SAFE PASSAGE

Safe Passage provides non-judgmental support, shelter, counseling, and an abundance of resources to women, children, and families affected by domestic violence. All of its services are free, confidential, accessible to people with disabilities, and available in English, Spanish, and other languages. Safe Passage provides crisis intervention, support, and advocacy services to women and their children who have experienced domestic violence.

Volunteers at Safe Passage have provided support to survivors of domestic violence in Hampshire County for the past twenty-five years. Safe Passage offers three extensive 35 hour trainings per year, drawing from communities throughout Western Massachusetts. The volunteer program regularly has 30 active volunteers and interns who provide direct service including hotline and shelter coverage, and housing, legal, and child care advocacy. Volunteers have also worked on a number of specific projects around education and outreach in diverse communities, public awareness around domestic violence, public policy and legislation around issues of domestic violence, and organizing events for the community.

Unlike many organizations in which volunteers are asked to pitch in wherever they are needed on a given day, volunteers at Safe Passage are essential to our effort to end domestic violence. We ask all volunteers to make a 12-month commitment to the organization, and that they complete at least 16 hours of work per month including attending the monthly volunteer meeting.

If you choose to volunteer at Safe Passage, you will see that we don't take our work or your contribution to the work lightly. Through volunteering for Safe Passage you will learn a great deal about domestic violence, about the resilience of survivors and their resistance to battering, about related forms of oppression, and about yourself. Being a volunteer at Safe Passage can further your own skills and self-confidence, and can provide you with an avenue for anti-violence activism. Most importantly, you will help make real our ultimate vision to stop domestic violence and create a world where everyone can thrive, free from abuse.

Safe Passage's trainings are generally held in January, June, and October.

Contact: Isa Wismann-Hortheer, wisma20
Website: Safe Passage