Domestic Abuse Awareness Month events provide education and advice from a panel of survivors
Finding Our Voices is bringing survivor-led conversations about domestic abuse to the Maine Irish Heritage Center in Portland on Thursday, Oct. 24 at 6:30 p.m. and Falmouth Memorial Library on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 10 a.m. The two-hour “Let’s Talk About It” tour events are free, open to the public, and include receptions with refreshments.
Patrisha McLean, CEO and founder of the grassroots nonprofit said, “In the past three weeks in Maine, a woman was strangled to death, allegedly by her ex-boyfriend, and a mother and daughter shot dead. An epidemic of domestic abuse is raging in Maine and as victims who managed to get free we are here to educate the general public about a complicated subject and let women still trapped know there is a way out.” She said the conversation will include how to best help anyone you suspect is in an unhealthy or dangerous relationship.
Panelists include a teacher whose job was threatened when her abusive ex falsely accused her of the abuse; Caroline McKuen whose pastor responded “I’ll pray for him” when she reported criminal sexual and financial abuse; Author Deborah Gould who was turned into a shell of herself through emotional abuse by her same-sex partner; Mary Lou Smith of Scarborough who was 65 when she escaped decades of terror by her college professor husband; and Jolene Miles whose violent ex has gotten steadily scarier through 25 years of courts and police failing to hold him accountable.
Lead business sponsors are M&T Bank and Back Cove Financial. Merrill Memorial Library in Yarmouth is co-sponsoring the Falmouth event. The events close out the Finding Our Voices 2024 “Let’s Talk About It” tour that brought the group to 20 Maine communities and schools.
The Maine Irish Heritage Center offered to donate event space to Finding Our Voices after its leaders attended a fundraiser that Irish Actor Gabriel Byrne put on for the group in March.
“We are honored to be hosting these important conversations in Portland,” said the Center’s executive director Eric Brown. “The previous events on this tour have been profoundly impactful, and we know that while these personal stories are difficult to speak and to hear, opportunities for them to be voiced are much needed.”
In addition to survivor-powered educational campaigns, Finding Our Voices provides resources to Maine women domestic abuse survivors that include financial assistance, access to free dental care, and online support groups. For more information about Finding Our Voices including its October events, visit https://findingourvoices.net or contact McLean directly at [email protected].
Finding Our Voices began as a multimedia exhibit of Patrisha McLean’s photo portraits and audio recordings of survivors of domestic abuse, launching at the Camden Public Library on Valentine’s Day 2019. The exhibit traveled around the state including to the Holocaust and Human Rights Center before COVID turned it into a poster campaign. The nonprofit was then formed in 2021. McLean started her journey of becoming a human rights activist with the 2016 domestic violence arrest of her then-husband of 29 years, Don “American Pie” McLean. For more information about Finding Our Voices including how to get help, volunteer, and donate, visit https://findingourvoices.net.
