At Martha's Vineyard Community Services, the support center for people who've been subjected to domestic or sexual abuse is now called CONNECT to end violence. Formerly known as Woman's Support Services, CONNECT provides individual and group services, legal and medical advocacy, and around-the-clock crisis response to both women and men.
"Abuse is a huge issue," says Kealee Rainaud, the Child Witness to Violence advocate for CONNECT. "It is an issue everywhere, and CONNECT puts together a ton of resources to fight it. We have the rape crisis hotline, an abuse hotline. We have court advocacy assisting people with restraining orders and child probate issues. We have medical advocacy for people who need to go to the hospital to do a rape kit, or after domestic abuse. We have such important services; we really needed a name people could remember. It also has worked better in the high school, which is a large aspect of the group's focus right now."
From left: CONNECT advocate Chelsey Perham, director Carrie Giacomini-White, and volunteer coordinator Aita Romain make themselves available for anyone affected by domestic abuse.
Photo by Ralph Stewart
The organization has recently been working in the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) to raise awareness about abuse in the adolescent population. The move into the high school began in 2007, when CONNECT decided to focus on prevention, rather than solely on intervention.
Ms. Rainaud thinks the focus of the center has changed for the better. "I know that since we have changed, we have made a large piece of what we do prevention and community work, not just waiting for abuse to be reported, but trying to make people aware before it does," she says. "It is about getting our name out there. We did our first walk last summer, through Edgartown, because we want to be more visible. We want to change the way people handle this issue, and get it out it the open and not be private, as it stereotypically is."
In 2007, Carrie B. Giacomini-White became CONNECT's director. With more than 12 years of experience in community and social service, certification as a guidance counselor, and a master's degree in clinical psychology, she began expanding the program. The need to make the organization more recognizable was what prompted her to change the name from Woman's Support Services to CONNECT.
"We wanted to make the name more general," says Ms. Giacomini-White. "Of course the majority of the work we do is with women, but we wanted to make it obvious we are available to work with anyone affected by violence, including children and men. We wanted to make it a community issue, and we are not just focused on domestic violence, but verbal, financial, sexual. We want to make it something people talk about. Ideally, we want to help people connect."
The first meeting of the student-based Teen Violence Awareness Group was held in February. On March 26, CONNECT handed out fortune cookies containing personalized statistics and facts about domestic and sexual violence: One in five Martha's Vineyard Regional High School students will report being in an abusive relationship; one in four girls from Martha's Vineyard will be raped in their lifetime; 186 restraining orders were issued on Martha's Vineyard in the past two years; one in four Island students have witnessed abuse in their homes.
Re-worded from national statistics to make it more relatable to high-school students, the cookies were handed out during lunch period by student volunteers and two CONNECT advocates, Chelsey Perham and Meaghan Hughes, who were available to address students questions and concerns.
They found that students were not only interested in the information they were providing, but were interested in how it affected their community.
"We went in thinking we were going to try and raise interest by relating it to the whole Rihanna and Chris Brown incident," explains Aita Romain, the volunteer coordinator for CONNECT, referring to the alleged abuse of the famous pop star Rihanna by her boyfriend, Chris Brown. "But the students were more interested in their own community and what was happening locally. The group is about empowering people to take control over their lives, but also what to do when someone you know is being abused. Many of the people we talk to at the high school are people who know someone in an abusive relationship, want to know what to do about it, and figure out how to be a good friend."
The department already had a presence in the grade and middle schools, but a survey at the high school showed a lack of knowledge both on what was considered abuse, and what services were available to people in an abusive relationship, made the need more apparent.
The Martha's Vineyard Assessment meeting echoed the need to make information more available to adolescents. "People wanted to know if we were reaching the kids," Ms. Romain continues. "They wanted to know if adolescents had the information they needed, because it is important to get younger people involved. [Community Services] is in a unique situation, being right across the street from the high school. We are accessible. The younger generation is so connected now; with MySpace and Facebook they have a lot of influence over the community and over each other. If you get them the information, they can share it. Getting them involved is an important part of prevention."
The Teen Violence Awareness Group will continue to meet at Martha's Vineyard Regional High School, with the goal of holding one outreach event each month. They also hope the meetings will help them find volunteers, which they need, especially as translators.
Ms. Giacomini-White believes the department is headed it the right direction. "We have been doing a lot of the leg work, and planting the seeds, especially with the work in the schools," she explains. "It is always nice to see instant results, to be able to see the change immediately - but with prevention, we are planting small seeds for the future. I like to think that if I moved off-Island, and came back in 20 years, what we are doing now would still be having an effect, because we are trying to change the way people think. It is important. Right now, what we are doing is really trying to look more at the long term."
Katy Plasse is a freelance writer living in Chilmark.
