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Date: 2/22/2022
NORTHAMPTON – Safe Passage is doing everything they can to curb the COVID-19 pandemic while also offering their important services centered around providing support and resources for domestic violence survivors.
“We have built-in processes to monitor community positivity rates,” said Marianne Winters, the executive director of Safe Passage. “We have put in place protocols based on the guidance that we are getting often from the Department of Public Health and local communities.”
Safe Passage, similar to most places, has experienced its own personal hardships over the past couple of years, namely not having the ability to obtain a sufficient number of masks early on in the pandemic. As the months have gone by however, the organization has evolved and adjusted to the ever-changing mandates.
“Right now, we’re working on incorporating rapid testing where it’s really helpful and trying to source supplies of KN95 masks,” said Winters. “We keep learning and incorporating new data and new information.”
In terms of domestic violence work, the biggest expansion of their learning has been around how Safe Passage can adapt to the different situations domestic violence survivors may find themselves in throughout the pandemic – whether it be during quarantine or in different stages of close contact.
“Our question is, how can we adapt what we provide, how we’re thinking about the work, how we’re supporting survivors when their life conditions may put them in greater risk for more severe violence,” said Winters. “It’s really been a process of really listening to survivors, figuring out how we can best individualize their needs, and what safety planning looks like.”
Safe Passage has also increased their services for parents who are dealing with the possibility of getting sick or being hospitalized. The organization has worked on plans for how they can care for their children, so the abusive person does not have access to their family easily.
“One of the first things we did was help survivors come up with options,” said Winters, regarding the first couple months of the pandemic. “[Those first two months] really required us to help people think through, after the ambulance, ‘what’s the next call for your children’s safety.’”
“As far as our overall outlook, we’ll continue doing that stuff…responding to changes, and building a new normal,” added Winters.
Currently, Safe Passage is working remotely, but there was a time in the fall of 2021 where their office at 76 Carlton Dr. attempted a hybrid format for two months. After the surge following the holidays though, the organization felt it best to return to the remote format. As of press time, Winters said they would reassess the data and see if they could conduct services in a hybrid format, once again.
“We did find that, for many of our clients, there were advantages to them for having a remote option,” said Winters. For some, according to Winters, remote services have provided a little more flexibility for people, as well as a safer option to conduct conversations and meetings. “Even the last few weeks that we did have a hybrid option, we found that a lot of people were cancelling or switching back to virtual because of those reasons,” added Winters. “I think we’ve gotten really good at is actually adapting to virtual needs. There are people with disabilities, people with technical sensibilities, people who have no transportation…there are a lot of reasons besides COVID where having this virtual option is really preferable and actually increases access.”
Fundraising
As far as fundraising goes, Winters is very optimistic about events such as the famous Hot Chocolate Run, which just finished up its 18th year at the end of 2021, raising $805,000 compared to $6,000 in its first year.
“One of the things the Hot Chocolate Run has been is a platform for younger people to learn about and get engaged in philanthropy and charitable giving, and community building,” said Winters. “We keep building on those efforts…we know that our community has shown a history of supporting this work.”
Those who would like to donate or learn about what services Safe Passage provides, can visit https://safepass.org/support-us/.