Younity will celebrate three decades of advocacy, survivor support, and community partnership during its 30th Annual Awards Dinner on Thursday, May 28.
The event is scheduled from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Trenton Country Club and will bring together community leaders, advocates, healthcare professionals, legal and business leaders, volunteers, and supporters for an evening recognizing individuals and organizations whose work reflects Younity’s mission.
Formerly known as Womanspace, Younity provides services throughout Mercer County for survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking, including emergency shelter, crisis intervention, counseling, prevention education, advocacy services, and a 24-hour hotline. Organizers say the annual dinner has become one of the organization’s signature fundraising and awareness events over the past three decades.
This year’s milestone event will celebrate “30 years of community, courage, and connection” while reflecting on the organization’s continuing efforts to strengthen support systems for victim-survivors and expand public awareness surrounding abuse and violence prevention.
What began as a single evening of recognition has evolved into a longstanding community tradition honoring leadership, celebrating impact, and sustaining programs supporting victim-survivors throughout Mercer County.
This year’s honorees include Amna Nawaz, volunteer advocate Tina Karkera, and the Trenton Community Street Team.
Nawaz, co-anchor and co-managing editor of PBS NewsHour, will receive the Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award, which recognizes individuals whose work advances awareness, justice, dignity, and safety for those affected by abuse.
The award is named for one of Younity’s founders, who helped bring public attention to domestic violence at a time when the issue was often hidden from public discussion and treated as a private matter rather than a community concern.
Barbara Boggs Sigmund believed that protecting those most vulnerable to abuse was a shared community responsibility. She worked to elevate domestic violence awareness through public visibility, education, and civic leadership, helping lay the foundation for Younity’s survivor-centered approach and prevention efforts.
Born in Virginia to Pakistani immigrant parents, Nawaz graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in politics, philosophy, and economics before beginning a journalism career that included reporting roles with ABC News and NBC News prior to joining PBS NewsHour.
She later became the program’s first Asian American co-anchor and has built a national reputation for reporting focused on justice, violence, public policy, inequity, and institutional accountability.
Nawaz’s reporting has examined domestic violence, survivor criminalization, systemic inequities, reproductive healthcare policy, and abuse within military institutions. Her work has explored how legal, cultural, and institutional systems can either protect survivors or place them at greater risk.
Event materials cite Nawaz’s reporting on the criminalization of domestic violence survivors and the ways trauma is often overlooked within the criminal justice system.
An estimated 70 to 80 percent of women in U.S. prisons are survivors of domestic violence. Her reporting has examined how women are sometimes incarcerated for actions connected to survival, coercion, or self-protection rather than criminal intent.
Younity also highlighted Nawaz’s reporting involving abuse within military institutions, including coverage connected to former Army Major and OB-GYN Blaine McGraw, who had been stationed at Fort Hood and in Hawaiʻi.
According to the organization, Nawaz interviewed women abused by McGraw while examining institutional failures, survivor intimidation, and accountability issues tied to one of the largest sexual abuse scandals in recent U.S. military history.
Additional reporting by Nawaz has explored the relationship between domestic violence and reproductive healthcare policy, including how pregnancy and postpartum periods can become especially dangerous times within abusive relationships.
She has also reported on court rulings involving firearm restrictions connected to domestic violence restraining orders and asylum protections for survivors of domestic and sexual violence seeking refuge in the United States.
Younity President and CEO Nathalie S. Nelson said Nawaz’s journalism helps bring public understanding to issues often hidden from public discussion.
“Amna Nawaz’s work brings visibility to issues that are too often overlooked or misunderstood,” Nelson said. “By bringing lived experiences into policy conversations, she helps people understand what these issues mean in real life for individuals and families. This kind of reporting not only informs, but it also has the power to influence how communities respond and how systems evolve.”
Younity said it selected Nawaz because her reporting reflects the purpose of the Barbara Boggs Sigmund Award: using one’s voice and platform to bring hidden harm into public awareness, challenge injustice, and help create safer and more informed communities.
Tina Karkera will receive the Edwin W. Schmierer Award for Outstanding Volunteer Service in recognition of her work supporting victim-survivors through Younity’s Response Team. The award honors volunteers whose work reflects compassion, reliability, dedication, and long-term service to the organization’s mission.
For the past five years, Karkera has served as a trained advocate responding to crisis situations involving domestic and sexual violence throughout Mercer County. In that role, she assists victim-survivors during hospital response calls, police interventions, and other moments immediately following incidents of abuse or violence. She provides emotional support, guidance, and advocacy during some of the most difficult moments in survivors’ lives.
Professionally, Karkera serves as senior counsel for Chubb’s Personal Risk Services for North America. She graduated from the University of Florida and later earned her law degree from American University’s Washington College of Law.
Her interest in advocacy and victim support began long before her legal career. While in high school, she volunteered at a rape crisis center, assisting at a safe house and helping care for children while their mothers attended counseling sessions. During college, she interned with Washington, D.C.’s Office of the Corporation Counsel, where she worked on child abuse and neglect cases.
Although Karkera ultimately pursued corporate and insurance law professionally, Younity materials state that her interest in supporting victim-survivors remained a constant priority. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when Younity began offering virtual advocate training, she joined the program and became actively involved in crisis response work.
Karkera said domestic and sexual violence often affects entire communities, workplaces, schools, and social networks.
“People often think of this kind of violence as a private family matter to be handled quietly, but the effects ripple outward,” Karkera said. “It shows up in our schools with children who may be acting out, or in our workplaces with friends or colleagues who may be isolating themselves and aren’t engaged. When people are harmed in what is supposed to be their sanctuary, their home, they take that trauma with them outside the home. That’s why communities have such an important role in supporting victim-survivors.”
She also said many people underestimate how widespread domestic and sexual violence remain.
“If we believe the statistics, and I do, every one of us knows someone who has experienced domestic or sexual violence, even if we don’t realize it,” Karkera said.
Karkera also stressed the importance of simply being present for survivors during moments of crisis.
“Sometimes just showing up makes a difference,” Karkera said. “Someone has been through one of the worst moments of their lives and they’ve taken the brave step to say ‘help me.’ In those moments, being there so they feel less alone matters.”
Nelson described Karkera as an example of “the very best of what it means to be a volunteer advocate.”
“She shows up with compassion, consistency, and a deep respect for every person she serves,” Nelson said. “In moments that can feel overwhelming or uncertain, her presence brings reassurance and support when it is needed most.”
The Trenton Community Street Team will receive the Younity Award for Outstanding Community Partner for its violence prevention, intervention, outreach, and community support efforts in Trenton neighborhoods. Event materials state that the organization works “at the intersection of public safety, violence prevention, and community healing” through outreach programs and direct support services designed to strengthen neighborhoods and build trust within the community.
The organization has become known throughout Trenton for violence interruption work, mentorship efforts, community engagement initiatives, and support programs designed to help reduce cycles of violence and retaliation.
The partnership between the two organizations reflects a shared commitment to prevention, accountability, community healing, and long-term support for victim-survivors and neighborhoods affected by violence.
This year’s event will also feature an online silent auction with art, dining packages, travel experiences, golf outings, sports and entertainment packages, wellness experiences, Broadway tickets, private tours, original artwork, and local experiences available for bidding. Organizers said online bidding will continue through the evening of the awards dinner.
More information is available at younitynj.org.
