Week Without Violence focuses on speaking out
POTTSTOWN » Heather Pennington had her nose broken so badly, it required several operations to fix.
It was her ex-boyfriend who hit her.
He also pistol-whipped her and put a hole in her head. That was in 2010. What finally put an end to what could have been a continuing cycle was Pennington’s willingness to speak up.
She said had it not been for a Pottstown police officer “who came to my work and talked sense into me,” her ex-boyfriend would not even have been charged.
“I was too scared to press charges,” she said.
But she did, and it has helped.
Now she volunteers to
help out with the people who helped her, the Women’s Center and the YWCA Tri-County Area.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and this week is the YWCA’s national “Week Without Violence.”
Part of the weeklong schedule of events featured an open house Thursday, which U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, R-6, visited.
“The YWCA visits me in Washington once a year to outline their legislative priorities and I try to visit when I can to see what kind of issues they’re dealing with and what their needs are,” Costello said.
Inside, Executive Director Stacey Woodland gave Costello a tour of the YWCA’s new kitchen.
It’s projects like that, and the renovation on the second floor, which will allow 35 more early education students to be taught, that Costello says he tries to support. “The president’s budget zeros out grants like Community Development Block Grants that pay for projects like this, and I am opposed to that idea,” Costello said.
Children from the YWCA’s Early Education Center have created T-shirt-shaped posters for the Clothesline Project, a national effort to raise awareness of violence against women.
One young student’s observation — “my hands are not for hurting” — indicated a lesson learned, while another’s — “I was scared to tell anyone what he did, and when I did everybody made it my fault” — indicated the obstacles abuse victims often face.
“It really gives you an idea of how fast some kids in our community have to grow up,” Woodland said, pointing to some of the more poignant quotes.
Costello said he has been reading lately about the impact childhood trauma has on developing brains and was pleased to hear about the efforts being made to make Pottstown a “traumainformed community” that recognizes those factors and works to address them.
Medical science has begun to research chemical and physiological changes that occur in a child’s brain when they are exposed to trauma — particularly over a long period of time.
That includes things like domestic violence in the home either among adults or directed against children.
And as the nation debates the accusations against powerful Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein — and women across the country speak out about their own experiences of sexual harassment in the workplace using the “#metoo” hashtag — Costello said he sees a parallel.
“I think it’s part of the same power paradigm, with the employer/employee relationship and power dynamics at home. It really helps highlight how important the work is they’re doing here to educate children about proper behavior and helping them understand what sexual harassment is — that it’s a social issue, not a political issue,” Costello said.
Woodland said that while the week’s events are geared toward preventing violence, she agreed that there is a connection between the national discussion about sexual harassment in the work place and violence in the home.
“Violence is the worst result, but it’s all part of the same continuum and it helps emphasize the importance of women speaking out,” she said.