Downingtown Mayor Josh Maxwell (Times’ file photo).
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On January 5th, Vice President Joe Biden along with the It’s On Us Campaign hosted a summit at the White House to discuss how 200 nonprofits, elected officials and influencers can work together to end sexual violence in our communities, and our country. One of the participants was Downingtown Mayor Josh Maxwell.
It’s On Us is an awareness campaign to help put an end to sexual assault on college campuses created by the White House in 2014.
“The format, which broke attendees into small discussion groups, allowed stakeholders and influencers to brainstorm together and offer ideas on how we can best work together to end genderbased violence in our communities,” Maxwell said.
In October of 2016, Maxwell partnered with the Chester County Women and Girls Fund, the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County and the Crime Victims Center of Chester County to launch a coordinated campaign in Chester County to end genderbased violence.
The first meeting included a pledge from five Chester County Mayors and the President of the Chester County Police Chiefs to require all police officers to be trained on the resources available to sexual and domestic violence survivors through the Domestic Violence Center’s lethality program.
“I was able to share what we are already doing in Chester County, by working together with law enforcement, nonprofits and elected officials with the White House,” Maxwell said. “My pledge at the summit was to recruit 10 other Mayors to pass the law we passed in Chester County so that more officers know exactly what resources are available to survivors when the officer arrives at the call.”
The summit featured speakers from Major League Baseball, the NCAA, elected officials, students from dozens of universities, nonprofit leaders and survivors.
“I believe that is up to men to take up the challenge of ending sexual and domestic violence,” Maxwell said. “Unwanted physical and sexual contact is a crime and should be treated as such by everyone.”
The entire summit can be viewed online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l79VqQd32zU More information about the summitt can be found here: http://college.usatoday.com/2017/01/05/bidenitsonusfinal/
Chester County Campaign to End GenderBased Violence: http://www.dailylocal.com/article/DL/20161008/NEWS/16100983
