Many Victims are Excluded from Legal Protection

Healing Voices-Personal Stories has a vision to inform and educate the public to the reality of domestic violence with a focus on the traumatized victim who struggles to recover, grow and succeed in life. While there has been a swell of support for the protection of the victims of domestic violence, the laws still lag behind. It remains an often losing battle to assert the rights of victims, however, the laws do provide a possible course for defense of victims’ rights to prosecute abusers. However, as of today, Native Americans have no way to prosecute abusers who are non-Native American, since the latter is not subject to Tribal Courts. Illegal residents have no protection, nor do Gay, Lesbian or Transgender individuals. A federal bill, yet to be passed, would include these groups, although there is no current legal protection for these people.

Board member Regina Ress suggests this link to learn more about this problem.

Editing Underway!

The challenge was to condense a 73 minute interview with Peggy into a 7 minute film. Once the interview was transcribed, David worked in his office, while Jo Anne and Lindarose consulted by email and phone. A final copy was agreed upon by the three, and David proceeded to edit the film. The next step is putting in pictures and selecting the music. We are making such great progress!

Thank you Healing Voices’ Board Members for Your Recent Input

Board Member Regina Ress recommends this excellent short Film “Domestic Violence on the Rez” produced by Nathan Rice featuring Radmilla Cody and Geraldine Laughter.  Radmilla Cody is an award winning traditional Navajo recording artist who is a domestic violence survivor.  Ms. Laughter heads a shelter on the Navajo reservation.  Beautifully filmed it points out the grave problem of domestic violence on the reservation.

Board Member Lindarose Berkley has written an excellent description of Healing Voices – Personal Stories which we will be using in our PR.

“Healing Voices-Personal Stories is a nonprofit organization, established in 2010, to produce films of the stories about women who are in recovery from abusive relationships.

This organization quickly developed a support group of people willing to tell their stories, make donations and spread the word.  The vision is to encourage women to come forward, share their stories and motivate others to know that their entrapment and stories are neither shameful nor uncommon.  Ultimately, these are stories of strength and courage, meant to let others know that there is a way out, a way to grow and a way to succeed.

Abusive behavior in relationships, whether verbal, physical and/or sexual, crosses all cultural, religious and class lines.  Women need to know that they are not alone and can learn from and be a benefit to others who have experienced similar trauma.”

 

David Lindblom – Filmmaker on Our First Project

Last week we filmed our first interview of a series of ten abuse survivors as role models for domestic violence victims made possible through a Community Grant from the LANL Foundation and individual contributions.  We are very pleased to be working with David Lindblom who brings an outstanding background having worked as a director, cinematographer and editor. His credits include working on a number of documentaries and feature films two of which were with Martin Scorsese.

David has also worked as an editor for television programs such as ABC’s soap opera, “One Life to Live,” PBS projects, and “Code Blue” series for New York Times Television.

Currently David is a teacher in the Film/Digital Media Arts Department of Northern New Mexico College where he is also the creative programmer for Canal Seis, the community television station in Espanola. He is enthusiastic about his work with students and we plan on including one or two students as interns on this project.  Among David’s most recent projects here is Santa Fe is LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME, a documentary about Northern New Mexico which was an Official selection in the 2009 Santa Fe Film Festival.

It was a real treat for me to assist David in preparing for our shoot two days before.  We decided to use my home as the location for this first filming.  David carefully toured the house determining the setting which provided the best options for background and lighting.  As I sat in the chair as a stand-in for the interviewee David refined the background and lighting.   The day of the shoot care was again given that all was set up in the best possible way.  David’s quiet and very professional manner put all of us at ease and I eagerly look forward to seeing the results.

Healing Voices – Personal Stories’ Board Member Lindarose Berkley braved a winter snow storm driving from Steamboat Springs, CO to Santa Fe to be part of the filming process.  While her voice won’t be heard on the final cut of the film she was actually interviewing our first subject Peggy Luplow.  The relationship she built with Peggy over several phone conversations contributed to a moving interview.

A special thank you to the LANL Foundation, and to our individual contributors who made this possible.

Thank You HopeLine Verizon For Your Excellent Work

I recently bought an IPhone at my local Verizon Store and since they were out of stock they said they would send it to me.  A few days later it arrived in the mail along with this mailer for my old cell phone.

I was pleasantly surprised and immediately wanted to know more about Verizon’s HopeLine® program.  In visiting their website I learned that the program began in 2001 and since that time they have collected 8 million phones.  They have distributed 106,000 phones with 319 million minutes of free wireless service to victims of domestic violence.  Other phones have been refurbished and sold for reuse generating income for the program.  They provide domestic violence organizations and local government and law enforcement agencies donated phones for use with domestic violence clients.

I also found it interesting to know that if donated phones are not useable they are recycled in an environmentally sound way.  They are clearly fulfilling their mission of “turning no-longer used cell phones into support for domestic violence victims and survivors.”

I’ll be sending in my old cell phone and encourage others to donate their old cell phones to Verizon.

The Crisis Center of Northern New Mexico

As a Northern New Mexico organization committed to raising public awareness about women’s striving to overcome abuse we are always eager to learn of local organizations making an impact in the community.  In November, Board Member Lynette Montoya and I visited The Crisis Center of Northern New Mexico in Espanola, New Mexico.

The mission of The Crisis Center is “to educate people to make positive choices that help build and sustain healthy families and a violence free environment.”  They offer a variety of programs: an emergency shelter that operates 24/7; individual and group therapy; and educational programs.  Executive Director. Carol Merriweather suggested we meet with Ramon Garcia, their outreach coordinator.

We were very impressed with Ramon’s enthusiasm and dedication to his work.  In particular he described how The Crisis Center has partnered with the Espanola School District distributing DVD’s advocating for a violence free home.  We look forward to keeping in touch with Ramon and his work with The Crisis Center.

Healing Voices – Personal Stories Receives Grant from LANL Foundation

We are pleased to have just received a small community grant from the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation for our first interview of abuse survivors leading productive lives as role models for domestic violence victims.  The interviews, as completed, will be aired on Canal Seis, a community broadcast station serving Espanola and surrounding areas as well as other media outlets. Ten interviews are planned in all and while they will be aired separately they will also be edited into one documentary.

Our goal, particularly in this first project, is to provide motivation through film for domestic violence victims to move to healthier productive lives.

Filmmaker David Lindbolm who teaches in the Film/Digital Media Arts Department of Northern New Mexico College in Espanola will be directing the film working closing with Healing Voices – Personal Stories Board of Directors.  The first interview will be filmed in January and ready for airing by the end of February.

We are most grateful to the LANL Foundation and individual contributors who have helped to make this project possible.  If you would like to donate please click here!