Media Advisory For December 4 Event

Women Leaders from Sacramento, Fresno, San Francisco Each Receive $25,000 Peace Prize

The California Wellness Foundation to present its violence prevention award at banquet keynoted by Genethia Hudley Hayes

San Francisco – To publicly recognize leaders in community-based violence prevention, The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) will present its sixth annual Peace Prize to three women who have dedicated their lives to creating safe places for women and children suffering from abuse. The Foundation will present its award at a banquet on Friday, December 4. Genethia Hudley Hayes, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will be the keynote speaker. Each of the three women will receive a $25,000 grant.

"By taking risks and taking stands, these local heroes have pioneered three successful models of a public health approach to violence prevention," says Gary Yates, President and CEO of TCWF.

The recipients are:

Barbara Aragon of Sacramento, professor of social work at California State University, Sacramento, and a director at the American Indian Training Institute, has created successful programs to help Native American families heal from the substance abuse and violence that often plague their communities;

Carol Dela Torre of Fresno, founder of Genesis, Inc., a foster care agency that provides shelter and services for more than 300 physically and sexually abused youth of the San Joaquin Valley each year; and

Beckie Masaki of San Francisco, co-founder and executive director of Asian Women’s Shelter, which provides shelter and support to Asian women survivors of domestic violence and children, serving clients in 24 Asian languages and dialects.

The recipients are being honored for their dedication to finding solutions to the violence in their communities and their ability to channel resources to create compassionate alternatives.

"These women have the rare courage to face the connections between violence at home and violence in the streets," says Genethia Hudley Hayes. "How many of us can take an honest look at the roots of violence and find the resources for resilience?"

Aragon is a Native American of Laguna Pueblo and Crow descent who moved to California from a reservation in Montana and earned a Bachelor of Arts and later a master’s degree in social work at California State University, Sacramento. Aragon says of her work with Native people across the state, "To end violence we must begin the process of grief, hope and healing. To do this we must honor the inherent knowledge and strength of native communities."

For the first time in the six year history of the Violence Prevention Initiative’s Peace Prize Awards, all three of the recipients are women. "Each day, these women demonstrate the courage to practice what they preach: to prevent violence we must simultaneously address physical safety, emotional health and economic opportunity," Yates says.

The daughter of Mexican immigrant farm workers, Dela Torre obtained a master’s degree in social work from California State University, Fresno, where she first conceptualized Genesis as part of her thesis research. "Our goal is to provide a safe, supportive environment for kids to make the journey from emotional and sexual violence to healing and self-determination," she says. Genesis began with three staff members (Carol, her sister, and mother) and six adolescent residents in 1986. Genesis now employs 150 and shelters 300 children per year.

Masaki has been called "a powerful activist and a visionary." A third generation Japanese-American woman whose parents were interned during WWII, she has helped shape national policy on family violence prevention. As Masaki says, "Our culture has many valuable traditions. Domestic violence is not one of them. We need to validate the good traditions and eliminate the bad ones." Over ten years ago, she laid the groundwork for raising awareness of the distinct needs of battered Asian women. Her own growth as a community leader has helped propel AWS to a full service agency that provides education, counseling and advocacy and has attained an 80% success rate in helping women and their children transition to safe, permanent housing.

By calling statewide attention to the leadership skills of outstanding individuals, TCWF hopes to persuade other Californians that violence is a preventable public health problem and that individuals can and do make the difference. One of the largest private foundations in the state, TCWF has awarded more than $212 million in grants since 1992 in support of its mission to improve the health of people in California.

WHAT: Awards Ceremony for TCWF Violence Prevention Initiative Peace Prize Recipients
WHEN: Friday, December 4, 1998, Presentation of Awards at 8:15 p.m.
WHERE: Renaissance Park 55 Hotel – Pacific Ballroom, 55 Cyril Magnin Street (near Market at 5^th)

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