Transitioning Times

Transitions is pleased to have received two volunteers through Americorps, continuing our relationship with this valuable program.  Disneyanna is providing direct services to child clients and Ethel is serving as a volunteer in our Education Department.  They started working in September and have been settling in nicely.  Please see the introductions they provided below. My name is Ethel Friar.   During the last fifteen years I have had many opportunities to travel throughout the U.S. and Asia.   Although my first love is writing (and reading) fiction, I have volunteered extensively in the different places where I have lived – in orphanages, international schools, private tutoring, churches, and libraries.   My favorite volunteer positions were teaching English to Chinese children in Hsinchu, Taiwan, and in the Montessori classroom at the Soong Ching Ling Kindergarten in Shanghai, China.   With this in mind, I am greatly looking forward to the year ahead, working as an Education O

As many of you may know by now October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.   When discussing domestic violence it is important to discuss the issue of bullying.   Initially, bullying may not seem to be related to domestic violence.   However, a number of studies and researchers have found a connection between bullying and domestic violence, and have suggested that by teaching students about bullying we may be able to prevent domestic violence in the future. In one study led by Harvard School of Public Health, researchers found that those who act abusively towards others are likely to do so through childhood even into adulthood.   The study found a link between bullying others at school and domestic violence later in life.   Those who are bullies and are abusive in their younger years do not always outgrow these abusive behaviors. This fact leads to the question what influences those who bully?   One study by the Center for Disease control, found that those who bully and even th

When individuals recognize the abuse in their lives, they frequently reach out to others for help. Victims of abuse may appeal to friends, family, doctors, counselors, Children and Youth workers, Transitions, law enforcement, the courts, etc. or any combination thereof for assistance in ending the violence. Transitions regularly receives referrals from these various sources to provide one of our many services–Legal Advocacy. What does a Legal Advocate do? Simply put… ‘Trained staff provide clarification of the legal process and transactions, assist clients in filing Protection From Abuse (PFA) Orders and accompany victims to court hearings’ (Transitions, 2011). In reality legal advocates provide multiple services in addition to explaining legal options, assisting with paperwork and accompanying to hearings. We also talk about the violence, discuss safety planning with victims, and make referrals to other agencies, which can provide services specific to individuals needs e.g.

Imagine getting physically abused or even raped by someone you thought you trusted. The mere idea of it is enough to send chills down someone’s spine. Yet statistics depict a grave situation where frequencies of such events keep increasing at a staggering rate. The Clothesline Project, established in 1990 by a coalition of women who had suffered some form of domestic abuse, has become one of the many prolific means of relating stories of survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. With 500 projects in 41 states and 51 countries, the Project involves survivors to write messages on shirts regarding their experience with domestic violence or sexual abuse and hang them on a clothesline. Supporters of survivors can also write encouraging messages to boost self-esteem of survivors and also to commemorate victims who had passed away because of domestic violence and assault. The uniqueness of the project lies in the fact that it provides freedom to anyone making the shirts in any way t