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| Last updated on January 25, 2008 |
AWAP models respect, non-violence, safety, and equality while working to end domestic violence by:
- Services: Supporting adult and child victims of domestic violence.
- Prevention: Promoting ways to foster healthy relationships.
- Community Education and Response: Enhancing understanding and awareness of the impact of domestic violence while promoting community responsibility and action.
- Social Change: Changing personal and public attitudes to create victim safety, offender accountability, and a society committed to peace.
Description:
All people have the right to live free from violence and domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is a pattern of behaviors that include the use of control, coercion, and intimidation (physical, sexual, mental, emotional, or financial abuse) to gain power over one's partner. People who abuse come from all classes, cultures, sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, ethnicity, physical or mental ability or age. People who choose to abuse are the only people capable of changing their own abusive behavior.
The people who come to us for services, 98% of whom are women, are best able to make decisions concerning their lives. The Abused Women's Advocacy Project is committed to a philosophy of self-help, peer support and empowerment for victims of abuse. We model respect, non-violence, and equality while working to end domestic violence. We listen to what individuals want in order to provide appropriate resources (referral, safety planning, etc.) The strength of our agency comes from the voices and experience of those who have been subjected to domestic abuse.
The majority of individuals who choose to abuse their partners are men. We live in a culture that tolerates violence and oppression, which is the unequal distribution of power, authority, and misuse of those privileges. Domestic abuse is the misuse of power within a relationship that continues to be supported by society and its systems.
We believe that it takes a coordinated community response where the entire community, its systems, and institutions are working together to end domestic abuse and oppression. Strong societal consequences and legal penalties that hold offenders accountable are necessary to end domestic abuse. We work to educate all members of society to create these societal and cultural changes. Systems must change and they must not continue to minimize the voices of those who are abused.
History:
AWAP was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in 1977. The project began as a response to a critical need for emergency shelter; abused women and children needed a safe place to stay. It was apparent that the needs of women and children living in violent homes were not being met. AWAP operates the only shelter and support services for battered women and Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford counties.
Since 1977, AWAP's four fold mission is providing emergency and support services to victims of domestic violence, promoting ways to foster healthy relationships, educating the community about the seriousness and prevalence of this crime, and working toward legislative change so that communities no longer tolerate this abuse, has developed into a strong safety net for women and children seeking support, assistance, and a life free from the threat of further abuse. In addition to providing emergency shelter in Auburn and through safe-homes in the tri-county area, AWAP has a network of local community based offices in Farmington, Lewiston, Livermore Falls, Norway, and Rumford. These local offices provide one-on-one support, support groups, children's services, advocacy, information and referral, court advocacy, transporting and accommodations for shelter, community education and professional trainings.
AWAP also offers groups for men who are abusive, through a 48 week course based on a model program from Duluth, Minnesota. These groups are offered as part of a broader community education program that recognizes the need for holding abusive men accountable for their violence and helping keep women safe from further harm. These groups are the only fee-for-service program offered by the project and require both commitment to attend, and willingness to pay as a prerequisite for participation. Sliding scale fees are available and the project welcomes self-referrals.
AWAP is committed to a philosophy of providing "women defined advocacy" for victims of domestic abuse. Part of this philosophy recognizes that formerly battered women are often best able to offer support and assistance to victims of domestic violence. Because of this philosophy, former victims of domestic abuse are recruited for both staff and volunteer positions. Currently, almost 50% of our paid staff and volunteers are former victims of domestic violence. Often, women have been made to feel powerless and without worth. AWAP aims to support women, not replace the control asserted by an abusive partner. Volunteers and staff as advocates, assisting women to take control of their own lives. This self-help model leads to empowerment. AWAP relies on volunteers in all aspects of the organization. The staff of 26 is aided by over fifty volunteers. Together, staff and volunteers provide services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
AWAP is an active participant in the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence, a nine member coalition made up of domestic violence projects throughout the state.
Contact people:
Office fax number: (207) 795-6814
Address:
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PO Box 713
Auburn, ME 04210 |
Web Site: http://www.awap.org
Directions:
Miscellaneous Information
| This agency has United Way funded programs |
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Yes
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| The agency places volunteers in these categories: |
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Families, Children under 5, ages 5 - 10, ages 11 -15, ages 15 - 18, Physically disabled, Developmentally delayed, Court Mandated, Groups, Adults
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