Transitioning Times

We've had another eventful October, honoring domestic violence survivors by recognizing the month as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Hope you saw the displays at our local libraries: Our display at the Headstart Health Fair: Eckie is shown with a new haircut and two students at Empire Beauty School to celebrate their annual Cut It Out Event: Our first Invinci-Bowl Event, held at Best Bowl in Selinsgrove: Getting ready to start bowling! Susan speaking to the crowd Tara, encouraging a patron to purchase hot dogs, chips, soda and/or cookies! Susan, with the winning team, from Wood-Mode We also participated in #PurpleThursday, created by the National Network to End Domestic Violence.  Here are the pictures submitted to us of people honoring this day. Thanks to all who helped us commemorate October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month!

Young children may not understand exactly what is going down between their parents and caregivers, but they do know when they are in danger and they are good at detecting strong negative emotion.  When there is an abusive parent who is doing or has done damage, it is important for them to know that there is still a parent that they can trust.  Let that parent be YOU! In order to build and keep the trust your child has in you, it is important to keep close to your child physically.  Keep your children close to you at this time. Kiss and hug them, look in their eyes when you speak to them. Smile and laugh at their attempts to be cute or funny.  Make sure that they get their meals and snacks – take the time to eat with them and to talk about normal things. It is also important that your children keep a normal bedtime and playtime, as well as a daily bath. Reading to your children is especially important during this time – it will give a child a sense of securit...

Kids who flee their homes to avoid domestic violence will often end up homeless.  These children face many challenges.  Boys and girls who must leave violent homes are more likely than their peers to experience emotional and behavioral troubles.  They are more apt to engage in physical or emotional bullying, or conversely, be victimized by bullies.  Child victims of domestic violence lose much of their capacity to concentrate and thereby learn.  Their trust in adults has been damaged, and can take months, sometimes years to restore.  On top of the immediate effects of homelessness due to violence, children face increased risk of developmental and physical impairment.  Limited nutrition and poor health care are just two of the many instances that are a direct result of homelessness.  It is a severely stressful situation for children to leave not only the abusive parent, but their homes, their pets, their belongings, and their familiar neighb...

  Growing up in a small town with, how do they say,” a million dollar family”? A mother, father, brother and me, the girl.  My family was somewhat different for that time of life.  My mom worked outside the home in a factory where my father also worked.  They married young and had children right away. My father grew up in a very abusive family. His father was a truck driver and farmer and his mother kept the home fires burning.  My dad grew up very fast tending to the family farm before and after school. I have been told that the gentle man I knew as a grandfather was a tyrant in his younger years; he would beat my dad with his belt until his butt would be bleed.  There were also times that he physically punched my father and would knock him around until he couldn’t stand. It seemed that my grandfather did not lift a hand to correct my father’s older sister or a much younger brother, the focus of his abuse was my father.  My grandmother would not in...

The month of October is a special one for me and my family. Its not my birthday or a special family holiday. Its not an anniversary or anything like that.... October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Domestic violence is so common.... SO COMMON in fact that one in four women will experience it at some point in their lives. One in four- 25%!! That's outrageous!! And that doesnt include men. (In 2005 there were 78,180 reported cases of men who were abused by their partners- heterosexual and homosexual) The reason why this month is so important to my family is because my mother (That beautiful woman you see above) lost her life to domestic violence. I'm not going to put every detail here, that would take forever. But its extremely important for me to point out a few things here. At the risk of sounding preachy, I strongly urge you to read and take something from this. That's all I ask.... I never saw my mom get hit. Most people associate domestic violen...

Domestic Violence in the NFL is a growing concern. A USA Today database that tracks players from 2000 to today showed that there were 87 domestic violence arrests among 80 players. This number may seem low to some, however, an analysis shows that they account for 48% of the violent crimes committed by NFL players. Today there are 12 active players with domestic violence arrests. Over the past few months there had been many instances of domestic violence reports within the NFL. Since the increase of reported cases and criticism, the commissioner, Roger Goodell, has revamped the punishment that is handed down to the NFL personnel, but is it enough? In the past players were suspended for a game or two, and if the charges were reduced the severity of the punishment was reduced. If the charges were dropped, the player’s name was cleared. This surely was not enough, because even though the charges were reduced or dropped doesn’t mean the incident didn’t happen. The new revamped poli...