A lifeline for abuse victims A lifeline for abuse victims (December 23, 2005)

Support Network aims to keep families together

By Julia Bernard

Although Nisa was apprehensive about moving to a new country and sad about leaving her family and friends behind, her soon-to-be husband assured her that life in the United States would be wonderful.

But the abuse began shortly after she arrived. The fact that she lived with her husband's family did nothing to protect her - they turned a blind eye.

Feeling lost and alone, Nisa stayed with her husband, hoping that things would get better. They didn't. After the birth of their first child, her husband tried to have her committed as emotionally unstable to gain the sole custody of their son. Nisa was too ashamed to tell her family what was going on, and she was unsure of her legal rights.

Finally, a neighbor talked to her about Support Network for Battered Women. Several calls to the help line convinced her to come in and meet with a counselor, who in turn referred her to an attorney so that she could begin to learn her rights. She began attending a weekly support group that helped her gain confidence, and she knows that should she ever need a shelter, she has a place to go.

For almost 30 years the Support Network for Battered Women, one of the six nonprofits benefiting this year from the Voice Holiday Fund, has been making a difference in the lives of women like Nisa.

What started with one woman's enthusiasm and a rented room in a church has become one of the largest domestic violence agencies in the country. From their main offices in Sunnyvale, 20 staff members and over 400 volunteers provide a variety of services that help women in Santa Clara County break free from their abusers and take back their lives.

Their mission is to "empower battered women, children and their families to live their lives free of violence while integrating a multicultural perspective." The network offers tools for community education, including teen dating violence prevention programs, professional training for health care, criminal justice and human resource personnel. It also offers legal support to victims, including attorney referral and a victim advocacy program.

The core program of the network, however, continues to be a 24-hour, toll-free bilingual crisis intervention line and an emergency shelter that houses about 200 women every year.

"The client services program is the most direct way to reach out to women," said Anne Sorden, a development associate who has been with the agency for nearly 10 years.

The crisis line receives about 5,000 calls a year and offers counseling sessions as well as support groups in English and Spanish. The network has also recently introduced the La Familia Program, geared toward the families that struggle with issues of violence but want to remain together.

Advocates visit each family at home to devise an individual program with the goal of helping all members of the family break the vicious cycle.

Nisa's case illustrates how Support Network's tactics have changed over time. While traditionally the crisis line counselors would encourage abuse victims to leave, they now try to provide them with information and support while leaving the most important decision in their hands.

"Domestic violence is a subject that is difficult to talk about and is difficult to understand," said Sorden, "A woman rarely finds herself a victim of domestic violence overnight. It's a continuing process during which her ability to make decisions is gradually taken away. Our goal is to help her re-discover the power she has, to bring her to the place where she would think, "I am strong, I can work through this."

E-mail Julia Bernard at jbernard@mv-voice.com

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