Intervention is essential to ending domestic violence. The abuse must literally be stopped. But just because there is no more violence in the home, the children who experienced abuse are still at risk of perpetuating it in their own homes as adults.
The key to ending the cycle is prevention.
Supporters and shelters have recently shifted their focus to children of survivors, as well as the general youth population, to educate and provide assistance concerning these issues. Not only does educating allow people to avoid getting into abusive relationships, it also teaches them when to recognize an unhealthy situation.
“I am noticing a lot of funders are looking at prevention because you can keep giving to intervention, which is very important, but it’s almost like, let’s go back a step,” said House of Ruth Prevention Educator Ashley Solis. “Where is this starting? How is this even happening in our society? We need to start from ground zero and work our way forward.”
Suzanne Aebischer, executive director of the House of Ruth, said that they are finding that women are leaving abusive relationships sooner. “They’re not staying as long and that has to do with a number of things…including the media attention to domestic violence, the prevention efforts that we work on and just more awareness in the community about it.”
While the House of Ruth focuses on community outreach, the Good Shepherd Shelter and Alexandria House concentrate on helping the children of the women who live there.
Good Shepherd has a school onsite, where teachers work with the 19 children living at the shelter. The curriculum is very flexible and teachers have resources, such as case managers and therapists, close by in case a student needs to take a break from the classroom.
“It’s really nice to have a little calm down center,” said Rachael Brugman, Good Shepherd Social Studies teacher. “In a regular school, you would just put them in timeout because you think that they’re acting out when they really just need to talk about what they’re going through.”
Similarly, Alexandria House provides therapy, tutoring and support groups for the children. The shelter provides a safe and comfortable environment where the children can be children.
Willa Habersham used to live at Alexandria House. She recently moved into her own apartment and got a job. Though she is no longer a resident, Habersham often returns to the shelter for support groups and services for her daughter.
Habersham explained, “Alexandria House became my mentor, and now they’re my daughter's as well.”