Groups in Richmond are working to spread the word about a helpline for people who are abusing their partners or loved ones.
On Thursday morning, several non-profit and advocacy groups met at the RYSE Youth center in Richmond to learn more about “A Call for Change”. It’s a helpline for abusers that started in Massachusetts in 2021. But groups in Richmond want their communities to know about the line.
“We have a phrase that guides our work, which is that we work with the willing.”
This is JAC Patrissi, one of the co-founders of ‘A Call for Change’.
“It's a bias we have about people who use the tools of abuse that they won't come, that they won't talk to you, but if it's anonymous and confidential, they will.”
The line relies on a trauma-informed and transformative and racial justice approach to addressing domestic and intimate partner violence.
“The caging bureaucracy, the carceral solutions we've had, the harms that are created. People have to understand that that happens in a racial context, and that if we're going to create an alternative, we have to be transforming those dynamics.”
Although the line is still based in Massachusetts, California-based operators — like Jacquie Marroquin — start answering calls next week.
“I've been doing anti domestic violence work for about 25 years now,” she says.
Jacquie is a survivor of abuse, she says she wishes something like the line was around when she was a kid.
“I have to believe that people can change and I have to believe that my father could have changed if only he would've had the support, and the space to be able to see that which he could not see.”
The line is available from 7am to 7pm every day of the year. It’s free, anonymous, and confidential. The number is 877-898-3411.
