Lifetime is relaunching its Emmy Award-winning public affairs campaign, “Stop Violence Against Women,” Variety has learned exclusively.
The cabler is partnering with advocacy groups, survivors and thought leaders to spread awareness, empower women, provide healing tools and support for women and survivors in need of assistance. Four of the survivors and thought leaders involved in the initiative are actress and activist Alyssa Milano, Rise founder Amanda Nguyen, “Me Too” movement founder Tarana Burke and advocate Kitti Jones. These four women appear in the first PSA for the new initiative, which comes just in time for Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the one-year anniversary of the #MeToo hashtag going viral.
“All women deserve to be free from violence, sexual assault, harassment and shame,” Burke says in the PSA.
Adds Jones: “Let’s tell our stories. Let’s empower women and end the cycle once and for all.”
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The PSA will run during the month of October on Lifetime, driving to resources and information available at mylifetime.com/StopViolenceAgainstWomen. The initiative will also support programming debuting on the network during the month, include educational resources and outreach to young women in high schools and colleges nationwide, and host screenings and panels of upcoming Lifetime programming that centers on bringing awareness to the abuses and harassment of women.
In addition to Me Too and Rise, Lifetime is partnering with Girls for Gender Equity, Color of Change, Black Women’s Blueprint, RAINN, It’s On Us, National Domestic Violence Hotline, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Biden Foundation and The Joyful Heart Foundation for the relaunch of “Stop Violence Against Women.”
“Stop Violence Against Women” first launched in 2002, with Lifetime bringing together leading advocacy organizations, women directly affected by violence and political leaders for a Special Congressional Women’s Caucus Briefing in Washington DC.
At the time it placed a national spotlight on ending violence and the vast problems of domestic and sexual abuse. Now, more than a decade and a half later, the initiative is revisiting the issues in the light of movements such as #MeToo and Time’s Up to provide women a further platform to share their stories.
Watch the PSA below:
