Stop Family Violence!
Have you ever found yourself treating a victim of domestic or family violence and had to use all your willpower and self-control not to exact retribution for your patient? Well, courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service, there is now a safer and easier way to help—the Stop Family Violence Semipostal Stamp, placed into service January 1, 2004.
The semipostal stamp, so-named because it has two values—one for the postage and the other for a charitable contribution—costs 45 cents. The additional $0.08 will be transferred, in this case, to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
While the USPS has issued a variety of stamps to raise awareness on a number of health and social issues, the Stop Family Violence semipostal is the third stamp in U.S. history to go further, earmarking net proceeds above postage for a special cause. The first was the Breast Cancer Research stamp, issued in 1998 and renewed in 2001, that raises funds for continuing research about the disease. The second was a Heroes USA semipostal, created in 2002 to honor rescue workers who lost their lives during the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and to raise funds for programs that would assist rescue workers, survivors, victims and their families.
The Stop Family Violence stamp traces its beginning to a letter written in 1999 to Colorado U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell by a Denver-area social worker who had a caseload of battered women and abused children. She suggested a semipostal stamp would be a good way to raise funds for treatment and prevention of domestic violence.
Senator Campbell, a former deputy sheriff, was well aware of the issues and effects of domestic violence. Campbell was the cosponsor of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, and introduced a resolution establishing the first Wednesday of April as a National Day of Hope, dedicated to remembering the victims of child abuse and neglect. He stepped up to the plate again, offering the stamp idea as an amendment to the Appropriations Bill called the Stamp Out Domestic Violence Act of 2001, which was signed into law in 2002.
The design for the stamp came from six-year-old Monique Blais of Santa Barbara, CA. Engaged by the project's art director, to be the model in a symbolic photograph of a young girl erasing an image of domestic violence, Monique sat down and drew her own illustration of domestic violence during a break. The rest is history.
There are 125 million of the self-adhesive stamps in circulation in 20-count booklets. Harry Wilson, the associate commissioner for the Department of Health and Human Services, Family and Youth Services Bureau, says the monies raised will be distributed in the form of block grants to states to help fund the nation's 2200-plus domestic violence shelters. A number of pilot and research projects will also be financed from the proceeds. One of these partners is a domestic violence shelter in Los Angeles with a youth runaway shelter. Current HHS statistics show that one-third of all runaways are from families that have a history of family violence. This demonstration project will set up counseling and treatment programs to benefit these victims of family violence, as well as their mothers.
