GORHAM – Goodwill is breaking the silence of domestic abuse in a big way with Finding Our Voices Survivor-posters in the dressing rooms and employee break rooms of every one of its retail stores, offices, and warehouses in Maine, New Hampshire, and northern Vermont.
“Everyone shops at Goodwill,” said Finding Our Voices President and founder Patrisha McLean, “so I can only imagine how many more people will be talking about, and escaping from, dangerous intimate partner relationships through this beautiful company-wide adoption of our bold, survivor-powered outreach.”
“Goodwill Northern New England is proud to partner with Finding Our Voices,” says Goodwill’s Kimberly Curry. “We hope that our customers and employees can see that we are a safe place for victims of domestic violence. We have a goal to move 10,000 people into stability by 2027, and this is one way that we can help someone begin that journey.”
The Say Something posters feature photo portraits of, and quotes from, 43 named Maine survivors of domestic abuse aged 18 to 81, including a prisoner, students, teachers, and Gov. Janet T. Mills. A new feature on the posters that launched at the onset of COVID is a QR code that links to the https://findingourvoices.net website where the voices of many of the survivors relay their cautionary and inspiring journeys from entrapment to freedom.
The partnership with Goodwill launches a Finding Our Voices Bathroom/Break-Room campaign that will get survivor voices louder all across Maine in 2022, relaying to everyone how much terrorizing is going on all around us in what should be the safe place of home, that it has to stop, and that there is a way out. Other companies displaying the posters in customer bathrooms and employee break-rooms in Maine include Coffee By Design, First National Bank, Saco Bay Physical Therapy, and Martins Point Health Care.
A Finding Our Voices three-year anniversary multimedia exhibit at the Camden Public Library, sponsored by First National Bank, continues through March. Accompanying events include a public reception at the library March 25, 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., online Survivors-Speak panel discussion March 22, and benefit concert by Roan Yellowthorn AKA Jackie Lee McLean, the daughter of Finding Our Voices President McLean, at the Camden Opera House March 25 at 7:30 p.m. On March 24, Patrisha and Jackie will talk about how domestic abuse affects the children in a public Zoom presentation through the Adas Yoshuron Synagogue.
Finding Our Voices posters along with a survivor-based curriculum are in, or going into, 95 percent of high schools and tech schools in Maine, as well as a growing number of universities and colleges, accompanied by in-person Survivor-presentations for students as well as parents. Camden National Bank is sponsoring this student outreach.
Finding Our Voices is a grassroots, survivor-powered nonprofit that educates the general public about domestic abuse and provides sister support to Maine victims/survivors including a fund to empower women to get out and stay out of danger, and get and keep their children safe as well. For more information visit https://findingourvoices.net or contact McLean at hello@findingourvoices.net.