State legislators and activists for the prevention of violence toward women made a public plea for help in education, counseling and housing for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence during a program yesterday at the State House.
“Our unity is our power, is our strength, is our hope,” said Judy Beals, Executive Director of Jane Doe, Inc., a Massachusetts coalition against sexual assault and domestic violence and the group that organized the program.
The program is directed toward workers whose job is to prevent domestic violence and sexual assault.
Advocates stressed lobbying tactics for domestic violence and sexual assault issues. They seek a $1.2 million budget increase for Fiscal Year 2002 for rape prevention and victim services, as well as maintaining Gov. Paul Cellucci’s suggested allocation of a $1.6 million budget increase for domestic violence programs, including transitional living services and AmeriCorps programs.
“Just tell them the truth,” Beals said. “Tell them the truth about the needs of survivors and their children that you are seeing everyday. Tell them the truth about the salaries that you have to pay your staff and the issues you face. Tell them the truth that we need more to do this right. Tell them we can no longer afford to do this lifesaving line of work as a favor to the people of the state.”
One of the items in the rape prevention and victim services proposed budget would increase the number of sexual assault response teams. The team consists of a sexual assault nurse examiner and a rape crisis counselor who support the victim while legally conducting a sexual assault forensic exam.
Due to evidence collected by the sexual assault nurse examiners and their expert testimony, all Massachusetts trials of cases involving them have led to convictions, according to information provided by Jane Doe.
Another aspect of the budget expansion would increase prevention education for children in local middle and high schools as well as to adults through professional training programs and community education.
“We have not yet found out how to prevent the first instance from happening. But what we do know is there doesn’t need to be 200 victims,” said Nancy Scannell, Associate Executive Director of Public Affairs for Jane Doe, Inc. “We ought to be able to have a world in which people come forward the first time so that even if we cannot stop the tragedy of one, we can certainly stop the atrocity of 200.”
Advocates also stressed the need to move domestic violence victims out of emergency shelters and to help them live independently.
“I wish we could say, ‘We are closing the doors. Our work is done. Domestic violence is over. We can concentrate on other efforts,’” said Sen. Cheryl Jacques (D-Norfolk).
“The victories that we’ve had should help you and energize you to go and you should keep the Jane Doe slogan in mind as you do it: We will honor their lives by acting for change,” said Rep. Carol Donovan (D-Woburn).
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