Our Artistry for Peace event was a great success! Thank you to everyone who attended, donated art, and volunteered time to help make this such a wonderful event! We can’t wait to do it again next year!
Local Business Holds Fundraiser to Bring World Renowned Domestic Violence Intervention to Utah
[SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, November 1, 2018] Utah is a good place to live, so it may come as a surprise that we have higher than average rates of domestic violence and sexual assault. A Salt Lake City non-profit wants to prove to the world that Utah has an answer for this violence. Amethyst Center for Healing is bringing an innovative intervention for domestic violence to Utah and wants your help in getting it started.
In Utah more than one in three women report being a target of some form of domestic violence in their lifetime. Seven in ten victims of intimate partner violence report children were present when they were being abused. There are at least three domestic violence related suicides in Utah every month. About half of all murders committed in Utah are related to intimate partner violence.
People ask, “Why doesn’t she leave?”
What if she can’t leave? What if he is embarrassed to say that he is a victim of domestic violence? What if we started putting the accountability where it belongs, with the abuser? There is a model of intervention that does just that, put the accountability where it belongs.
The Beit Noam model, which, in Hebrew, means “good home”, seeks to hold abusers accountable and to give them an opportunity to change their behaviors to be more peaceful. It was started in Israel and is an internationally acclaimed model of intervention. Amethyst Center for Healing has been working directly with the founder of Beit Noam to bring this program to Utah.
The intervention removes the abuser from the home and gives the family the time needed to heal from the trauma of abuse while staying in their community with already established supports. The children and victims can stay in their school, with their friends, and near their support rather than being uprooted and fleeing in the middle of a traumatic incident to a shelter. The abuser is given the support needed to make changes of long-standing behaviors with dignity and understanding. Israel has found the program to be 90% successful at reducing violence. It just makes sense.
Kit Gruelle, nationally acclaimed victim advocate, educator and activist, best known for her involvement with the HBO film Private Violence, has this to say about the program:
“One of the programs I am most turned on about right now… Is at Beit Noam, a residential treatment center for male perpetrators of domestic violence situated just outside Tel Aviv at Ra’anana.”
In Utah, we care about our children and our communities. Utahns donate more money and services hours to charities than anywhere else in the US. We have less violent crime than the national average. It’s time to try a new method of addressing the violence that hides in the shadows.
Amethyst Center for Healing is holding a fundraiser on Saturday, November 17th and Sunday, November 18th, 10 am-7 pm, to raise funds for their programs including a Utah version of Beit Noam. They will be selling art work created by local artisans and crafters at 1104 Ashton Ave. (2305 south) in Sugar House near Fairmont Park. For questions about how to participate, please email amethyst4healing@gmail.com.
Amethyst Center for Healing is a non-profit human services organization that focuses on creating healthier families and safer communities by addressing the effects of trauma and abuse in the lives of the people it serves. They understand that sometimes people go through things that never should have happened and that those circumstances can be damaging for everyone involved. As trauma informed helpers, they explore the past, present and potential circumstances with people to find a plan for what is going to work best for the individual to move forward and be a whole person connected to a community. They are there to guide the wounded through the very personal process of healing.
