Women's Initiative Network Wichita

Help & Hope for survivors of domestic violence

Community Partners

Wichita WIN board elects officers, names new directors

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The Board of Directors for Wichita Women’s Initiative Network has elected new officers for the current year. They are: Chair – Dee Nighswonger, director of the Sedgwick County Developmental Disability Organization; Vice-Chair –Stephanie Gaskill-Jakub, realtor with J.P. Weigand; Secretary – Kathy Wiebe, owner of Belite Enterprises, LLC; and Treasurer – Kathy Siebert, owner of KMS Consulting.

The board also has elected the following new members to the board: Jill Kerschen, accounts payable specialist for IMA Financial Group in Wichita; Daniel Murphy, web technology specialist at Newman University; John Newsom, retired lead design engineer for The Boeing Company in Wichita; and Rebecca Page, management analyst for Sedgwick County.

WIN launches #ForcedToHide awareness campaign

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Women survivors of domestic violence have no reason to be ashamed. Yet many of them feel “forced to hide” from people who would judge them for their bruises and scars, and from their abusers who too often threaten them long after a relationship has ended.

That’s the message behind WIN’s new domestic violence awareness campaign, #ForcedToHide.

The hashtag is part of advertising appearing on Wichita city buses, billboards, and in other public places frequented by women who may need WIN’s services.

While the campaign initially is to inform women of the help available to them through WIN, it also is designed to remind everyone of the prevalence of domestic violence, said Amber Beck, WIN account manager, who conceived of the campaign.

“One out of three women have been experienced domestic violence themselves – or know someone who has,” said Beck. “We want to shine a light on this ongoing problem so that someday, no woman will have to say she is ‘forced to hide.’”

Beck invites everyone to show their support for WIN and the women it serves by taking a photo of themselves — or of someone else — wearing a mask or otherwise hiding from plain view, then posting it to their social media accounts with #ForcedToHide.  She asks everyone to challenge their friends to do the same. Be sure to like your favorite #ForcedToHide photos and share them to WIN’s Facebook page, facebook.com/wichitawomensinitiativenetwork.

This advertising campaign is funded in part through a Kansas Health Foundation Capacity Grant, received by WIN in October 2017 to raise public awareness of WIN’s services to low-income women survivors of domestic violence.