Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
| By G. Michael Dobbs Managing Editor HOLYOKE At the annual rally to end domestic violence on Thursday at Holyoke Heritage State Park, Karen Cavanaugh admitted, "I'm really angry because we are here again." Cavanaugh is the executive director of Womanshelter/Compa aeras, the domestic abuse shelter in Holyoke that serves Chicopee, Ludlow, palmer, ware, Belchertown, South Hadley, Granby and Southhampton. Staff members and supporters gathered every year during October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. According to Jane Doe, Inc., the Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence, there were 17 adult and three child homicides in the Commonwealth due to domestic violence from October 2005 to the end of September of this year. Rally participants noted the deaths by observing a moment of silence and by signifying a flower for each of the victims. Mayor Michael Sullivan said the day of the rally is always one of the "most difficult days in the city of Holyoke." Cavanaugh noted the recent attacks on school children in Pennsylvania and Colorado and wondered why these were gender-based crimes. "I can't give up the dream that next year we'll be here to celebrate rather than mourn," she added. In Fiscal Year 2006, Womanshelter/Compa aeras sheltered 76 women and 102 children, assisted 850 victims domestic violence through counseling, legal advocacy, support groups referrals and housing and medical advocacy and answered 4,429 hotline calls. All the organization's services are free and confidential. Luzlenia Nunez, a local business owner, writer and speaker spoke of her own experiences escaping with her two children a life of abuse in new Jersey and rebuilding her life in Massachusetts. Nunez suffered from years of violence before she made the decision to escape and she urged victims of domestic abuse to use the services provided by Womanshelter/Compa aeras to help them start a new life. |