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End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin End Domestic Abuse WI: the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence

End Domestic Abuse WI: the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence is a private, nonprofit organization composed of domestic violence programs, survivors of domestic abuse, allied partners, & supporting individuals who share a common vision of eliminating violence against women, oppression, and the circumstances that contribute to any person across the lifespan living in fear within their families, intimate relationships, or in caregiving relationships.

Meet some of the 2026 WE LEAD cohort.Last month, our newest group of WE LEAD participants came together in the Wisconsin...
10/14/2026

Meet some of the 2026 WE LEAD cohort.

Last month, our newest group of WE LEAD participants came together in the Wisconsin Dells for two days of learning, connection, reflection, and community.

WE LEAD is an anti-violence leadership program created to foster leadership among End Domestic Abuse partner programs and people from Wisconsin’s underserved and underrepresented communities. It creates space for people whose lived experiences and perspectives are essential to shaping the future of Wisconsin’s anti-violence movement.

And leadership development isn’t just about what happens during a training session.

It happens in the conversations over lunch.
In the questions people feel safe enough to ask.
In hearing from leaders who bring their own lived experience, community knowledge, and years of work into the room.
And yes, sometimes it happens while hanging out on a bus. 😊

This cohort had the opportunity to learn from guest speakers Stephanie Ortiz of Weaving Ways and Nancy Yarbrough, Founder and Executive Director of Fresh Start Learning.

Stephanie’s work includes facilitation, strategy, and relationship-building, while Nancy brings extensive experience in survivor advocacy, trauma-informed education, domestic violence, and human trafficking.

Those voices and relationships matter.

WE LEAD is about developing individual leaders, but it’s also about building connections across communities, generations, experiences, and different parts of this movement.

We’re excited to welcome the 2026 WE LEAD cohort and to see what each participant discovers, develops, and ultimately carries back into their communities.

Welcome, WE LEAD 2026. We’re glad you’re here. 💜

WORD OF THE DAY: SURVEILLANCE“Text me when you get there.”In a healthy relationship, that can be care.But what about:“Se...
10/12/2026

WORD OF THE DAY: SURVEILLANCE

“Text me when you get there.”
In a healthy relationship, that can be care.

But what about:
“Send me a picture so I know where you are.”
“Why did you turn your location off?”
“Who just texted you?”
“Give me your password.”
“You were supposed to be home ten minutes ago.”

The difference isn’t simply technology.

It’s control.

Surveillance can include repeatedly monitoring someone’s phone, location, social media, email, vehicle, spending, conversations, or movements.

And because many of us willingly share locations and passwords with people we love, controlling behavior can sometimes be mistaken for closeness.

The question isn’t simply whether information is being shared.
Can you stop sharing it without fear of what will happen next?

Technology has changed the ways we connect with one another. It has also created more ways for someone’s movements and relationships to be monitored.
Recognizing that difference is part of building safer communities across Wisconsin.

Today’s word is surveillance.

“I used to be the woman that said, ‘If he’s abusive, I will leave.’”E believed that.Until she was the one living it.She ...
10/09/2026

“I used to be the woman that said, ‘If he’s abusive, I will leave.’”
E believed that.
Until she was the one living it.

She had a college education. A good job. A family. She had never imagined herself as someone who would stay in an abusive relationship.

And yet, when abuse became part of her own life, leaving wasn’t simple.

That matters because sometimes the way we talk about domestic violence creates an imaginary line between US and THEM.

- I would never let someone treat me like that.
- I would leave the first time.
- That could never happen to me.

But domestic violence doesn’t only happen to a certain “type” of person.

Education doesn’t make someone immune. Neither does income, a career, family support, intelligence, independence, or knowing what domestic violence is.

And leaving doesn’t magically erase what happened.

E eventually left her marriage. Then came more than a year of trauma therapy. Trying to feel like herself again. Living with the feeling that pieces of who she had been were missing.

That is something we need to make more room for when we talk about survivorship.
Leaving and healing are not the same thing.
Leaving may end a relationship. Healing can mean rebuilding safety, trust, identity, confidence, relationships, finances, routines, and a sense of self. It can take time. And there is no single timeline for what healing is supposed to look like.

E has been a survivor for three years.
She doesn't describe those years as easy.
But she does say this:

“My life means something even though my ex-husband thought it meant nothing.”

And to other survivors, she offers the words she has earned the right to say from her own experience:

“Life on the other side may seem so far away, but it gets better. It gets so much better and life is so beautiful.”

Maybe one of the things the rest of us can do is stop asking survivors why they didn't leave sooner.

As E asks of us, we can meet survivors with more grace.

Every story is different.

Every experience is different.

And every survivor deserves the space to determine what safety and healing look like for them.

In Their Own Words is helping us tell a fuller story of survivorship across Wisconsin... not just what happened, but what survivors want the rest of us to understand.

Today, we're listening to E. 💜

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In Their Own Words shares the experiences survivors choose to tell, because understanding domestic violence also means listening to the people who have lived it.

If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse, please visit our website to find help near you:

https://www.endabusewi.org/get-help/

Want to share your own words?
The questionnaire is available when you scan the QR code or copy and paste the link below 💜:

https://bit.ly/4yxzySF

We’re bringing an award home. End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin is honored to receive the 2026 Sharon Haase Advancement of Wo...
10/07/2026

We’re bringing an award home.

End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin is honored to receive the 2026 Sharon Haase Advancement of Women’s Health Award from the American College of Physicians - Wisconsin Chapter.

For nearly five decades, our coalition has worked alongside survivors, advocates, member programs, and communities across Wisconsin with a shared belief: everyone deserves to live free from domestic violence.

This recognition also speaks to something we cannot separate from that work - domestic violence is a health issue.

Its impact can follow survivors into emergency rooms and doctors’ offices. It can affect physical health, mental health, reproductive health, pregnancy, chronic illness, and a person’s ability to access care safely. And sometimes, a healthcare provider may be one of the few people outside the home a survivor has an opportunity to speak with.

That is why the connection between coalition work and healthcare matters.
The Sharon Haase Advancement of Women’s Health Award recognizes significant contributions to advancing women’s health. To have domestic violence advocacy and coalition work recognized within that work is meaningful to us.

This award belongs to more than an organization.

It reflects decades of survivors who have trusted us and our member programs with their experiences. Advocates who show up every day. Community partners who understand that ending domestic violence requires all of us. And the people across Wisconsin who continue pushing our systems to respond differently.
We are proud of how far this movement has come.

And we know there is still work ahead.

Thank you to the Wisconsin Chapter of the American College of Physicians for this recognition and for making space for domestic violence in the conversation about women’s health.

And to every survivor, advocate, member program, staff member, partner, and community that has been part of this work:

This recognition belongs to you, too. 💜

WORD OF THE DAY: ISOLATIONIt doesn’t always begin with, “You can’t see your family anymore.”Sometimes it sounds more lik...
10/05/2026

WORD OF THE DAY: ISOLATION

It doesn’t always begin with, “You can’t see your family anymore.”

Sometimes it sounds more like:

“Your friends don’t really care about you.”
“Your mom doesn’t respect our relationship.”
“Why do you always need to go out?”
“I thought tonight could just be us.”

So you cancel once.

Then again.

Eventually, invitations stop coming.

That gradual shrinking of someone’s world can be part of isolation.
Isolation can separate a person from friends, family, coworkers, community, transportation, employment, or other sources of support and independence. And when someone has fewer people to call, fewer places to go, and fewer relationships outside the person harming them, asking for help can become much harder.

This is also why staying connected matters.

Someone you care about may pull away for reasons you don’t understand. They may cancel repeatedly. They may stop answering.
Their distance doesn’t always mean they stopped caring about you.

Sometimes the most important thing we can communicate is:
“I’m still here.”

Across Wisconsin, we can become better at recognizing the things that happen long before someone asks for help.

Today’s word is isolation.

Wisconsin is talking about domestic violence prevention and as the state’s domestic violence coalition, we know that con...
10/05/2026

Wisconsin is talking about domestic violence prevention and as the state’s domestic violence coalition, we know that conversation must reach every community.

This Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Wisconsin has launched , a new statewide campaign from Governor Tony Evers, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and the Milwaukee Bucks, focused on healthy relationships, recognizing abuse, reducing stigma, and connecting Wisconsinites with support. The campaign is backed by a $200,000 state investment and will include statewide digital outreach and a Milwaukee Bucks game-night takeover later this month.

The announcement comes at a time when the consequences of domestic violence in Wisconsin remain devastating.

The Governor’s Office cited End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin’s homicide research in announcing the campaign, noting that 99 people lost their lives in domestic violence-related incidents in Wisconsin in 2024, the highest number documented in our annual reporting at that time. The release also cites our finding that 71% of those deaths involved a fi***rm.

Those numbers are not simply statistics used to mark Domestic Violence Awareness Month. They represent people, families, communities, and a responsibility to do more.

For decades, End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin and our network of domestic violence programs across the state have worked to build a Wisconsin where survivors can access safety, dignity, resources, and choices, and where violence is interrupted before it becomes lethal.

That is why prevention matters.

Prevention is teaching young people what respect, consent, boundaries, and healthy relationships look like. It is recognizing that abuse is not limited to physical violence. It can include threats, intimidation, financial control, monitoring, isolation, sexual coercion, emotional abuse, and stalking. The Real Love is Respect campaign similarly emphasizes relationships in which people can make choices, set boundaries, maintain privacy and independence, express their feelings, and disagree without fear, threats, or control.

But statewide prevention cannot stop at awareness.

It also requires strong local domestic violence programs. Safe and accessible housing. Sustainable survivor-service funding. Culturally responsive resources. Meaningful intervention for people causing harm. Systems that recognize lethality and respond before violence escalates. Policies that increase safety rather than create additional barriers. And communities willing to recognize domestic violence as something that affects all of us.

We welcome this opportunity to put healthy relationships and domestic violence prevention in front of Wisconsinites across the state. We also know that a campaign is most powerful when the awareness it creates is met with the resources, infrastructure, policy, and sustained investment necessary to turn awareness into safety.

Because real love IS respect.

And every person in Wisconsin deserves to live free from abuse.

Learn more about the Real Love is Respect campaign: https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/injury-prevention/real-love.htm

Read the full announcement from Governor Evers office: https://bit.ly/4hvnPOn

For free, confidential support, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 1-800-799-7233 or by texting START to 88788.

Wisconsin, if you or someone you know is experiencing abuse, please visit our website to find help near you: https://www.endabusewi.org/get-help/

“I left before I lost my life.”Before B left, there were years of staying.Not because family didn’t matter to her.But be...
10/02/2026

“I left before I lost my life.”

Before B left, there were years of staying.

Not because family didn’t matter to her.

But because it did.

B shared that she stayed with her partner because they had a child together. She didn’t want to break up her family. She didn’t want her child growing up between two homes.

And that right there is a piece of domestic violence we don’t talk about enough.

From the outside, people may ask, “Why did they stay?”

But that question can miss everything a survivor may be carrying while trying to make an impossible situation work.

Children. Housing. Finances. Love. Fear. Hope. Safety. The possibility of shared custody. The belief that things might change. The weight of making a decision that affects more than your own life.

For B, leaving eventually became the decision she needed to make. And when we asked what she was most proud of, she told us:

“Being able to leave before I lost my life or someone else.”

Her words remind us that leaving is rarely as simple as packing a bag and walking through a door.

And we should be careful not to measure a survivor’s strength by how quickly they leave.

Instead of asking, “Why are they still there?” we can instead ask:

What is making safety difficult to reach?
What does this survivor need?
How can we make more options possible?

Across Wisconsin, survivors are making complicated decisions about their safety and their families every day.

They deserve support before they leave.
They deserve support if they aren’t ready or able to leave.
And they deserve support after they leave.

In Their Own Words makes room for survivors to tell us what they want us to understand.

Today, we’re listening to B.

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In Their Own Words shares the experiences survivors choose to tell, because understanding domestic violence also means listening to the people who have lived it.

If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse, please visit our website to find help near you:

https://www.endabusewi.org/get-help/

Want to share your own words?

The questionnaire is available when you scan the QR code or copy and paste the link below 💜:

https://bit.ly/4yxzySF

101 people died in domestic violence-related incidents in Wisconsin in 2025.101 people whose lives mattered.101 deaths t...
10/01/2026

101 people died in domestic violence-related incidents in Wisconsin in 2025.

101 people whose lives mattered.

101 deaths that affected families, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and communities across our state.

As we begin Domestic Violence Awareness Month, End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin is sharing this one-page look at findings from our 2026 Wisconsin Domestic Violence Homicide Report, documenting deaths that occurred in 2025.

The numbers tell us where we need to pay attention.

72% of domestic violence deaths involved a fi***rm. When a gun was used in a domestic violence assault, the assault was 12 times more likely to result in death.

17 harm-doers died by su***de, reinforcing why homicidality and suicidality cannot be treated as entirely separate concerns in domestic violence prevention.

Three people were killed while attempting to help a victim.

And older survivors remain too often left out of the conversation.
19 victims were age 50 or older in 2025.
And across the last five years? 84 people age 50+ were killed; 26% of all victims during that period.

But this report is about more than counting deaths.

It asks us to look at the patterns surrounding them: threats to kill, weapon threats, stalking, strangulation, obsessive jealousy, sexual assault, fi***rm access, and other indicators of escalating danger.

And it asks Wisconsin to consider a different question...

Survivors are often asked:
“Why didn’t they leave sooner?”

We need to ask just as urgently:
Did our systems make leaving possible?
Were services available and accessible?
Were fi***rm prohibitions enforced?
Were signs of escalating lethality recognized?
Were survivors given meaningful options for safety?

Throughout Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we’ll continue talking about what survivors, advocates, data, and communities across Wisconsin can teach us about this work.

Awareness matters.
But awareness has to move us toward something.

The data calls for action.

Some leadership happens at the microphone. Some happens in meetings no one sees, in difficult decisions, in moments when...
09/30/2026

Some leadership happens at the microphone. Some happens in meetings no one sees, in difficult decisions, in moments when values are tested, and in choosing again and again who we refuse to leave behind.

Today, we are incredibly proud to celebrate our Executive Director, Monique Minkens, recipient of the 2026 Liesl Blockstein Community Leadership Award from Community Shares of Wisconsin.

This recognition feels especially meaningful because Monique's leadership has never been about simply maintaining an organization. It has been about asking what a statewide coalition must be willing to do when survivors, advocates, and communities need us to stand firmly in our values.

As the first Black Executive Director of End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, Monique has centered anti-oppression and structural change in our work to end domestic violence. During a year of significant changes to federal funding requirements, she helped guide our coalition through uncertainty while remaining clear about something fundamental: immigrant and LGBTQ+ survivors deserve access to safety, advocacy, and support.

Community Shares specifically recognized her leadership in End Abuse Wisconsin's participation in national litigation that has helped our coalition and others continue serving these communities.

That is what community change-making can look like.

It is leadership that understands that our values matter most when holding onto them is difficult. It is recognizing that statewide work carries responsibility beyond our own walls. And it is knowing that the movement to end domestic violence must make room for every survivor.

Monique, from all of us at End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin: congratulations.

We are proud to have your leadership at our coalition, and grateful to see your work recognized by the community you work every day to strengthen.

Please join us in celebrating Monique in the comments. 💜

Our communities depend on federal grants to support survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Some Office on Vi...
05/14/2026

Our communities depend on federal grants to support survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Some Office on Violence Against Women ( ) grants were supposed to begin on October 1, 2025. More than seven months into the grant year, award notices haven’t been released, leaving programs in limbo and forced to lay off staff and reduce or eliminate grant-funded services for survivors. Tell your representatives that they must demand that the DOJ expedite the release of congressionally appropriated funds. Survivors can’t wait.

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