Category: Miscellaneous

Q&A With Nate, Shelter Volunteer

This week we are bidding a reluctant farewell to one of our superstar volunteers, Nathan Hand. Before he left, we sat him down for a little Q&A so that our readers could get to know him a little bit and appreciate him as we have…

Meet Our New Fall Festival Coordinator

REACH is pleased to welcome a new face to our office! Debora Hoffman has joined us as a consultant to help coordinate the annual Waltham Neighborhoods Fall Festival (which is taking place on Saturday September 26th so mark your calendars!). We sat down for a little Q&A to get to know Debora. Tell us a little bit about yourself I was an English major who later…

My Time with REACH

By E.B., Guest Blogger I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to shadow and learn from Jessica [Teperow, Director of Prevention Programs] and Dani [Patrick, Youth Education Specialist] at REACH. I became interested in learning more about REACH as well as domestic violence and sexual assault after listening to Jessica speak at my school to all of the seniors about the topic, and about helping…

Say Hi Week 2015 Recap

A big “thank you” to everyone who made last week’s Say Hi to Your Neighbors Week in Waltham a reality. We kicked off the week on Monday morning, bright and early on a chilly morning (thankfully not quite as cold as last year!) handing out coffee and saying hi to commuters at two train stations in town. At a City Council meeting that evening, Councilors Diane…

Ask the Professor: Part 2

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…

Ask the Professor: Part 1

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…

The Temptation and the Danger of the “Monster Myth”

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…

Safety Planning: An Advocate’s Perspective

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.

What April Means to Me

Over the past few days, it has finally started to feel like spring. After a dark and harsh winter, the beginning of April has brought us warmer weather and abundant sunshine; we see the buds of flowers poking through the dirt and we begin to feel a sense of hope that winter might be finally over. As some of you may know, April is Sexual Assault…

Media Coverage of the Remy Case: What’s Missing from the Conversation

Following an in-depth article by Eric Moskowitz in the Boston Globe early this week, there has been a lot of conversation in the media and in the community about domestic violence. Columnists like Yvonne Abraham and legislators like Speaker DeLeo have used this opportunity to educate the public that, while horrifying, the leniency that Jared Remy experienced in the courtroom is not a rare occurrence. For…