Today marks the first day of October. Domestic Violence Awareness Month – and Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Such an important month, such devastating damage inflicted. We have all known someone affected by cancer – and we have likely all known someone who has been impacted by domestic violence, even if we aren’t aware of it. During October, we will hear a lot about breast cancer and…
The Full Frame Initiative (FFI) is a national nonprofit organization that works to break cycles of poverty and violence through systems change. FFI believes lasting change occurs when people are supported in the full frame of their lives – meaning people are dealing with complex problems and need multi-faceted support. REACH has been working with FFI for over five years because we agree that domestic violence…
Last week, we introduced you to Karin Raye, an adjunct professor at Lasell College and a panelist at this year’s REACH Annual Meeting. Read on for the second in our two-part series, “Ask the Professor.” When we hear about DV in the news, it can feel overwhelming. What do you believe community members, friends, and family can do in their personal lives and in their communities…
Those of you who attended our Annual Meeting in June had the pleasure of hearing from several distinguished panelists, including Professor Karin Raye from Lasell College, who teaches Domestic Violence Advocacy, Children and Violence, Juvenile Justice, Victimology and other courses in the Criminal Justice Department as well as a First Year seminar on Activism. Karin received her BA in History and African American Studies from Colgate…
This past spring, Dana Hall senior Lindsey Cohen had the unique opportunity to accompany some of REACH’s advocates to court as part of her senior project. Her journal about her experiences offers a glimpse of what life is like for our advocates and survivors as they navigate the court system… Day 1 Today I went into REACH for my first day, which, given the nature of…
Have you ever wondered how the experiences you had as a baby shaped your personality as an adult? Can the patterns we form in relationships with our family be traced back to our angst-filled teen years, or did they start even earlier than that? The latest research tells us that experiences that occur even at that young age can permanently alter the structure and chemistry of…
Whether we realize it or not, the stories we hear in the news profoundly influence the way we view perpetrators of domestic violence. Over the past few months, we heard Jared Remy plead guilty to the first degree murder of his lategirlfriend, Jennifer Martel. Soon after, we heard the disturbing and terrible news of a stranger rape in Arlington at the hands of a convicted…
Today Jared Remy pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Jennifer Martel. While it may seem like this story has ended with a sentence of life in prison without parole, the impact this tragedy has on the lives of the people who knew and cared about Jennifer is far from over. No court can bring back the life of a young woman, a mother, a best…
We’ve discussed safety planning before on this blog, but we wanted to bring you a different perspective, first hand from someone who answers our hotline. The following piece was written by one of our Advocates.
REACH recently welcomed our new Youth Education Specialist, Dani Patrick, to our staff. Read on to get to know Dani a little bit: Tell us a little about yourself. (Where did you grow up/go to school/work before this?) I spend most of my childhood in Flagstaff, Arizona before moving to Connecticut in 2009 to attend Wesleyan University. At Wesleyan, I majored in Feminist, Gender, and…
