She was a working mom. A wife. A friend. Those were labels that made Charlene Wesler proud.
"And then in 2008," she said, "something terrible happened, and I was described by a new word: victim."
Her husband of nine years came home from church one July night and without warning he attacked her.
"He began by strangling me... I was raped, tied to a chair and held at gunpoint," she said. She promised him she would never leave and he finally set down the gun. After all, he told her, he didn't need it.
"He told me that even if he had to sit in prison for 10 years, he would start killing the people that I loved and I would be the last to die."
That night, Wesler made a deal with God.
"If I survived, I would do everything in my power to help others not feel so helpless," she said. "I'm here today to follow through with my end of that deal.”
Wesler spoke in celebration of the 20th anniversary, in a proclamation brought forth by Commissioner Loretta Smith, of the federal Violence Against Women Act and the local advocates who helped her through the months following the attack.
The act closed critical gaps in service and greatly increased awareness. Since its passage, the number of women killed by a partner has dropped 34 percent nationwide. And non-fatal violence has fallen by 67 percent. The federal legislation has helped raise funds for programs that last year served more than 5,000 survivors and their children in Multnomah County.
The county’s domestic violence coordinator Annie Neal described for the board Thursday how many different sectors of government play a role in responding to and preventing violence against women, from the district attorney’s and sheriff’s offices to the departments of Community Justice and County Human Services.
“We’re proud to have such a great response across departments,” she said.
Bea Hanson, principal deputy director of the United States Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women, praised board members for their individual and collective work in addressing the issue on Thursday.
“It takes all of us in all the positions that we have to make a difference in the lives of victims of domestic and sexual violence,” said Hanson. “Not only are you leading here, in Multnomah County, but you’re also an example to the rest of the country.”
The United States Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women is visiting Multnomah County as one of the communities across the country that have built and sustained a strong, coordinated community response to violence against women.
In addition to the board meeting, a round table was held also in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of VAWA.
"I wake up every morning ready to come to work and make a difference,” said Commissioner Judy Shiprack at the round table event.
“But every time I see a case of a woman being abused, assaulted, injured, demeaned by domestic violence, it takes a renewed effort to build my own resolve to push back. It's 2015 and we continue to see this. It's clear how much needs to be done and how much we already have done."
For Charlene Wesler, a suddenly-single mother of three, her next steps became clear.
“There’s a lot of hard work ahead for a survivor of domestic violence and the starting place is very dark,” she said. “I know it would have been a very different story had it not been for the support of advocates and local programs.”
Wesler started a food cart to support herself and went back to school. Last June, she graduated with a degree in accounting.
The food cart she began in business school took off, and in November morphed into a 50-seat restaurant called Gigi’s Cafe. Portland State University dubbed her a “Fearless Momtrepreneur.”
The label “fearless” she said, is a better fit.