Stand-Up Guys

Abuse can become a family tradition, "handed like an heirloom from father to son."

Some men take a stand, though.  They refuse to carry the tradition.  And, they help other people refuse violence against women and girls.

Stand-Up Guys tells the stories of six such men from across New York state.

Organized by Cornell ILR's Director of Workplace Issues KC Wagner, Stand-Up Guys was published this year in booklet form.  The real-life stories show "that any man who truly cares about the women and girls in his life can really make a difference," Wagner said this week in an interview.

The booklet, pdf here, is being distributed nationally through organizations that fight violence against women and girls.  It was funded by a $100,000 grant from the state Department of Labor.

Stand-Up Guys was designed to support the Domestic Violence Awareness and Workplace Empowerment Initiative and Men and Women as Allies programs led by Cornell's ILR School and its strategic project partner, Connect in New York City.  The goal of the programs is to encourage employers, unions and local domestic violence service providers in educating the public about work-related consequences of bullying, domestic and workplace violence.

Amy Barasch, executive director of the New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, said Stand-Up Guys supports efforts "to engage men and women as allies in the effort to reduce domestic violence."

There were more than 50,000 reported cases of domestic violence in New York state in 2006, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  Most perpetrators and victims were members of the same family.  Most family violence victims are females.

Stand-Up Guys includes the story of Matt Held, lead coordinator of undergraduate dormitories at Cornell.  This is an excerpt:

Coming home from school, he turned the corner into the kitchen.  And there was someone who was only a semblance of his stepmother.  "It looked like she had gone 10 rounds with Muhammad Ali," he recalled.  "It was shocking. It scared the hell out of me."

But the image of his stepmother's swollen face flipped a switch in Matt's brain.  This would not continue. He would never inflict that kind of pain on another human being.  "I decided right then that I wasn't going to be like my father."

Wagner, as part of her work at ILR, examines how domestic violence and adult bullying manifest at work and what supervisors, colleagues and unions can do to help one another fight domestic violence.

Since the 1990s, Cornell's joint labor/management partnerships have played a strategic role in awareness and training campaigns, which have taken root in public and private-sector businesses and organizations nationally, she said.

Stand-Up Guys is available free of charge to individuals and organizations in New York state through Wagner, who can be reached at kcw8@cornell.edu.

Writer Hank Shaw of Rochester conceived the Stand-Up Guys booklet and was its creative director. Christine Porter of Rochester was the designer and Forest McMullin of Atlanta, Ga., was the photographer. The booklet is a winner in the Davey Awards international advertising competition.