the campaign to stop intimate violence.

Advisory Group:
SAIV has created an Advisory Group of prominent social, civic, and business leaders to offer guidance in financial planning, outreach, and communicating the SAIV vision.

Networking:
SAIV has brought together an influential network of initial partner organizations: the Center for Partnership Studies, the Interreligious Engagement Project (IEP21), and the Gandhi-King Season for Nonviolence initiative. Each is engaged in interreligious and/or intercultural efforts. Also working with SAIV is the World Council of Muslims for Interreligious Relations (WCMIR), which is bringing the SAIV project to the global Muslim community.

Community-Based Initiatives:
SAIV cooperates with existing organizations and programs to generate local and regional community-based study and action projects that emphasize the link between intimate, intranational, and international violence. The 2004 Season for Nonviolence has made the problem of intimate violence a central theme of its year’s work. Materials provided by SAIV have been distributed to 600 groups now in the process of designing their non-violence campaigns for the coming year. (Since 1998, Season has developed non-violence projects in 115 cities, 40 states, and 10 countries.)

International Outreach:
In the first stage of its partnership with the Interreligious Engagement Project (IEP21), SAIV is reaching out to religious communities in India, Malaysia, and Mexico to distribute materials to community groups and social justice activists and to encourage the development of exemplary local projects.

The first stage of SAIV:

  1. Developing and disseminating materials (through website, CD-Rom, and organizational partners)
  2. Inspiring and energizing the SAIV Movement
  3. Working with partner organizations to generate awareness campaigns on the grassroots level
  4. Expanding and convening the Advisory Group of community and business leaders
  5. Expanding and convening the global SAIV Council of global spiritual, civic, political, and cultural leaders.

The second stage:

  1. National media campaign
  2. Local, regional, and international conferences
  3. Development (in concert with Council members and cooperating organizations) of key local, regional, and global policy change guidelines
  4. SAIV award for outstanding contribution to ending intimate violence.

Project Coordinator:
We are delighted to be working in collaboration with Barbara Fields Bernstein as coordinator of the SAIV Project. Her long experience in interreligious and intercultural activism (which includes co-founding the Association for Global New Thought's acclaimed Gandhi-King Season for Nonviolence Initiative) positions her perfectly to shape the effort for 2003 and 2004.

How you can help:

For further information on SAIV, please contact Riane Eisler at center@partnershipway.org, Barbara Fields Bernstein at barbara@agnt.org, or Jim Kenney at jim@seachanges.net

More information on SAIV

 

Partnership in Action

 


The Center for Partnership Studies

P.O. Box 51936
Pacific Grove, CA 93950
USA
Phone 831-626-1004
Fax 831-626-3734
center@partnershipway.org