As we kick off 2018, we wanted to pause and reflect on the past year. 2017 was a year of unprecedented challenges, in the world around us and also for REACH as an agency. At the end of 2016, we tried to focus on healing and being a resource for safety in a time of uncertainty following a divisive election. We kicked off 2017 talking about…
Last March, my husband and I experienced the biggest surprise of our lives. When I was just under 32 weeks pregnant, our daughter decided she was ready to be born. As a result, the first several weeks of her life were spent in the Brigham and Women’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The care our family received there was out of this world; each day she…
It’s official! REACH has finally moved! I’m writing this to you from my brand-new office here in REACH’s new location. I can’t tell you where exactly that is, because we don’t publish our address. But trust me when I tell you it’s very close to the old one, and perfect for us. Over the past several years, we’ve looked at a lot of office spaces. We…
“In a healthy relationship, both individuals’ worlds grow larger. In an unhealthy relationship, one person’s world gets bigger while they use controlling behaviors to make their partner’s world shrink smaller and smaller.” I’ve said some variation of the above statement in countless trainings on domestic violence, and recently it has been at the forefront of my mind. Here at REACH, we’ve been thinking a lot…
So much has happened since our last update! At that time, we were still awaiting our building permits and living very much in the hypothetical – examining the designer’s renderings, comparing flooring samples, looking at photographs of furniture. But as you read this, permits have been pulled, demolition has happened, and things are in motion! What’s taking shape now is about much more than our new…
As the school year gets into full swing, that means a couple of things for those of us here at REACH. First – backpacks! We are so grateful to our generous donors and to School on Wheels of Massachusetts for helping us assemble and distribute more than 200 backpacks to children of domestic violence survivors. Now that the mountains of backpacks around the office have dwindled…
In the midst of difficult times, we want to update you on our ‘big move’ and thank you so much for your support. We shared the beginning of our move process back in June and will continue to share updates as work progresses. We hope you saw the photo from the Cummings Foundation celebration back on June 8. Our Executive Director Laura R. Van Zandt was…
I am thinking about interdependence. I woke up on the 4th of July to beautiful weather and a day off for me and my family. How wonderful. And why: because of independence or because of interdependence? Do any of us function truly independently? Does anyone have all the capacities necessary to live a full life? When the framers talked about independence, they described the ability…
If you’re familiar with REACH, hopefully you know that we try to offer the best support possible to domestic violence survivors by being knowledgeable about, and sensitive to, the effects of trauma. But have you ever wondered how our advocates come to understand so much about trauma? Or how domestic violence advocates avoid burnout? How do they hear difficult stories day in and day out without…
“There is a stomach-turning predictability to it,” said Monica McLaughlin, deputy director of public policy at the National Network to End Domestic Violence. “Whenever we hear of events such as these, those of us who work on domestic violence know there will be a history of domestic violence uncovered.” I am one of those who work on domestic violence – and indeed when I heard about…
