Violence Prevention Award 2007
Esta Soler—Founder and President
The Family Violence Prevention Fund

Peace Over Violence is thrilled to honor Esta Soler with the Humanitarian Award for Violence Prevention. One of the world’s foremost experts on violence against women and children, Esta is a pioneer who founded the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF) 26 years ago and made it one of the world’s leading violence prevention agencies. With offices in San Francisco, Boston and Washington, D.C., and partners around the world, the FVPF develops innovative strategies to prevent domestic, dating and sexual violence, stalking and child abuse.

Under Soler’s direction, the FVPF was a driving force behind passage of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 – the nation’s first comprehensive federal response to the violence that plagues our families and communities. Congress reauthorized and expanded the law in 2000 and again in 2005.

Soler has led the FVPF as it developed trailblazing public education campaigns that have reached millions of people, and innovative policies, advocacy, prevention, education and training programs that help law-makers, health care providers, judges, employers and others stop violence and help victims. FVPF programs have been replicated in all 50 states and around the world. Its most recent initiatives, the “Coaching Boys Into Men” and “Founding Fathers” campaigns, are breaking new ground by inviting men to teach boys that violence against women and children is always wrong.

Soler is a trustee for the Blue Shield of California Foundation, and serves on the board of The Lick-Wilmerding High School in San Francisco. She has been a consultant and advisor to numerous public and private agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Soros Justice Fellowship Program, the Ford Foundation/Harvard University Innovations in American Government initiative, and the Aspen Institute. She was a member of the Violence Against Women National Advisory Council when it was co-chaired by Health & Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and Attorney General Janet Reno.

Among Soler’s many awards are a Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellowship, the Koret Israel Prize, and the University of California, Public Health Heroes Award. The Center for the Advancement of Women honored her for advancing the power of women worldwide and she has also been honored by the Asian Women’s Shelter, California Governor’s Office and Women in Communications, among others. Soler has received an honorary doctorate from Simmons College and a Leadership Award from the Coro Center for Civic Leadership, and in 2007 she received the Mathew O. Tobriner Public Service Award from the Employment Law Center in San Francisco. Soler is also co-author of Ending Domestic Violence: Changing Public Perceptions/Halting the Epidemic.

Esta has been a friend of Peace Over Violence for a number of years, and we applaud her visionary nature and ongoing dedication to the issues of violence prevention with this Humanitarian Award for Violence Prevention.