Governor honors 3 Pittsburgh-area women for their work in victim services
Jo Ellen Bowman was surprised. She was watching a livestream of her granddaughter play in a championship volleyball match when she received a text message.
A longtime advocate and provider of victims services in Armstrong County, she was contacted by a fellow staff member at Helping All Victims In Need, a domestic violence and sexual assault shelter and services center.
A reporter wanted to talk to her about winning an award. Ms. Bowman didn’t realize Gov. Tom Wolf had announced that Friday the winners of the Governor’s Victim Service Pathfinder Awards, granted to Pennsylvanians for their work with crime victims.
“I thought, ‘Oh, who won the award?’ ” she said. “I really didn’t think I’d win.
“I feel that it’s my privilege to serve people that reach out during their time of crisis or need, wherever they are,” Ms. Bowman added. “I always feel honored to serve them.”
Three women in the Pittsburgh area received Pathfinder Awards Jan. 15 — Ms. Bowman, Gail Brown and, posthumously, Joyce McAneny— for their outstanding contributions to their communities and the victim services field. The annual awards are administered by the Office of Victims’ Services in the Pennsylvania Commission on Crimeand Delinquency.
Serving others in Armstrong County has been Ms. Bowman’s life’s work. She began working with the local area agency on aging in 1983. She transitioned to public child welfare for the county and served there 10 years. She then became a therapist and later served as executive director of HAVIN for19 years before retiring in November. (She thought the governor’s office may have sent an email to her old address to give her the news.)
Ms. Bowman now works part time as the manager of Kay’s Cottage, the children’s advocacy center program under HAVIN, and continues work as a forensic interviewer for abuse cases. As she recounted her varied career in victims services, she repeatedly said she “loved” the work she did. For her contributions, she received the Pathfinder Individual Direct Service Award.
During her time as executive director of HAVIN, Ms. Bowman spearheaded the opening of Kay’s Cottage, realizing the underutilized facility in Kittanning could house such a program. Her idea for a children’s advocacy center came to fruition in 2016. The organization submitted paperwork Jan. 15 to become fully accredited by the National Children’s Alliance, a professional membership organization with a model of high-quality standards of care.
“[Working at Kay’s Cottage has] been, by far, one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done professionally, to be able to bring that service at that high level to a small rural county,” she said.
To receive the award, Ms. Bowman said she had to be nominated by two other Pennsylvania administrators in the field, and her successor at HAVIN and a victim who had been served by her submitted letters on her behalf. In addition to administrative tasks as executive director, she continued to provide direct services for client son a regular basis.
“I really respect everybody, and I think coming forward when you’ve been a victim of some kind of interpersonal trauma is really difficult,” Ms. Bowman said. “And I just felt it was a privilege to be there to listen and support them in any way they need. That’s what my passion’s been.”
Gail J. Brown, of Castle Shannon, had a different path to her work. She earned her degree in education and responded to an ad from Pittsburgh Action Against Rape as the South Side Flats advocacy organization looked to expand its education department.
Nearly 20 years later, Ms. Brown has spoken to children from elementary school through college, as well as adults and parents in the community, educating them through trainings and presentations on boundaries, safety and prevention of sexual harassment and violence. She received the Pathfinder Individual Prevention, Education and Outreach Award.
For kindergarteners, Ms. Brown discusses boundaries and personal space. With third graders, she talks about being a good friend and helping those who are bullied or harassed. By eighth grade, the conversation moves toward dating and consent. And PAAR’s “Parents in the Know” program provides adults with lessons on how to set healthy boundaries with kids, how to talk about the issue of bystander intervention and howto keep children safe.
“The sexual violence prevention education across the board has moved into primary prevention, looking at what are the things we can do before something actually happens, before an assault happens, before sexual harassment happens,” Ms. Brown said.
“It makes it [so] everybody [is] stepping up in the community to end sexual violence and stop these kinds ofthings from happening.”
Ms. Brown emphasized the award meant a lot to her because she said many people think of victims’ services and don’t think of the prevention aspect of her work. She also mentioned her favorite part of the job is getting to talk about difficult subjects of sexual harassment and assault and to be proactive and helpful about such matters.
“For my co-workers and myself, to go to work every day and have to hear some really tough things, that takes a really special person, and it takes a lot of caring and a lot of heart to do that,” Ms. Brown said. “I think that’s a thing that makes PAARa really great place.”
“For me, I think winning this award is that recognition that prevention and education is a really important part of the work, too. And that I’m really glad to be a part of that.”
Joyce McAneny was a familiar face for countless folks who reached out to the non profit Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh on the South Side Flat sin need of support.
Initially a volunteer, she became a paid non-attorney legal advocate at the Women’s Center and began a career of more than 20 years, prioritizing the needs of victims of domestic violence in and out of the justice system.
Ms. McAneny was posthumously given the Pathfinder Individual Direct Service Award. She died unexpectedly of cancer in 2018 shortly after retiring from advocacy work.
But the Women’s Center’s chief legal officer, Lorraine Bittner, worked with Ms. McAneny throughout the decades and nominated her for the award. She said Ms. McAneny would regularly run into people she had served.
“She directly touched thousands of victims’ lives by supporting them through the justice system,” Ms. Bittner said. “One time, Joyce and her husband were out to dinner, and the waitress recognized her and said, ‘You’re Joyce McAneny. You saved my life.’ That was a typical story for her.”
A legal advocate provides direct services to victims of domestic violence and helps them navigate the justice system, explaining legal options, helping with safety planning or accompanying victims to court hearings. Although Ms. McAneny eventually managed nine legal advocates, she continued to provide direct services for victims.
“She was a tireless advocate,” Ms. Bittner said. “She had her heart and soul into the work. Any time of the day people needed her, she was available.”
Ms. McAneny also trained city and county police officers in how to understand the dynamics of domestic violence scenes and was active in role playing that offered real-life examples. Ms. Bittner recalled she did training for every Pittsburgh police officer when the city implemented a new domestic violence intervention model in 2013.
She also challenged those in the court system to better serve victims. Ms. Bittner remembered Ms. McAneny always said, “The question shouldn’t be, ‘ Why did she stay?’ Your question should be ‘Why did he continue to abuse?’”
“She helped police, prosecutors, judges and other court staff on the importance of holding batterers accountable and understanding victims can be reluctant,” Ms. Bittner. “I think that was partof her legacy as well.”
Other Pathfinder Award winners this year included Pearl Kim of Murphy Law Firm in West Chester, Lara Dushkewich of the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County, and the Nationalities Service Center’s Immigrant Survivor Services Programin Philadelphia.