In an attempt to raise support for what they consider an understaffed branch of social justice, victims, witnesses, and counselors gathered in Barnard Hall Tuesday night to discuss issues of age and ethnicity in domestic violence.
The panel, which aimed to work through difficult areas with the help of a diverse audience of students and outsiders, included professionals from Sanctuary for Families, Domestic Violence Prevention Program Inc., the Arab American Family Support Center, and the Columbia University Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Program. As much as the panel called for volunteerism, it also offered strategies for the current volunteers who had trouble confronting and ultimately reaching out to abused individuals.
“Don’t call your clients illegal,” Evelyn Garcia, director for education, outreach, and hotline services of the Violence Intervention Program, told the crowd, warning against the prejudice that can often get in the way of effective counseling for illegal immigrants
Yasmeen Hamza, who has experience in steering battered Jewish and Arab women to the right resources, echoed this advice. “Let them explain their values, customs, and beliefs,” she said.
Participants acknowledged the difficulties of maintaining one’s composure as a counselor. Volunteers can become discouraged by victims, which damages their relationship. A woman working at a teen pregnancy support organization, who was granted anonymity to protect the identities of the victims she serves, recounted a violent argument between a victim and a volunteer.
The girl started “giving attitude to the staff member,” the woman said, adding that the girl yelled things like, “You’re not my mom!” The volunteer finally snapped back, “If I were your mom, you wouldn’t be here!”
Assistant Director of Aftercare Jessica Fabian emphasized the need to rise above these circumstances, because the victims are typically “overwhelmed.” Aftercare is an organization that guides abuse victims out of the shelter and into everyday life.
Domestic violence may not have a large impact on university
campuses, but Karen Singleton, a clinical psychologist and the director of the University’s Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Program, said that Columbia needs to build a stronger vanguard. Creating a healthier environment on campus is not easy, she said, but the University can start by motivating men to take a greater part in the conversation.
As community continues to cut across racial boundaries, Hamza stressed that stereotyping is not uncommon. “Even if you have two Egyptian families,” she said, differences are vast within the subgroups.
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