Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ADVOCATE FOR DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS

TO SPEAK AT CANDACE SCOLA MEMORIAL LECTURE

(WORCESTER, Mass. – September 10, 2006) The Women's Studies annual Candace Allen Scola Memorial Lecture will feature Ms. Yoko Kato, at 11:30 a.m., Monday, October 23, 2006, in the Blue Lounge of the Student Center at Worcester State College. 

Prior to Ms. Kato's talk at 11:15 a.m. in the Exhibit Area of the Student Center (next to the Blue Lounge), State Senator Ed Augustus, Jr. will read a resolution signed by 75 state legislators, including State Senators Pamela P. Resor and Harriette L. Chandler, regarding Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Ginger Navickas, Daybreak director and Linda Cavaioli, executive director, YWCA, will also be in attendance. Other invitees include Mary Lauby, President of Jane Doe, Inc., and State Representatives Robert P. Spellane and James B. Leary.

Ms. Kato will speak about “Domestic Violence: From Survivor to Advocate.” In the decade since her daughter and grandson were murdered by the child’s father, Yoko Kato has transformed private sorrow into action against domestic violence. In 2002 she was appointed to the board of the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance by then Governor Jane Swift. Since 1998 she has traveled to Japan where she has worked with women’s groups, social workers, legal experts, and government officials to support that nation’s emerging anti-domestic violence movement. She was the first woman in that country to speak out against domestic violence.

Ms. Kato has been the subject of numerous articles and documentaries here and in Japan, and she has received many awards in both countries for her work as an advocate for education on this urgent issue. Her talk at Worcester State College is free and open to the public.

The Candace Allen Scola Memorial Lecture was established in 2003 at Worcester State College to honor and remember WSC student Candace Allen Scola, a well-liked classmate and vice president of Gamma Theta Upsilon, the Geography Honor Society, who was murdered by an assailant who is still at large.  In addition to the annual lecture on topics that serve to bring awareness to the issue of violence against women and domestic violence, the college established a “Student Meditation Garden” in her memory.

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