Attendees raised $113,000 to help domestic violence victims at Eastside Domestic Violence Program’s (EDVP) “Hope Starts Here Breakfast” Tuesday morning.

Emceed by King 5 News,’ Jean Enerson, the event included guest speakers including King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg as well as Attorney General Rob McKenna and his wife Marilyn McKenna.

McKenna drew a connection between domestic violence and human trafficking – an issue he’s passionate about.

“Until around 30 years ago, we didn’t understand what domestic violence meant,” McKenna said. “It was called a domestic disturbance between two consenting adults.”

Society has come a long way in its understanding of the problem, however, now recognizing the oppressive relationship between an abuser and a victim.

One woman, Penny Arneson-Sweet, said she was able to move from victim to survivor through help from EDVP and the King County Prosecutor’s Office.

Arneson-Sweet’s story was disturbing. Sexually abused  by her step-father as a child and then not believed by her mother, Arneson-Sweet would later marry a man who beat her and her children, and raped her oldest daughter from a previous marriage.

The abuser was sentenced to 26 years in prison.

“I’m here to be a voice for people who cannot speak for themselves,” Arneson-Sweet said.

Sadly, her story is not all that uncommon, as evidenced by the harrowing, unedited phone conversations Keynote speaker, Satterberg, played in his presentation, including an abuser manipulating a victim on the phone from jail, and a woman who managed to call 911 while she was being dragged into the woods to be beaten by her fiancé.

Many women don’t cooperate with the prosecutor because they face isolation from family and friends, threats or lack of financial resources by leaving their abuser.

Satterberg said despite being “domestic” it’s a type of violence that’s worse than gang members killing one another on the street.

“Because where there was once love and hope of a future together, there are now broken bones, rapes and murders.”

All the speakers pointed to some grim statistics, making the need for aid even more crucial, including the fact that one in four women experience domestic violence in their lifetimes, and that one in three King County murders are domestic-violence related.

The poor economy has also taken its toll, resulting in an increase in urgent calls to EDVP for assistance and shelter.

Today, often faced with little money and few options, victims are staying in abusive relationships longer.

On a national scale, domestic violence costs $5.8 billion a year in health care, lost productivity and savings.

The situation is a grim at both a local and national level, but not hopeless, Satterberg said.

“Imagine a culture that raises young boys to never hit a human being,” he said. “Imagine the end of domestic violence in our lifetimes. You may say I’m just a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”