[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 193 (Monday, October 6, 1997)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 52007-52008]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-26558]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 193 / Monday, October 6, 1997 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 52007]]


                Proclamation 7030 of October 1, 1997

                
National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, 1997

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                In observing the month of October as National Domestic 
                Violence Awareness Month, the American people reaffirm 
                our commitment to prevent and eliminate violence 
                against women. Domestic violence is not simply a 
                private family matter--it is a matter affecting the 
                entire community.

                Too many of America's homes have become places where 
                women, children, and seniors suffer physical abuse and 
                emotional trauma. Domestic violence is a leading cause 
                of injury to women in our country, and it occurs among 
                all racial, ethnic, religious, and economic groups. It 
                is a particularly devastating form of abuse because it 
                wears a familiar face: the face of a spouse, parent, or 
                partner. This violence too often extends beyond the 
                home and into the workplace.

                My Administration is committed to ending this violence 
                and to protecting women in all aspects of their lives, 
                whether in the home, in the community, or in the 
                workplace. In 1994, I fought for passage of the 
                Violence Against Women Act, which combined tough new 
                penalties for offenders with funding for much-needed 
                shelters, counseling services, public education, and 
                research to help the victims of violence. The Federal 
                penalties and prevention efforts included in this 
                legislation have improved our ability to deter crimes 
                of domestic violence.

                Early in my Administration, as outlined in the landmark 
                Crime Bill, I established the Office of Violence 
                Against Women in the Department of Justice to lead our 
                comprehensive national effort to combine tough Federal 
                laws with assistance to States and localities to fight 
                domestic violence and other crimes against women. In 
                February 1996, the Department of Health and Human 
                Services launched the 24-hour-a-day, toll-free National 
                Domestic Violence Hotline, 1-800-797-SAFE, so that 
                those in trouble can find out how to get emergency 
                help, find shelter, or report abuse. To date, the 
                hotline has received more than 118,000 calls from all 
                50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and 
                the U.S. Virgin Islands. We also initiated an Advisory 
                Council on Violence Against Women to bring together 
                experts in the field, including representatives from 
                law enforcement, business, health and human services, 
                and advocates, to focus national attention on 
                successful, multifaceted solutions to combating 
                violence and sexual assault.

                We cannot simply rest on past efforts. My 
                Administration is continuing its work to prevent 
                domestic violence and to care for survivors in their 
                communities and workplaces. We are committed to 
                strengthening the health care system's ability to 
                screen, treat, prevent, and eliminate family violence 
                by supporting training of health care providers and 
                projects to assist those in the substance abuse field 
                to address domestic violence. We are working to improve 
                collaboration between human services providers, 
                advocates, and the criminal justice community to 
                enhance responses to domestic violence. The Department 
                of Health and Human Services is sponsoring projects and 
                programs to coordinate community responses to domestic 
                violence, to focus on youth and children who witness 
                violence, and to link child protection services with 
                community providers who work with abused women and 
                their children.

[[Page 52008]]

                Finally, as a further enhancement of my 1995 directive 
                to all Federal departments and agencies to conduct 
                employee awareness campaigns on domestic violence, the 
                Office of Personnel Management is producing a guide to 
                help agency representatives develop programs to prevent 
                and respond to all types of workplace violence against 
                Federal employees, including domestic violence. This 
                guide, drafted by experts in the areas of mental 
                health, investigations, law enforcement, threat 
                assessment, and employee relations, will serve as a 
                useful tool in providing step-by-step information to 
                identify, prevent, and respond to violence so that we 
                can protect those in the Federal work force.

                I encourage the private sector to expand its role in 
                preventing and eliminating domestic violence. We must 
                also strengthen coordinated efforts between the public 
                and private sectors to combat domestic violence in the 
                home, the community, and the workplace. These efforts 
                must ensure that no survivor of domestic violence lives 
                in isolation and that the families of victims also have 
                our support. No child should have to live in an abusive 
                home. No woman should live in fear in her home, on the 
                streets, or on the job. Only through a national 
                commitment to this effort can we stop domestic violence 
                and ensure that its survivors are safe.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim October 1997 as National 
                Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I call upon 
                government officials, law enforcement agencies, health 
                professionals, educators, community leaders, and the 
                American people to join together to end the domestic 
                violence that threatens so many of our people.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                first day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen 
                hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of 
                the United States of America the two hundred and 
                twenty-second.

                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 97-26558
Filed 10-3-97; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P