Down the Rabbit Hole TCFV

In December 2023, after three decades in office and as the longest-serving member of the Texas Senate, Senator Judith Zaffirini became the first-ever woman elected as Dean of the Senate! However, this was not her first time breaking new ground, as she was also the first-ever Mexican-American woman to become a senator in Texas.

Incredibly, Senator Zaffirini is also an award-winning communications specialist and Vice-Chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources & Economic Development (and more!), and she joins us today to unpack the great work she’s done in her decades-long service to the people of Texas. Senator Zaffirini explains what motivated her to run for office, why she remains persistent to persevere in this work, why she reveres her close relationship with survivors and other constituents, and the standout achievements from her esteemed career.

We learn about her methods for ensuring that her bills are passed, how she navigates her daily challenges, what elected officials in Texas need to be doing more of for survivors, how to improve the quality of community engagement (even without a vote), and why young voices are the ones that matter the most. To end, we explore Texas’ prevention angle, how gender roles in public office have evolved, how motherhood made Senator Zaffirini a better senator and leader, how she became an honorary nun, and her parting words of wisdom for listeners.


This podcast explores topics of intimate partner violence, abuse, and other forms of trauma. As you are listening, please do so with care. 

This podcast explores topics of homicide, intimate partner violence, abuse, and other forms of trauma. As you are listening, please do so with care and take a break if you need it.


For this year’s Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention
Month (SAAPM), we are so excited to welcome our friends from the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault (TAASA) onto the show for the very first time! We’re going to talk about our strongest food opinions yet with Megan
Perkins and Madison Jackson, and more importantly, they are going to share all of the amazing things TAASA has planned for April. Megan and Madison join us in
discussion around the relationship between prevention and awareness, why it’s important that both of our organizations exist and can work together, plus offer some helpful resources linked below.


TAASA Resources

Sexual Violence in Texas – Fact Sheet

nsvrc

Denim Day

I Ask for Consent

Turn Texas Teal: Empowerment Playlist!

RAINN

PreventConnect

Disability Justice, Violence Prevention, and Abolitionism Curriculum

My Rights My Life

While we may focus our efforts on young people, there is support and education for survivors across the lifespan. Jamie Wright had degrees behind her name and had reared adult children by the time she found herself in crisis. Today, she is a survivor who speaks, advocating for others experiencing and recovering from domestic abuse. She joins the conversation today to share her story, along with insights from her research in her hometown in Southeast Oklahoma. We discuss prevention and accountability for adults and how Jamie’s story breaks the mold of preconceived ideas about what a survivor looks like. Jamie reveals what is behind her commitment to giving a voice to those who cannot use their voice,
and we delve deeper into the misconceptions about survivors that sometimes prevent them from accessing the support they need. Join us today to hear all this and more.

During this episode, our guest shares the details of her experiences as a survivor. Please listen with care.


https://jamierwright.com/

TW: This podcast explores topics of intimate partner violence, abuse, and other forms of trauma. Please listen with care.



For this year’s Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, we wanted to take a closer look at social media and dating violence relationships, and how the two intersect and overlap. Today we are joined by two members of our TCFV Prevention team– Lalitha and Viv. Together with today’s hosts Samantha and William, our guests describe their first experience of social media, how the platforms and the way we use social media have evolved, how social media breeds entitlement and impacts relationships, and an assessment of the dangers of being online. We also take a closer look at how abuse manifests on social media, how to set yourself up for safer online experiences, the role of caretakers in supporting their dependents who are on social media, and our hosts and guests all weigh-in with some practical and advice for how to navigate social media while in a relationship

This podcast explores topics of intimate partner violence,
abuse, and other forms of trauma. If you are listening, please do so with care and step away if you need to.

Welcome back to Down the Rabbit Hole and Happy New Year! To kick off 2024, we’ll be speaking about economic justice and how it pertains to immigrant survivors. We are joined by our wonderful colleague, Lauren Lluveras, who is the Immigration & Economic Justice Policy Manager here at TCFV. Lauren shares how she defines economic justice as well as what it can mean to truly thrive. We discuss why economic justice is important for the movement against domestic violence, how money influences relationships, the many vulnerabilities that immigrant survivors face, and how community support is a vital resource for immigrant survivors.

Coerced Debt

Accounting for Survivors’ Economic Security Atlas: Mapping the Terrain

Immigration & Survivor Resources

SB4

If you have any questions about this episode, please email
us at prevention@tcfv.org

This podcast explores topics of homicide, intimate partner violence, abuse, and other forms of trauma. As you are listening, please do so with care and take a break if you need it. 

 

Released in October 2023, Honoring Texas Victims (HTV) reveals Texas' intimate partner fatality statistics from 2022 and share the victims' stories. Today, we are joined by two of its compilers and TCFV Support to Service Providers team members, Mikisha Hooper and Sarah Hilderbrand. They are here to share their findings from HTV 2022 and to discuss further actions for violence prevention in Texas. Mikisha and Sarah explain why leaving a relationship is a treacherous period for victims of abuse, how the age ranges of intimate partner abuse perpetrators reveal just how dire the situation is, why we need to stop using age to deflect the real truth, and all the details relating to firearms that can be found in HTV 2022. We also explore the responsibility of law enforcement, the challenges of identifying prohibited gun possessors, the importance of accountability, and some things TCFV is doing to raise awareness of violence prevention in Texas.



You can find links to the 2022 report, fact sheets, and narratives here: https://tcfv.org/publications/.



If you have any questions about this episode or the HTV report, please email us at prevention@tcfv.org.