Tax Season is upon us! WIT and PathWays PA are offering our annual Free Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) for taxpayers with annual gross household incomes of less than $54,000.

WIT rang in the New Year with our most successful Adopt-A-Family season yet, with 51 donors stepping forward to brighten the holidays for 54 WIT families!

What a year! We watched as the world finally took notice of what so many of us already knew: interpersonal and sexual violence are epidemics, and Survivors should be believed.

What we are witnessing is a significant step on the path to real, meaningful change.

"Every year, it was emotional for us. We're still blown away by the fact that she was murdered. Every year, it was hard... but we needed to keep her memory alive."

Are you or someone you know interested in working or volunteering at an organization that's passionate about ending gender-based violence and supporting Survivors? Join the WIT team! 

We are proud to welcome you to WIT's new home on August 30th at the Cast Iron Building, 718 Arch Street, Suite 401N. 

Our new space will have a larger client welcome area; a multi-purpose community room for peer support groups, WAVE workshops, and advocacy meetings...

Rosa* is an undocumented immigrant woman who is in an abusive marriage; her husband is a U.S. citizen who refuses to sponsor her for citizenship. 

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) provides pathways for immigrant victims of domestic violence - like Rosa - to stabilize their immigration statuses independent of their abusers, such as the VAWA self-petition and the U visa. 

WIT’s Community Education Coordinator Zoe Nesin recently trained 50 Department of Human Services (DHS) workers on the dynamics of domestic violence, substance abuse among women, and the linkages between them. DHS workers often encounter domestic violence and substance in their line of work, and it is important that they understand how each functions (both domestic violence and substance abuse are influenced by childhood trauma and intergenerational cycles of violence), how they reinforce each other, and how to use harm reduction and provide trauma-informed, empowering support to clients.

Last spring, I received a call from a teacher at a local elementary school - her fifth grade class wanted to learn about domestic violence. Would I be willing to come in and talk to them in my role as WIT's Prevention Director? I enthusiastically agreed, but as I hung up the phone, I wondered, How do you talk to 10-year-old children about violence and abuse?