East Los Angeles Women's Center

09/16/2026

Celebrate Latino Heritage Month and 50 years of empowerment with us! 📧https://conta.cc/3VhHRmx

Email from East Los Angeles Women's Center & 50 Years Celebrating Our Cultura Latino Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the culture, history, strength, and resilience that make our communities so

09/15/2026

We embrace our culture and reject what no longer serves us ♥️

What other dichos are we letting go of?

09/12/2026

WE RISE: From Survivor to Author ✨

This week in our We Listen. We Act. We Rise. campaign, we’re sharing Anel Lee’s story: a story of resilience, healing, and choosing herself.

A proud Latina, Anel once interned with the East Los Angeles Women’s Center. Before that, she was surviving domestic violence and sexual assault within her family.

Today, she is a licensed trauma therapist, published author, and doctoral candidate 🎓, using both her professional training and lived experience to help others heal.

As Anel says:

“It feels good to empower my clients, not just from what I learned in school, but from my own personal experience… and to show them you can overcome one of the darkest, most difficult times in your life.”

Her memoir, Choosing Myself Over the Lies, is a raw and vulnerable reflection on healing, self-worth, and reclaiming your story.

For Anel, storytelling became part of her healing. Through writing and journal prompts, she found a way to process difficult emotions, and now she shares that journey to help others know they are not alone.

Her story reminds us: surviving is not the end of the story. There is a life beyond what happened to you. There is healing. There is possibility. There is rising. ❤️‍🩹

Stay tuned for the video 🎥
📸 Jonathan Navales
TraumaHealing LatinaTherapist SurvivorToAuthor Resilience HealingJourney

09/09/2026

Who are we and what exactly do we do?

Scroll for a snapshot ⏭️

09/08/2026

Meet the four extraordinary leaders we’ll honor at ELAWC’s 50th Anniversary Mujeres de Paz Gala. 💜

We invite you to join us in this historic celebration!
https://conta.cc/3ThOrJe

Email from East Los Angeles Women's Center ✨ Celebrate With Us! ✨ 50 Years  Standing with Survivors  Advancing Healing, Justice, and Dignity  One Unforgettable Evening Friday, October 30th we ar

09/07/2026

This , we honor the women who work and the women who advocate to make workplaces safer for everyone, presently and historically.

Este , honramos a las mujeres que trabajan y a las mujeres que han defendido, organizado y luchado para crear espacios laborales más seguros y equitativos para todas las personas.

For survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, safety doesn’t stop when you clock in.

A woman should not fear losing a job for speaking up against workplace harassment.

Para las sobrevivientes de agresión sexual y violencia doméstica, la seguridad no termina cuando comienza la jornada laboral.

Ninguna mujer debería tener que temer perder su empleo por denunciar el acoso, la explotación o el abuso en el lugar de trabajo.

Through our Industrial Workers KI Program, we work alongside women and workers to build knowledge, access resources, understand their rights, and create pathways to safety and economic stability.

A través de nuestro Programa de KI para Trabajadoras y Trabajadores Industriales, trabajamos junto a mujeres y trabajadores para fortalecer sus conocimientos, acceder a recursos, conocer sus derechos y crear caminos hacia la seguridad y la estabilidad económica.

Learn more about our programs today. Conoce más sobre nuestros programas:

💻www.elawc.org

📧[email protected]

While our main offices are closed in observance, our 📞24/7 Hotline remains (800) 585-6231

09/07/2026

What does it mean to be a “spiritual gangster”? ✨

For Monique, it means choosing herself. Choosing healing. ❤️‍🩹 And unapologetically caring for her own well-being.

And this is why trauma informed care matters. Listening without judgement, creating safety, restoring choice and recognizing resilience.

Monique reminds us that people are more than their trauma.

They are silent. They are capable. They are whole 🌸

We Listen. We Act. We Rise

50 years of creating spaces where healing can begin and silence is heard.

If you or anyone you know is ready to restore their life after sexual assault, domestic violence, or substance use call 📞 us 24/7: (800) 585-6231

09/05/2026

Part 1
Meet Monique: Story of Resilience and Courage ✨

From childhood trauma, substance use, domestic violence, housing insecurity and losing her children to DCFS, and healing ❤️‍🩹

Now a certified trauma informed yoga teacher, Registered Addiction Counselor [RAC] and Advocate helping others toward healing and recovery.

A true reminder that
We Listen
We Act
We Rise

Stay tuned for more or subscribe to our YouTube channel for full story.

🎥 Jonathan Navales

09/05/2026

We Listen. We Act. We Rise: Monique’s Story of Resilience & Courage ✨

What happens when someone is met with listening instead of judgment? 🫂

In this story from our We Listen. We Act. We Rise 50th Anniversary campaign, we meet Monique: a self-described “spiritual gangster” whose journey reflects the powerful intersections of substance use, domestic violence, housing insecurity, and healing.

Monique experienced losing her children to DCFS, substance use, and homelessness: traumatic experiences she didn’t always have the words to name at the time. What she did have was resilience, courage, and a place where she could be heard without having to have all the answers first.

For Monique, being welcomed into a safe transitional shelter created space to begin making informed decisions about her own life. That sense of safety and empowerment opened the door to something transformative: becoming a trauma-informed certified yoga teacher. 🧘🏽‍♀️🌸

More information: www.elawc.org

Subscribe to our YouTube for full story:
YouTube: ‪‬


📸 Jonathan Navales

09/04/2026

When we think about the legacy of Gloria Steinem, we think about a woman who turned adversity into action and used her voice to challenge systems that told women to stay silent.

✨ Surviving childhood adversity, including growing up with a mother struggling with mental illness and a father who abandoned the family.

✊🏽 Infiltrating the sexist world of Pl***oy to expose the labor conditions women faced behind the glamorous image.

🫂Helping bring issues of sexual assault and domestic violence out of the shadows and into the national conversation during the women’s movement of the 1970s.

🤝🏽 Believing that women could come together, organize, and create lasting change. And that internal change is crucial to external change.

That work is deeply connected to the legacy of the East Los Angeles Women’s Center, founded in 1976 at a time when survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence were fighting to be heard, believed, and supported.

For nearly 50 years, ELAWC has carried that same spirit forward: listening to survivors, taking action, and creating space for women and our communities to rise.

From Gloria Steinem’s generation to ours, the message remains:

We Listen. We Act. We Rise.

Her legacy reminds us that change begins when we refuse to be silent and when we come together to make sure no survivor has to face violence alone.