Janine Latus Featured Speaker on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence

Ms. Latus tells her own family's tragic story while subtly illustrating the red flags of abuse as depicted by the Duluth Power & Control Wheel. Audience members learn to recognize abuse in their own lives and the lives of the people around them, intervene effectively and break free and thrive.

Partner abuse creates tremendous problems in the work place. Abusers often delay or prevent their partners from getting to work, which is a classic assertion of power and control. According to the Centers for Disease Control, victims nationwide lose eight million paid days of work every year, costing companies $727.8 million in lost productivity. They’re distracted, often by incessant texts and phone calls as their partner monitors their every move. They’re scared. They’re tired from being up all night with that finger jabbing them in the chest. Or they call in sick, to hide the bruises.

There’s also the risk that the violence will spill over into the work place. We know that 54% of mass shootings begin or end with the death of the loved ones of the shooter. That means that every employer runs the risk of having violence follow someone into the office, the shop, the lecture hall, the class room. Of all multiple-injury shootings, 86% took place in work environments, whether offices, schools, universities, government offices, healthcare facilities and houses of worship.

Janine's goal is to bring her message to as many workplaces as possible, to help people understand the red flags of abuse, to safely escape if they are stuck in an abusive relationship, to intervene if a friend or co-worker is, and to create work spaces and systems where employees can focus on the job at hand.

Jealousy is not love, controlling is not love, high-drama scrambles to keep someone's approval is not love. Learn the red flags for abuse, whether emotional, sexual or physical.

Are your frontline workers burned out? Do you want your donors to dig deeper? In her I Am Why presentation, Ms. Latus tells a story so compelling that it reminds audience members why they do the hard work they do. Audience members will leave appreciated and recharged.

 Whether in business or personal life, the ability to make a story reverberate long after it's told is vital and fun. Let Latus talk to your group about choosing telling details and choosing the perfect verb. Change how you communicate and you'll change customers' impression of your business.

Perhaps you're cocooned in comfort, but also sleep walking. What does it mean to let go of everything and reinvent your life from the ground up? Ms. Latus sold her home and spent a year as a nomad, house-sitting around the country to answer the question, if you can live anywhere, how do you choose?

Find the courage to tell your stories so that other people have permission to tell theirs, because silence kills. The idea that what happens in the home should stay in the home leaves people isolated as they try to identify and escape from abuse, and the belief that a victim of sexual assault should feel shame leaves rapists free to rape again. By telling our stories we empower those who follow our lead.

This is important for corporations, because employees are less productive if they're afraid at home and because home violence sometimes spills into the workplace. It is important for universities because students are at an age when they're statistically more likely to suffer abuse, but they're also in a sweet spot where the right message can change their trajectory. And it is important for shelters and social service agencies, because our stories create compassion and empathy, and increase donations.