Emmonak Women’s Shelter Interviewee: Joann Horn
1. How did this work come about? And why was it necessary? The project had already begun before I started working there. I am a survivor of domestic violence. I started working in this area in 1978. I have been working in this area for 25 years. In 1984, I helped to organize another program and we got our own building. I started as an advocate and served in this position for many years. There was a big need to address violence against women and children and the program was badly needed. Women had nowhere to go to escape the violence. The project was necessary because of the alcohol use in the villages and surrounding areas. There were incidences of drownings, sexual abuse, and violence. To escape from the violence, women would hide in tall grass, among the trees, and in abandoned buildings because they nowhere else to go. The village magistrate had a lot of cases, so she got women together to get a safe house and had to talk to the city manager to get a building; this was granted and this got things going. It was also open to surrounding villages. In the fall of 2006 alcohol became legal to be brought back to the villages which increased deaths, suicides, teen dating violence, teen pregnancy, and lack of involvement of parents in their children’s lives. The measure to bring alcohol back into the villages was opposed and lost by only a few votes in the referendum. 2. To accomplish your work, how does your project draw upon the best of the what has been or is in your organization and community? We draw from a resource group that includes a handful of people. We get support from the shelter, two churches, behavioral health, clinic, police department, and elders. We have our own board of directors and the mayor and city manager also attend and help out at the meetings.
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