The following column was written by Middlesex County Sheriff Peter J. Koutoujian and our Executive Director Laura Van Zandt: Fourteen years ago this month, an explosion rocked an Everett apartment killing a woman and changing forever the way we look at the issue of stalking in Massachusetts. In 2000, Sandra Berfield – a resident of Everett who worked as a waitress in Medford – was murdered…
REACH is excited to announce that we will have a presence in the 2014 Boston Marathon! A good friend of our organization, Erica, is running this year’s Marathon to raise funds for REACH. We asked her to tell you in her own words a little about herself and why she is running for REACH: I grew up in New England. As a result, the Boston Marathon…
Maybe you’ve signed up for a new gym membership, cleaned out all the junk food from your cabinets and replaced it with healthy snacks, or have a 5-day streak going of setting your alarm and getting up earlier. Whether you’re quitting smoking or taking up yoga, the start of a new year is a great time to decide to make positive changes in our lives and…
It’s hard to believe but we are in the final hours of 2013, staring 2014 in the face. While it’s important to make New Year’s resolutions and look to the future (hint: stay tuned for next week’s blog), we thought we’d pause first to look back at 2013. In January, we launched our blog and social media outreach through Facebook and Twitter. You have helped us…
Let’s face it, parenting, especially in this day and age, is tough for anyone. But it can be especially tough for someone who is a survivor of domestic violence. Dealing with the effects of their own trauma and at the same time learning or re-learning parenting skills presents a unique set of challenges.In our Child and Adolescent Therapy Program, we not only work with children and…
If your relatives are bolting from the Thanksgiving table to line up for Black Friday sales that start at midnight, if your coworkers seem oddly distracted and glued to their web browser the following Monday, it probably means they’ve been sucked in by the allure of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It seems every year retailers find new ways to entice us to the idea that…
Once again we are sickened to hear of an apparent domestic violence homicide in our service area. Tragedies like what has unfolded in Arlington are a stark reminder that the warning signs of abuse are not always easy to spot, and that domestic violence happens in all types of relationships, in all types of communities. Our deepest sympathies go out to those who are suffering from…
Now that Domestic Violence Awareness Month is over, attention in the REACH office turns to our annual Holiday Gift Program. To explain why this program is so important, we thought we’d let you hear straight from a survivor what receiving gifts at holiday time meant to her. I had been urged by an advocate with REACH to do a Holiday Gift list. I reluctantly fell for…
“Traumatized” is a word that gets tossed around a lot. At one time or another we’ve all been ‘traumatized’ by a sports team’s loss, a mortifying social experience, or a plot twist on our favorite show. But if we peel back the layers of pop culture references, what does it actually mean to be traumatized, and what does that mean for survivors of domestic violence? What…
As you can imagine, Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM) is a busy time of year here at REACH. We started off the month with our Waltham Neighborhoods Fall Festival, which brought community members out on a Saturday afternoon to get to know one another, hear some great music, and participate in fun group activities. Then, with a little less than two weeks to go until our…
