Sojourn Shelter & Services, Inc

03/20/2023

Susie B. Winston highlights the correlation between domestic violence and mental health, working to deliver services in both realms for survivors and their children. Winston partnered with other domestic violence organizations to develop the Children’s Domestic Violence Response Team (CDVRT) which collaborates with domestic violence advocacy agencies in Washington to provide integrated mental health treatment and domestic violence advocacy services. This specialized and one-of-a-kind program collaborates with domestic violence advocacy organizations in order to address the needs of children who are impacted by domestic violence.

Source: https://novelhand.com/womens-history-month-pioneers-in-the-field-of-dv/

03/20/2023

Hello Spring! 💐

03/19/2023

Our next non-residential group session will be Tuesday, March 28 at 6:00pm. Space is limited. Please contact Toya at [email protected] or (217)726-5100 ext 205 to reserve your spot. Please reach out with any questions!

03/18/2023

03/18/2023

Sojourn will be at the downtown YMCA for their wellness event from 9am-12pm! There are free health screenings and free COVID and Flu vaccines during this event too!

03/17/2023

Thank you to the Office of the Illinois Attorney General for donating hygiene products! We are so thankful for this donation! Our clients appreciate your generosity 💜💜💜

03/17/2023

Dear Madam,

Please can you help me. My husband ill-treats me and I can no longer stand it. I have no one to turn to. I am alone except for my one-year-old son. My husband is given to violent tempers and my arms at times have been black and blue through his punches. He butted me on the nose two weeks ago and I had a terrible nose-bleed. Then in bed one night he started to strangle me and it was not until I passed out that he realized what he had done. For days it was hard for me to swallow. Up to now I have been too ashamed to go anywhere for help but after hearing yesterday’s radio programme it gave me some courage to try and do something about my plight.

It is for my son’s sake that I have wanted to keep the home together but now I feel it would be better for his well-being that we no longer remain in this environment. My husband shouts and breaks things in the house and frightens the baby. After my husband had knocked me on the floor one night the baby screamed in terror and I was hurt and too frightened to do anything. My husband now threatens to bash the baby’s brains in. He swears I will never leave him. I’ve told him I want a divorce. Now I dare not say I want to go or he starts and I am afraid that either my life or my son’s is in danger.

Last Christmas Eve when my husband had been hitting me I ran into the street and was on my way to the police station but he came after me and dragged me back and hit me again. Please help me. I begin to feel so ill. If it were not for my baby I would not bother you with my problems.

Last night for the first time I wondered how I might kill my husband in bed while he was asleep. This was after another show of violence because I refused his attentions. I do everything to keep the peace but I just cannot force myself to make love with him, it is all so hypocritical and I have absolutely no feeling left for him. The only thing that stopped me attempting to kill my husband was the thought of the stigma that my child would have to carry for life.

I have paid the deposit on our home and it is in our joint name. Also the contents are mine which I have bought. My mother died recently and left me some money and I want to find a modest place for myself and son but I must do all this without my husband’s knowledge so he will never be able to find me. Please help me.

Source: Pizzey, E. (1977). Scream quietly or the neighbors will hear. R. Enslow Publishers.

03/17/2023

Sojourn Shelter & Services, Inc will be at this event tomorrow!

Join us for a FREE Health & Wellness Event at the Downtown Y on Saturday, March 18 at 9:00am.
Visit with healthcare vendors, get screenings, join fitness classes, and take home a free produce box courtesy of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois. More info: http://ow.ly/SQ1p50NcfJN
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois SIU Medicine Memorial Health Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association - (EPNIA) Downtown Springfield, Inc. Office of the Mayor - City of Springfield, Illinois Ward 5 Alderwoman Lakeisha k Purchase
State Senator Steve McClure Senator Doris Turner Congresswoman Nikki Budzinski

03/17/2023

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 💚💚💚

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03/16/2023

03/15/2023

Jan Langbein, the now-CEO of Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support in Dallas, TX, utilizes her political reach in order to bring solace to women, turning a seven-room emergency shelter into a full-service response center for residential and non-residential survivors of domestic violence. Langbein has taken her dedication to advocacy further, often providing expert testimony in court cases on the effects of domestic abuse, training prosecutors, investigators and law enforcement across the country. Furthermore, she co-founded the annual International Conference on Crimes Against Women and acted as the chief strategist during the implementation of the Violence Against Women Act. Langbein was also the senior policy advisor to the director of the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women (OVW).

Source: https://novelhand.com/womens-history-month-pioneers-in-the-field-of-dv/

03/14/2023

Source: https://www.cawc.org/history/

03/13/2023

Dr. Lenore Walker followed her passion for research in order to spur change, earning her doctorate in Clinical Forensic Psychology and asking questions that center around the psychological impact of domestic abuse. After traveling to England and hearing from people providing shelter for DV victims, Dr. Walker began developing her theory on Battered Woman Syndrome. Dr. Walker went on to create the Battered Woman Syndrome Questionnaire (BSWQ) in the 1990’s, assessing the interrelated psychological effects of abuse. Dr. Walker also used her research from the BWSQ to design a treatment program for battered women. She has written over 20 books, most of which are about the effects of domestic violence.

Source: https://novelhand.com/womens-history-month-pioneers-in-the-field-of-dv/

03/12/2023

💜💜💜Check out the link below⬇⬇⬇

➡ https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1DZIMHEPUNEQE?ref_=wl_share ⬅

💜Sojourn appreciates all donations received!💜

03/11/2023

03/10/2023

Dear Mrs Pizzey,
I read your article yesterday and thought you might be interested in my case.

I was a beaten-up wife and stood it for twenty-four years. I finally left in December 1971 and obtained my divorce for persistent cruelty in September 1972. I left a three-bedroomed maisonette (council) and am now classed as a homeless family.

The council gave me temporary accommodation in this patch repair house. Soon I hope something better will turn up. I have three boys: one is married (twenty-three years), one aged fourteen years is with me, and the other, aged eighteen, is still living with his father, the reason being I have only one bedroom and it would be too crowded with all of us.

I have left everything: my home, much of which I bought, as my ex-husband had no interest in the home and I went to work part-time for the last eight years of my marriage. I did all the decorating, everything, and yet he has gained everything, even though it was all his fault.

Something should be done to allow a wife (the innocent party) to claim at least half of everything. Why after all should the husband keep the tenancy of the marital home, where the wife is in need? All I have now has been given to me by family and friends. I had nothing. Even my son (who is not with me) has to suffer because he misses me and would rather be with me, but cannot because I have no room while my ex-husband lives in comfort in a three-bedroomed maisonette.

That is the law and I think you are doing something worthwhile if you could change the law.

Source: Pizzey, E. (1977). Scream quietly or the neighbors will hear. R. Enslow Publishers.

03/09/2023

Source: chrome-extensio://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/http://www.ncdsv.org/images/nychradss_timelinebwm_2008.pdf

03/08/2023

Tracey Motuzick, then Tracey Thurman, was seeking a divorce when Charles “Buck” Thurman nearly killed her in 1983. He stabbed her 13 times in the face, throat and body and kicked her in the head. The assault continued even after police arrived.

Motuzick sued Torrington police, claiming they failed to protect her from her husband, who had stated publicly he planned to kill her.

A federal jury awarded her $2.3 million in 1985. She eventually settled for $1.9 million.

The case, the first of its kind in a U.S. District Court, established the constitutional right to police protection for victims of domestic disputes.
It also led to a 1986 Connecticut law making domestic violence a crime that must be prosecuted whether or not the victim chooses to press charges.

Tracey’s story was adapted for a TV movie in 1989 called “A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story.” Her story an unprecedented reach for the time.

Source: https://novelhand.com/womens-history-month-pioneers-in-the-field-of-dv/

03/08/2023

Happy International Woman’s Day!

03/07/2023

Beyond The Shelter Door, A Production of PBS12

Beyond the Shelter Door is a documentary that shows how domestic violence shelters were started and how they grew. This is a good watch for everyone!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4Ovpsa1caM

My co-producer/interviewer Debra Bowers passed away on Christmas Day 2021. This program would not have happened without her. We won an Emmy Award for this ...

03/06/2023

Mari Sandoz, a frontierswoman born in 1896, wrote the book Old Jules, recounting the violence inflicted upon her family by her father. After Sandoz completed Old Jules in 1933, it was rejected by every major publisher in the United States. She was able to get Old Jules published in 1934. Despite public shock of her unromantic depictions of her father and her strong language, the book was well-received critically and commercially when it was issued. Sandoz’s decision to distribute her story brought many eyes to the reality of domestic violence. Her bravery in withstanding criticism and publicizing a story that was out of the ordinary for her time period did not go unnoticed.

Source: https://novelhand.com/womens-history-month-pioneers-in-the-field-of-dv/

03/05/2023

💜Follow us on all of our social channels💜

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➡Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sojournshelterservices/ ⬅

➡Twitter https://twitter.com/SojournShelter ⬅

03/05/2023

Thank you so much to the Illinois Estella Order of the Eastern Star! We are so thankful to have support like this from not only our local chapter, but the whole state! Everything you donated will help us and our clients so much and we couldn’t be more grateful! 💜💜💜

03/05/2023

💜 Thank you to the Pleasant Plains After Prom and Jim McAfee for donating 87 prepared fried chicken dinners to the clients at Sojourn! We appreciate you thinking of our clients here at Sojourn! 💜

03/04/2023

03/03/2023

Dear Mrs. Pizzey,
I am wondering if you could help me as I’m in a rather difficult situation. I live in Bradford and have six children between thirteen and three years old and I have a very unhappy home life.

My husband is a very violent man and is very hard to reason with. He keeps me very short of money even though he has a good wage at — Bradford. Sometimes he’s very violent to me. On one occasion I had to run out of the house at midnight and go to a friend’s house to call the police. I suffer very badly with my nerves and at forty I don’t think I can have this strain on me much more. I was living in Clapham for four years but came to Bradford to live to see if I could get more help here.

I have been to the welfare, family advice and have a solicitor but nobody seems really interested in my case. Even the Samaritans.

I have left my husband in desperation five times but have had to return for my children’s sake, as he didn’t take care of them in my absence.

At the moment we are living in a council house which is in his name. He keeps telling me to go and sometimes says, ‘Take the children,’ and other times says, ‘Leave them.’

He treats me like a dog and at the moment I am having strong nerve drugs from my doctor but still can’t rest as he’s continually picking on me and the children.

Being as the children are growing up, especially the first three of thirteen, twelve and eleven, they witness some terrible scenes and it is making them ill and backward in their lessons at school. They cry and cling to me and try to shelter me when he’s hitting me or making sexual demands so I’m wondering if you could see me and help me, please. Sometimes I feel like committing su***de and taking the children with me. I must get help from somewhere but no one helps me or wants to know. Please don’t send any correspondence here as my husband can read them and will kill me if he gets to know, so please send any letters care of—- and they will pass it to me secretly. I do so need help. I am really desperate and before long will be in an asylum. I need a divorce but can’t get one because I don’t want to leave my children with this monster as he is cruel to them. If you could help me, could you send an appointment and directions of how to get to you in London.

Source: Pizzey, E. (1977). Scream quietly or the neighbors will hear. R. Enslow Publishers.