May is Supervised Visitation Awareness Month and A Safe Place is gearing up for our Orange Ribbon Campaign! The orange ribbon is a symbol of supervised visitation, one of the many services offered by A Safe Place within the Nantucket community.
A Safe Place’s Supervised Visitation Center provides a secure and comfortable environment for children to maintain a relationship with both parents while attempting to isolate them from conflict.
Our supervised visitation program offers two basic types of service:
-The provision of a neutral environment for custody exchanges that prevents direct contact between parents/guardians.
-The supervision of an entire visit between a child and a non custodial parent or relative, where they can interact in a comfortable playroom setting while the visit is monitored by trained staff and on-site security.
All services are free of charge.
A Safe Place invites you to wear an orange ribbon on May 17th and show your support for safe visits for children. Ribbons are available at 5B Windy Way during the month of May!
A Safe Place staff members Frejae Burrows, Adaluz Paz, and Angela Gray attended the International Conference on Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, and Fighting for Change this past April in Chicago.
The three-day conference, hosted by End Violence Against Women International, highlighted promising practices and emerging issues in sexual assault, domestic violence, and other forms of gender-based violence.
As part of A Safe Place’s youth prevention education, members of the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club participated in our annual Safe Home Project recently..
Members were given a range of art supplies to create a home that’s safe. They worked as a team and individually, while learning about non-violence through building projects with support from staff.
The Safe Home Project is intended to teach healthy relationships and respect for others with the use of artistic models.
The project takes place over 3 days, culminating with each member sharing what makes their home safe.
Remember: Everyone deserves a safe home.
Who is your favorite superhero, what are their special powers, and how do they help the world?
Nantucket Boys & Girls Club members who participated in A Safe Place’s Safety Cape Project created their own super hero capes and explained how they would help their family, friends, and community if they were in need of protection via our smallest super heroes.
Answers ranged from “the power of love” to “puppy power,” forcefields of protection, and even using stormy weather to keep harmful people away from the island and their loved ones.
Their answers remind us that our youngest members of society are truly wiser than we give them credit for at times — and that, sometimes, the answers really are that simple.
Thank you, Nantucket, for helping us raise awareness for National Child Abuse Prevention Month and the importance of healthy foundations, during the month of April!
The blue pinwheel is a national symbol for child abuse prevention and represents the happy, safe, and nurturing childhood that every child deserves. It also represents the role we all play in providing a loving and supportive environment for the children in our lives and in our communities.
Thank you to everyone who participated in helping us raise awareness within the community!
A special shout out to Jane Bourette for volunteering to help hand out pinwheels!
On April 26, A Safe Place advocates and staff wore denim to raise awareness for sexual assault and the misconceptions that surround it, while standing in solidarity with survivors.
Why is Denim Day important?
In 1992, an eighteen year old girl was raped by her forty five year old driving instructor in Italy during her first driving lesson. On an isolated road, he pulled her from the car, removed her jeans and raped her.
The Italian Supreme Court overturned the rape conviction as the justices felt the victim, since she was wearing tight jeans, must have helped the person who raped her remove her jeans and thereby implied consent. The following day, women in the Italian Parliament protested by wearing jeans to work in solidarity with the victim.
Survivors deserve to be believed.
Start by believing.
A Safe Place, in collaboration with Children’s Cove, Independence House, and Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, recently finished creating a Cape & Islands wide poster campaign for visibility and resources. The campaign brings awareness to domestic violence, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, and exploitation; with a call to action that it’s time to have the conversation in our communities.
We believe we can create communities where everyone lives free from abuse, has a voice that is heard, and can enjoy healthy, safe, and empowered lives.
Thank you to the County of Barnstable for hosting our all inclusive Cape & Islands resource page on their website at capecod.gov/itstime. A special thank you to Rachel Larson Devine, Jacob Stapledon, Chris Morin, Morgan Beausoleil and Kimberly White of Pierce-Coté Advertising for their collaboration efforts in designing this campaign and bringing it to life.
Food for thought as we sift through statistics and the impact those statistics have on individuals and collective society.
Remember, domestic violence isn’t always intimate partner violence.
Domestic violence can also be found within family units, childhood foundations and unhealthy cycles carried on from generation to generation until someone stops the cycles.
While physical abuse seems to be at the forefront of what we look at more often than not, never forget the impact that mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, and coercive control forms of abuse can have on a person, a relationship, a family unit, and society as a whole.
For every action, there is a reaction… and when we know better, we can do better.
It’s time to have the conversations.
Think about it.
Nantucket Whaler Softball raised awareness for sexual assault during their April 26 home game against Mashpee by wearing teal ribbons on their jerseys. This effort was spearheaded completely by members of the softball team and A Safe Place would like to recognize them for their initiative and support during Sexual Assault Awareness Month! Â
Thank you to Fisher Real Estate for showcasing A Safe Place in the “A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats” quarterly newsletter.
Beyond Real Estate, the Fisher Real Estate team looks for ways to share the island’s critical resources.
Each quarter, Fisher profiles two local organizations that help our community thrive. A Safe Place is proud to be one of them!
Check out Island Stories by Fisher and look for the recent blog on A Safe Place!
Thank you to everyone who has donated to our A Safe Place non perishable food donation bin at the mid island Stop & Shop, as well as those who have dropped donations off directly at A Safe Place.
We appreciate you!
A special shout out to David Fronzuto for creating our custom donation bin!
A Safe Place would also like to thank everyone who purchased a reusable “Give Back” bag at the downtown Stop & Shop during the month of April. As part of Stop & Shop’s Community Bag Program, A Safe Place received a portion of each sale last month. Thank you for your support!
