End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin

09/25/2026

Sometimes the person who changes the direction of a survivor’s life isn’t the person with the perfect words.

It’s the person willing to say, “This isn’t okay. How can I help?”

For seven years, R says people knew what was happening behind closed doors.
Some looked away. Others encouraged her to stay. She heard messages about marriage, faith, and hoping things would eventually get better.

Then one person said something different.

She named what was happening.

She didn’t tell R what decision to make. She helped R recognize that what she was experiencing wasn’t okay and that there were other possibilities.

R left a year later.

And that's a detail that matters.

Because supporting a survivor doesn’t always mean they will leave that day. A conversation may not produce an immediate decision that we can see. But being believed, having abuse named, learning about resources, and knowing someone is willing to stand beside you can open a door that wasn’t visible before.

And R’s story doesn’t end with leaving.

Today, when she talks about joy, resistance, and healing, she talks about things that might sound ordinary to someone else: tattoos she once wasn’t allowed to have. A home. Cars. Pets. Watching her children live healthy, happy lives.

They are ordinary things.

But after someone has tried to control what you can have, who you can be, and what you are capable of, ordinary can mean freedom.

“I have done everything my abuser said I couldn’t do.” - R

Across Wisconsin, survivors are living stories like R’s in our families, workplaces, schools, faith communities, neighborhoods, and circles of friends.

We may not always know what happens after we speak up.

But R’s story asks us to consider what can happen when someone does.

Listen. Believe. Make room for possibility.

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

09/14/2026

You don’t owe anyone your story.

You don’t have to tell us what happened. You don’t have to share details you aren’t comfortable sharing.

But there may be something you wish people understood.

About trying to find safety. About asking for help. About what made things harder. About what actually helped.
About what you needed then, or what you wish someone had known.

In Their Own Words is an opportunity for survivors across Wisconsin to tell us exactly that.

You decide what you share, and you choose whether and how your words may be used.

What survivors tell us will help shape the conversations we have throughout and help us tell a fuller story of domestic violence, advocacy, safety, and healing across Wisconsin.

💜 Your experience matters.
💜 Your perspective matters.
💜 Your words are yours.

Use the QR code on the flyer to participate or follow the link below, and please share this post so this invitation can reach survivors across Wisconsin.

https://form.jotform.com/262216415354048

09/02/2026

What does domestic violence advocacy look like in Wisconsin?

The answer depends on where you are and who you ask.

In one community, an advocate may be helping a survivor navigate housing, transportation, childcare, and court all in the same day.

In another, the nearest services may be counties away.

For some survivors, finding help also means finding someone who understands their culture, language, identity, disability, immigration experience, or the realities of living in a community where everyone knows everyone.

That’s why domestic violence advocacy doesn’t look the same everywhere.

Over the next several weeks, we’re taking you inside this work across Wisconsin. You’ll meet advocates and programs, hear from survivors who choose to share, and learn about the barriers communities are navigating every day.

Because if we want to understand domestic violence in Wisconsin, we have to understand the people and places behind the work.

Different communities. Different realities. One Wisconsin working toward safety.

Stay with us. We’re just getting started.

08/26/2026

We’ve been asking ourselves a question lately: Are we telling the whole story of advocacy in Wisconsin?

Because somewhere in Wisconsin, an advocate may be driving across county lines because the nearest resource is miles away.

Someone else is helping a survivor search for housing when every affordable option seems to have a waiting list.

A prevention educator is talking with young people about healthy relationships.

A culturally specific organization is creating a space where someone can ask for help without first having to explain their language, culture, identity, family, or community.

Shelter workers, housing advocates, prevention educators, Tribal programs, LGBTQ+ programs, culturally specific organizations, rural programs, advocates and survivors are all part of Wisconsin's domestic violence story.

But we don't always get to hear from them.

We want to change that.

Over the next few months, we're going to take you inside this work. You'll meet some of the people doing it. You'll hear what advocates across Wisconsin are seeing. And, when survivors choose to share, you'll hear what they want our communities to understand.

Not just about violence.

About safety. Barriers. Community. Healing. And what Wisconsin can do better.

This fall, we're telling more of the story.

And first, we're listening.

07/24/2026

07/24/2026

Public statement regarding the shooting of Corey Ruiz.
For immediate release.

Yesterday, Corey Ruiz was shot and killed by law enforcement in Madison.
Today, we say his name.
We recognize that our community is grieving, asking questions, and searching for answers about what happened on Williamson Street.

At End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, our work is rooted in a fundamental belief: everyone deserves to live with safety, dignity, and freedom from violence.

That commitment does not begin or end at the doors of domestic violence programs.

As an anti-violence movement, we have a responsibility to examine violence wherever it occurs and to recognize the ways power, racism, oppression, gender-based violence, and systemic inequities shape who experiences safety and how communities experience systems intended to provide it.

Violence does not happen in a vacuum.

Neither does community grief.

The death of Corey Ruiz comes within a much larger history of communities of color navigating complicated, painful, and sometimes deadly relationships with institutions and systems of power. In particular, Black men in this country have long been subjected to disproportionate surveillance, excessive force, and violence at the hands of law enforcement; patterns that continue to shape how many people understand and experience safety today. For many across Madison and Wisconsin, Corey’s death may bring anger, grief, fear, exhaustion, and difficult memories of other lives lost.

There are still questions that must be answered about what happened.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating the shooting. As that investigation continues, our communities deserve transparency, accountability, and a full understanding of the circumstances that resulted in a life being lost.

We are holding Corey’s family, friends, and loved ones in our thoughts.
We are also thinking about the community members who witnessed his death and the people who may be impacted by the graphic footage circulating online.

You do not have to watch a person’s final moments to understand the gravity of their death.

We encourage people to consider the impact of sharing graphic footage and to center the humanity of the person whose life was lost.

Corey Ruiz was a person before he became a headline.

As an organization committed to ending violence, we believe safety must mean safety for all of us. Dignity must mean dignity for all of us. Accountability must apply to all of us.
Our movement has long understood that ending violence requires more than responding after harm occurs. It requires us to examine power, challenge inequity, listen to impacted communities, and continue imagining systems of safety that allow every person to live with dignity.

We also know that change requires action. We call on our community members to stay engaged, to seek out accurate information, to support Corey’s family and those directly impacted, and to show up for one another in ways that promote care, accountability, and justice. We urge community leaders and decision-makers to commit to transparency and to invest in approaches to safety that do not rely on harm or violence.

There is much we are still learning about what happened on July 22.
But today, a family is grieving.

A community is hurting.

And a life has been lost.

.

His name was Corey Ruiz.

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We recognize that conversations and images surrounding Corey’s death may be difficult, painful, or activating. Please take care of yourself and one another.

For emotional or crisis support, call or text 988.

For community support and racial justice resources in Madison, connect with Urban Triage and Freedom Inc.

For civil rights information and advocacy, visit the ACLU of Wisconsin.

For official updates regarding the investigation, follow the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin can help connect you with advocacy programs and resources throughout the state.

You do not need to watch or share graphic footage to bear witness.
Care for yourself.
Care for your community.
Stay informed.

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.