When we opened our doors nearly 20 years ago, the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women had one mission: to stop violence against Native women and children by advocating for social change in our communities.

Since then, CSVANW has acquired 40 members, held tens of dozens of trainings and directly helped hundreds of women and children in our tribal communities through supporting social workers, counselors, tribal judges, court personnel, tribal officials and law enforcement—those who counsel, investigate, prosecute, and make or strengthen the laws on tribal land.

There have been many changes within the organization. With change comes challenge, strength and lessons on how to better serve our tribal communities. We’ve added new staff and recently updated our logo, keeping the corn stalk to symbolize tradition and the non-violence way of life, but added hues of purple to represent the national color of domestic violence survival.

Other transformations include this new website where we’ll continue to keep our members and clients that we serve abreast of coming changes, such as changes in the laws that affect our work and the successes in Indian Country. We’ll post information from the U.S. Department of Justice, the New Mexico Attorney General’s office, news articles and other information monthly to help all of us in our professions.

We also invite our members and clients to submit a guest blog, or share your news, photos, videos, testimonials, stories and the work that you do here. It’s through coordination and collaboration that strengthens us and helps us keep our families safe and thriving because violence is not our tradition.

– Deleana OtherBull, Executive Director