October 2020: A Note from Tracy Schott, founder of Voices4Change and the director and producer of the documentary Finding Jenn’s Voice and Hope Katz Gibbs, publisher, Inkandescent Women magazine — When it comes to fighting back against injustice, a powerhouse in the movement is Lovern J. Gordon, founder, and president of Love Life Now Foundation, Inc.
“We promote year-round awareness against domestic violence to bridge the gap between the shelters where women and their children go as a safe space, and what they do next,” explains Lovern, who was born and raised on the island of Trinidad till she was 15.
She was the 2010 winner of two back to back USA beauty pageants, where she used titles while promoting increased awareness of domestic abuse. The following year, she founded the Love Life Now Foundation.
Lovern herself has intimate experience with domestic violence as a 15-year child witness to it in Trinidad and as an adult survivor of a 2-year relationship with an abusive partner in the US. “I believe the more we all talk about this painful issue publicly, the better the change that more victims of domestic violence can and will seek help,” she insists.
To that end, Lovern conducts educational workshops at high schools, college campuses, churches, and job sites throughout the world. She also hosts events year-round, such as the upcoming Nov. 7, 2020, Empowerment Fashion Show, a virtual trunk show to raise funds to support domestic violence shelters that provide emergency housing for victims and survivors.
She has shared her story and message on a plethora of news outlets, including CBS This Morning, ABC‘s Cityline, the Women’s Wellness Podcast, WEZE’s 590AM Voice of Reason, and Sirius XM’s Jenny Hutt Live. She has also been featured in Huffington Post, Enterprise News, Boston Voyager, and Alisa Divine’s book, #SheWins. The Boston Celtics recognized her in their Heroes Among Us social media campaign.
To share the stories of even more women and the experience of living through a domestic violence situation, Lovern founded Love Life magazine.
Learn more about this Truly Amazing Woman and her organization at lovelifenow.org.
What’s Next for Lovern Gordon & the Love Life Now Foundation?
Welcome to the Truly Amazing Women project: Hope Katz Gibbs’ Inkandescent Women magazine has partnered with Cynthia de Lorenzi and her international networking organization Success in the City to investigate What’s Next — for women around the world. In this interview with Wyoming-based artist Kay Stratman, we learn about the future of her business in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her thoughts on what she believes are coming for the art industry, the country, and the world. Please scroll down for our interview with Lovern.
Hope & Cynthia: Tell us about your business/industry before the pandemic hit in March 2020.
Lovern: The Love Life Now Foundation is focused on year-round domestic violence awareness. So I am constantly working to bring the topic of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) to the forefront — because we need to stop this epidemic. The statistics tell the story:
- Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) affects 1 in 3 women in the US each year — that’s a breathtaking 30% of all women.
- Of those, 50,000 women are killed annually by family members or intimate partners worldwide, with the highest rates in Asia and Africa.
- In 2017, of the 1,759 women who reported IPV, 1,611 were murdered by a male they knew — that’s 92%. Even more shocking, homicide is a leading cause of death during pregnancy.
- Men are the major perpetrators of domestic violence.
- As many as 275 million children worldwide are exposed to violence in the home.
- Research shows that 65% of adults who abuse their partner also physically and/or sexually abuse their children.
- Boys who have witnessed abuse in their space growing up or were harmed by abusive adults are more likely to turn into men who harm others.
Hope & Cynthia: Where were you personally in your life when COVID-19 arrived in the US? What were your short and long-term goals at that time?
Lovern: It seems like all a blur from when things were normal pre-COVID, but we knee-deep in preparation for our annual Heel-A-Thon walk and looking forward to continuing to prep office space we had recently acquired so we could meet survivors in person.
Hope & Cynthia: What are your thoughts now about your industry, your business, your personal life, your heart?
Lovern: There is much more work to do virtually and in-person to reach victims and survivors where they are at. That’s the goal: Find the women who have been abused, in shelters, or when they don’t have the courage to speak out and give them a voice. Our White Ribbon Pledge encourages men everywhere to promise never to commit, excuse, or remain silent about male violence against women.
Hope & Cynthia: Now the big question — What do you see coming next?
Lovern:
- For your industry: Laws needed to be enacted in every state to stop domestic violence.
- For your organization: Continued growth. The truth is that IPV is so prevalent that even though the Love Life Now Foundation has been doing good work since 2011, our mission to bring awareness to it, with the mission of ending it, has just begun.
- For yourself: A book in progress. Stay tuned for that!
- For the country: More divide, unfortunately, if the current administration is victorious.
- For women: More empowerment and collective cooperation. The takeover is coming!
Hope & Cynthia: One more question — now tell us the one question we didn’t ask you?
Lovern: What I do for self-care. My answer: Pray, sleep, travel.