Women’s Center’s 32nd Annual Luncheon
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Stockton Civic Auditorium
11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
(Doors open at 11:00 a.m.)

Sponsorship opportunities are available ranging from $500 to $5,000
(reserve tables available for $350)
Click here to download the sponsorship packet

Individual lunches - $40 each
Click here to download the luncheon invitation

See you at the Civic! This year the Women's Center's Annual Luncheon returns to its original home at the Stockton Civic Auditorium in downtown Stockton.

This year's keynote speaker, Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, is an expert on trauma and self-care who has worked directly with trauma survivors for over two decades, including survivors of domestic violence. Laura initially engaged in her work with great passion and commitment, and with a sense that it was a privilege to serve others. But over time, the work changed her, until she realized her work had compromised her ability to be present in her life, enjoy her relationships, and even be an effective social worker and educator.

In 2000, she quit her job as an emergency room social worker and began an urgent quest for wisdom that would allow her to preserve her trust in life and its beauty even when doing work that guaranteed exposure to endless waves of pain. Her explorations took her from Buddhist monks and nuns to qigong healers to Native American medicine men and women to the latest scientific research on the effects of prolonged exposure to others’ trauma. Embracing both the joy and the sorrow of our life experiences is at the root of her concept of trauma stewardship.

Laura offered her first workshop on trauma stewardship in 1999. Since then, she has trained a wide variety of people, including zookeepers and reconstruction workers in post-Katrina New Orleans, community organizers and health care providers in Japan, U.S. Air Force pilots, Canadian firefighters, public school teachers, and private practice doctors. In 2009 she co-authored Trauma Stewardship:An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others, and founded the Trauma Stewardship Institute, raising awareness and responding to the cumulative toll on those who are exposed to the suffering, hardship, crisis, or trauma of humans, living beings, or the planet itself.

For more information, please visit the Trauma Stewardship Institute's website.

Women's Center Executive Director Joelle Gomez was recently interviewed by Zenet Negron, with Socially Now. In this interview Joelle and Zenet discuss the services of the Women's Center, needs for the holidays, and how the community can help.

Dim lights

5th Annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes®
The International Men's March to Stop Rape, Sexual Assault and Gender Violence

Saturday, April 21, 2012
Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.
Walk starts at 10:30 a.m.
On Pacific Avenue in Stockton's Miracle Mile
(Walk starts and ends at Tuxedo Court)

WALK A MILE ON THE MILE!

Calling all courageous men to walk a mile in women’s high-heeled shoes! On Saturday, April 21, men will literally walk a mile in women’s shoes to protest rape, sexual assault and gender violence. Last year, more than 100 men participated in the walk. Walk a Mile in Her Shoes® challenges men to walk one mile in a pair of women’s shoes to raise awareness and funds to support the Women’s Center’s services for sexual assault victims. The purpose of the march is to raise awareness and to involve men in ending rape, sexual assault and gender violence.

Sponsorship opportunities are available. For more information, contact the Women's Center's Development Department at (209) 941-2611 or download the Sponsorship Packet below.

To learn more about the history of this movement please visit the International Website.

PLEASE BRING ALL COMPLETED FORMS AND ANY DONATIONS YOU HAVE COLLECTED WITH YOU ON THE DAY OF THE WALK. THANK YOU!

Download Sponsorship Packet
Download the Registration Packet

Photos from last year's walk