Roberta L. Hacker:  

Life Roberta L. Hacker has been a leader in helping to reduce domestic violence in Philadelphia since 1968. In 1988, she became the Executive Director of Women In Transition (WIT), Inc., a Philadelphia-based non-profit agency for women who are experiencing domestic violence and/or substance abuse. Before Women In Transition, Ms. Hacker served as Executive Director of Voyage House, Philadelphia's premier agency serving runaway and homeless youth, from 1974 to 1985. Following that, she served as Interim Director of Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY), where she worked in the areas of child welfare, juvenile justice, child health and public education. Ms. Hacker began her advocacy career in 1967 as a Community Liaison for Horizon House, where she worked with deinstitionalized psychiatric patients to help them adjust to independent community living. Through her work with domestic violence and child abuse, Ms. Hacker identified a strong linkage between the two and utilized an incredible amount of her own time in the mid 1990s to establish and coordinate a local Domestic Violence Coalition. Her leadership led to Philadelphia’s first city-wide meeting between domestic violence advocates and children’s advocates on the linkages of domestic violence and child abuse. In 2002, Ms. Hacker sought and received funding for Philadelphia’s first Domestic Violence Summit (held in July, 2003) which brought together personnel from various agencies to work together to ensure that battered women and their children receive optimum services from multiple systems. Ms. Hacker also initiated the creation of the Philadelphia Domestic Violence Hotline Collaboration, leading the county’s four domestic violence programs in providing 24-hour hotline coverage and 24-hour bi-lingual access. Other leade...Expand for more