More than 130 people attended Saving Our Sisters (SOS), A Community Forum on Domestic Violence, held at the Missouri History Museum on September 5.
“This is a part of an ongoing commitment of the Missouri History Museum, to not only address the past, but address the present – and look to the future with solutions,” said Alex Detrick, assistant director of community education and events at the museum.
The free, public event, which also featured a resource fair, was hosted by the Gamma Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (AKA). The forum stemmed from Initiative Five, a social justice and human rights initiative of sorority. Lonita Rowland, member of the Gamma Omega Chapter of AKA, is chair of Initiative Five.
“We really work hard to offer relevant programming to the community,” said Shira Truitt, a member of the Gamma Omega Chapter of AKA.
The panel included Gina Mitten, state representative of the 83rd district; Paula Bryant, circuit judge of the 22nd Judicial Court; Capt. Amanda Snipes, special victims council at Scott Air Force Base (AFB); Pamela Dorsey, sexual assault prevention and response coordinator at Scott AFB; and Sylvia Jackson, executive director of the Women’s Safe House.
The Women’s Safe House is the oldest and largest locally-founded organization in St. Louis dedicated to helping women at risk.
Moderator Laurna Godwin, former broadcast journalist and co-founder of Vector Communications, began the forum by posing this question to audience: “How many of you know the signs of domestic violence?”
Audience members shouted out, “Self-deprivation” and “isolation.” As the expert, Jackson said that those were really great answers. However, she said domestic violence is also based on feelings.
“If it doesn’t feel right, then it’s probably not right,” Jackson said.
Godwin sought to dispel the myth that domestic violence was solely “black eyes and bruises” by reading a definition by the U.S. Department of Justice, which defines domestic violence as a pattern of abuse, occurring in opposite and same-sex relationships.
The abuse is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another partner. It can be physical, sexual, emotional, economic or psychological. It affects all people regardless of age, race, religion or socioeconomic status.
The panel agreed that more preventative resources are needed.
“What are we doing to help mitigate the cycle of abuse?” Mitten asked. Jackson said there is a need for primary prevention aimed at youth and children, like in-shelter support groups and by-stander intervention. She said, “There are more children in domestic violence shelters than there are women.”
She commended the St. Louis County Children’s Service Fund: Keeping Kids First as an excellent example of an agency working collaboratively with domestic violence and sexual assault programs.
During a Q-and-A session with the audience, one person anonymously asked: “Does education include an examination of the cultural mindset of male-entitlement?” Dorsey said she believed so. She responded that one should not minimize the impact that culture has on the socialization of gender.
“A person’s socialization will determine how they feel or think about women, depending on what they saw in the household,” she said.
Another audience member inquired why domestic violence discussions seem to primarily focus on one aspect of domestic violence, when males are also victims of domestic violence perpetrated by females?
Jackson agreed that women can be violent, too. Judge Bryant said she regularly encounters female-on-male domestic violence cases in her courtroom.
“We have quite a stigma,” Judge Bryant said, “and it takes a lot of courage for a man to come to get an order of protection because they’re embarrassed.”
Dorsey said she is a “survivor” of domestic violence, preferring that word over victim.
“If you call a person a victim, they will continue to see themselves as a victim,” Dorsey said. “When you call them a survivor, they see themselves as surviving or coming out of a bad situation.”
If you or someone you is a victim of domestic & sexual violence, please visit the Missouri Coalition against Domestic & Sexual Violence www.mocadsv.org If you are a man seeking help, please visit RAVEN www.ravenstl.org/dev/ .
Follow this reporter on Twitter: @BridjesONeil.
