Prevention program taught

SANDERS COUNTY – Several members of the Sanders County community gathered at a church recently last week to learn what they can do to prevent domestic and sexual violence as well as what role they can play in support of victims.

The program whose mission is to end relationship violence by engaging local communities. The workshop featured two representatives from the Safe Havens Interfaith Partnership Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. The Boston-based organization promotes justice and hope for survivors and victims of relationship violence and elder abuse.

Led by Reverend Dr. Anne Marie Hunter, the workshop provided information for those in attendance on what they could do in Sanders County to support victims of abuse and how they could educate others about the problem.

“We were here to provide information and support to build partnerships between faith leaders and advocates,” Hunter said. “Many victims and survivors of sexual and domestic violence turn to their faith leaders or communities for help. So, people in faith communities want to know how to respond and where to refer for services and how to be supportive.”

Hunter said she does 18 workshops in rural communities such as Sanders County each year. She said the feedback from those who attended the workshop was extremely positive.

“We got terrific response,” Hunter said. “Everyone was really glad they came. It’s very engaging and interactive and thoughtful. The evaluations were very positive. This is part of a wider movement to empower faith leaders in communities to meet the needs of their congregants and their communities and to provide support. We are doing this across the country to push the conversation forward.”

According to information on the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) website, one in three women and one in four men have been the victim of some sort of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetimes.

One in five women and one in seven men have been the victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. On average, 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

Reverend Dr. Anne Marie Hunter is an ordained United Methodist pastor. As the director of Safe Havens, Anne Marie is a national leader on faith community responses to elder abuse and domestic violence. Anne Marie has taught at Drew University and Tufts University and published locally and nationally on both domestic violence and elder abuse.

She received the Humanitarian Award from the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore in 2010 for “furthering interfaith understanding” and “extraordinary efforts to build bridges between different faith communities.”

As Associate Director, Alyson Morse Katzman creates, coordinates, and implements Safe Havens’ local and national outreach, advocacy, and education regarding sexual and domestic violence and elder abuse. She is a lay leader in her synagogue and is actively involved in Greater Boston’s Jewish Domestic Violence Coalition as well as in Jewish Women International’s Interfaith Coalition Against Domestic Violence.