[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 27 (Monday, February 22, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S1741]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO WOMEN'S RESOURCE CENTER

 Mr. SANTORUM. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the 
Women's Resource Center of Lackawanna and Susquehanna Counties in 
Pennsylvania for providing more than 20 years of shelter and counseling 
to adults and children who have been victims of violence at the hands 
of family members, partners or someone else they know.
  The Center will display a memorial exhibit, ``An Empty Place at the 
Table,'' in the Rotunda of the Senate Russell Building on February 24 
and 25 to ensure that the brutal deaths of women and children are not 
forgotten.
  In the United States a woman is beaten by her partner or former 
partner every 12 seconds, and, according to the FBI, 26 percent of all 
female murder victims are killed by their husbands or boyfriends.
  The Women's Resource Center, established in 1977, has demonstrated a 
commitment to their community by providing more than 18,000 hours of 
crisis services. These services include a 24 hour hotline, an emergency 
shelter, crisis counseling and advocacy to more than 2,000 adults and 
children each year, as well as numerous hours of educational 
programming with the legal system, schools, businesses, professionals 
and faith communities on the dynamics of abuse and assault. The Center 
provides their services under the strictest confidentiality and free of 
charge and discrimination.
  Mr. President, the Center's memorial exhibit reveals how violence 
undeniably leaves an empty place at the table. I ask my colleagues to 
join with me in commending the Women's Resource Center for its 
leadership and commitment to restoring the fundamental right to live 
free from fear in our own homes.

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