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Date: 10/11/2023
HUNTINGTON — The Southern Hilltowns Domestic Violence Task Force will observe 25 years of working to prevent and end domestic violence with a family-friendly celebration Thursday, Oct. 26.
The event will run rain or shine at Stanton Hall, 26 Russell Rd., Huntington, with chili, cornbread, raffle prizes and more, 5:30-7 p.m. Advance registration at southernhilltownsdvtaskforce@gmail.com is appreciated but not required.
Task force co-coordinator Monica Moran, who is the manager of domestic violence prevention programs at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, and co-coordinator Donna LaRocque both say the task force is an integral part of the community.
“The task force is pretty unique. Others have started based on this model. By the community, for the community is a very unique and powerful model. Everything the task force does, they’re trying to involve people,” said Moran, who has been involved since the start.
“The community is what makes the task force. The task force is only as strong as the community members involved. The idea that this has been an uninterrupted task force for 25 years is pretty remarkable for such a small area,” LaRocque said.
LaRocque, who attended her first in-person meeting of the task force in September, comes from the Elizabeth Freeman Center in Pittsfield, working with Berkshire County survivors. She said she was very pleased with the turnout at the September meeting and who was represented. She said meeting participants decided their focus for this year: prevention, community outreach and education.
“If we can get this in the hands of the children and teach them about healthy relationships now, that’s going to lessen the amount of domestic violence,” LaRocque said.
Moran said she is shifting a lot of responsibility to LaRocque for a new perspective, but is not leaving the work.
The Southern Hilltowns Domestic Violence Task Force started in 1998 with a lieutenant at the Russell Barracks of the State Police, and the Hilltown Food Pantry, then located at Hilltown Social Services in Huntington, during a town-wide meeting on block grant funding. Both the police and staff at the food pantry were saying that something had to be done about domestic violence — stressing that it takes an hour for law enforcement officers to get to some of the rural homes, and that without prevention, somebody was going to die.
“The food pantry folks were saying that a lot of families can’t gain independence because of the domestic violence in the home, and there were no services for them. They kept saying it,” Moran said.
The town of Huntington decided to include domestic violence services in its block grant request. Moran said she had just moved to the area and had previously worked in a shelter for women, and was hired through PVPC to lead the effort.
The task force now serves the nine rural towns covered by the Russell Barracks: Blandford, Chester, Granville, Huntington, Middlefield, Montgomery, Russell, Tolland and Worthington. Moran sai she feels the task force has made a positive impact in its quarter-century.
“I think in some ways, it has gotten better. If you are a member of the community and go through domestic violence, the landscape is very different than it was 25 years ago.”
She said there is over a tenfold increase of survivors getting help, because the help is accessible. Hilltown Safety at Home, which was launched by the task force in 2006 and is now a program of the Huntington Community Health Centers, has advocates and services in place.
“If you call the police, you’re likely to get a call from an advocate. Hilltown Safety at Home can provide transportation, do home visits, talk to you on the phone or meet you in a cafe,” she said, adding that even if somebody has access to a car to go to Northampton and Springfield, victims of domestic violence are not always allowed to use it.
Also, “Sometimes people aren’t ready to leave the community, and want to stay where they are, but they might need a ride to court,” Moran said.
She said students at Gateway Regional High School are much more likely to hear about teen dating violence; people who go to church are more likely to know about Hilltown Safety at Home; and pastors who have been trained by the task force won’t make well-meaning mistakes such as downplaying reports of abuse or advising a victim to stick with an abuser for the sake of the marriage.
Most recently, in 2021, in response to the pandemic and in recognition of how difficult it is for survivors to leave, the task force launched the first-in-the-nation helpline for people who abuse and want to learn to change and become safe. A Call for Change Helpline received over 250 calls in its first year, five times the number expected.
Moran said success isn’t measured by fewer calls to the police, adding that if the task force is doing its job, calls to the police go up, and the level of injuries go down, which is what an intern discovered five years after the task force started.
Sadly, in the past 25 years, two women were murdered by their partners in the Hilltowns.
In 2002, Blandford resident Karen May Hart, nee Trudeau, was murdered by her ex-husband, who then killed himself. Following the murder, the task force launched an in-depth Fatality Review which influenced policy, practice and training across the state and country. Locally, the district attorney began requiring that prosecutors request dangerousness hearings for high-risk cases.
In 2012, the Karen May Hart memorial scholarship was established and remains active today, awarding an annual scholarship of up to $1,500 to a Gateway Regional High School senior.
Also in 2012, Jessica Dana from Huntington was strangled to death by her partner, the father of her children. The task force held a vigil and launched the first of several bystander campaigns to educate the community about “red flags” that could indicate abuse, and to encourage people to reach out when they know someone who is being abused. Dozens of local residents were trained and their photos used in advertisements as allies.
The two women will be honored and remembered at the 25th anniversary event on Oct. 26.
Moran said currently the task force is seeking to recruit new community members to join the effort.
“Anyone who feels inclined to join or support the task force — we have open arms for new members. Even if people aren’t participating in the task force, they can become an ally,” Moran said.
“People who are abusive think people agree with them at a much higher rate than they actually do,” she added.
Moran said the task force also wants people to know that services are available.
“This is a community that does not tolerate abuse. Everybody in the community has a role to play. This is a community where we’re all in it. It takes everybody to end domestic violence,” she said.