In 1989, tragedy hit Sonia’s family when her 24 year old sister Debbie was murdered by her boyfriend when he unexpectedly came home to find her packing her things to leave him. Her sister was in a mentally and emotionally abusive relationship and didn’t know it until it was too late.
Years later, when Sonia’s own daughter was in high school and began dating, Sonia began wondering what her daughter was being exposed too and taught regarding healthy relationships in school. Sonia discovered that nothing was being taught in our school systems and the statistics were overwhelming. She learned that up to 10 million kids each year are exposed to domestic violence and that one in three young people, between the age of 11-24 years old, are in an abusive or unhealthy relationship’.
Additionally, one in 10 high school students have been purposefully hit, slapped or physically hurt by a boyfriend or girlfriend. This is when Sonia started her journey and knew in order to stop the cycle of abuse, it needed to start with educating our young people.
In 2017, Sonia worked with her local state assembly member to introduce Assembly Bill 643. The legislation would mandate domestic violence education in all California public high school health classes, to ensure teens are taught what a healthy relationship looks like. The bill was signed into law on October 7, 2017, by Governor Jerry Brown.
Sonia has used the loss of her sister as a motivation to spend the last several years doing advocacy work to help people about the types of abuse and the warning signs to stop the cycle of domestic violence. Through her journey, she founded the Empowerment Project, which is dedicated to the prevention and education of intimate partner violence. Focusing on ensuring people are empowered through education to develop healthy and safe relationships in order to stop the cycle of domestic violence.
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