Shalom Task Force, Inc.

STF helps break the cycle of abuse by offering education to teens, young men and women in colleges, yeshivas and seminaries, and to engaged and married couples.

• Every year, close to 2,000 young women in high schools and post-high school programs take STF’s Bertha Kaufman Prevention Awareness Education programs in the United States and Israel. In this highly interactive workshop, they learn the art of communication through mastery of positive conflict resolution techniques, learn to recognize the warning signs of abuse, gain confidence in their own judgment, and learn where to go for help.
• STF’s men’s division named, “Panim el Panim-PeP,” (face-to-face), educates young men to become strong and healthy contributors in all of their relationships. Abusive situations tend to result from underlying attitudes about control and an insidious progression of negative behaviors. PeP focuses its work on the core of students’ beliefs about the world and themselves, teaching them to anger control, develop self-awareness, and learn healthy relationship skills. Panim el Panim has presented or been invited to more than 50 yeshiva high schools.
• STF's S.H.A.L.O.M. Workshop, an innovative program to teach engaged and married couples communication skills and give them tools to enhance their relationship. Couples learn to recognize, understand, and meet each other’s emotional needs and build a strong foundation for a happy and healthy marriage. STF is now replicating the S.H.A.L.O.M Workshop nationally and internationally.

Due to the increasing demand for legal services, STF opened Sarah’s Voice, a free legal program for Orthodox Jewish victims in 2010. Staffed by two dedicated attorney’s and a victims advocate, Sarah’s Voice provides free legal services to victims/survivors. The Sarah’s Voice victims advocate helps clients obtain services to allow them to escape abusive relationships and to secure the needed benefits and financial support.

STF has been at the vanguard of organizing ongoing domestic violence and healthy relationship training for mental health professionals, community leaders, school principals, and other educators. STF offers ongoing workshops for professionals and has organized several major regional and national conferences on domestic violence.