Making A Difference in Your Community : CARE and Support for Abuse Victims

Unfortunately, many women who walk through the doors of the Family Service Agency of Burbank have one thing in common--they are trying to survive living in their own homes.

Battered, abused, afraid, they come seeking support and strategies sometimes just to stay alive.

The agency’s Community Awareness Response and Education (CARE) program offers support groups for battered women and separate groups for batterers, when a court requires them to seek counseling.

The CARE program was launched in 1992, when an increasing number of women started coming into the agency asking for help dealing with abuse, said JoAn Viele-Lyman, the program’s coordinator.

“We get women from all kinds of backgrounds and nationalities and classes,” said Amy Blackshaw, a volunteer who helps lead one of the weekly women’s groups. “The groups are very, very diverse, yet there is a very common element because they are victims of violence in their own home. Many of them feel they are alone. The reality is they are not alone at all.”

Viele-Lyman agrees.

“Culturally, when it comes to battering, we’re all the same. It doesn’t matter if the man is rich or poor. It cuts across all socioeconomic lines. Unfortunately it’s alive and well in our communities,” she said. “Most of them have absolutely no clue that they don’t have to live like this.”

The groups help women who are in abusive relationships, women who have left their abusers and women trying to build new relationships in the aftermath of abuse. The goal of the agency, Viele-Lyman stresses, is not to rescue, but to empower battered women with knowledge and trust.

“It’s a safe environment. Safety and trust is crucial to the empowerment of these women,” Viele-Lyman said. “You can’t change in isolation. You can’t change without information.”

Viele-Lyman also takes that information on the road. She lectures on domestic violence at colleges, high schools and detention centers, hoping that the more the public hears, the more the seriousness of domestic violence will be understood.

The agency needs volunteers to help educate the public about domestic violence by speaking to community groups. Volunteers are also needed to help with child care, with one-on-one outreach and with leading the women’s groups as Blackshaw does.

“It’s been extremely educational and eye-opening for me,” said the 25-year-old from Pasadena. “I learn probably more than I teach. I get a lot from hearing these women from different backgrounds share their experiences and perspectives.”

Viele-Lyman said the agency especially needs multilingual volunteers. But the most important criterion is that the volunteers be “passionate in their belief that women do not deserve to be abused,” she said. “Violence is never OK. It’s never an alternative. Never. Never.”

For more information about volunteering, call (818) 845-7671.

Other volunteering opportunities:

The San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council is seeking volunteer drivers and substitutes for its Meals on Wheels program. Volunteers would pick up food from Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys and deliver it to homebound people of all ages. Contact Norm or Judy at (818) 365-8110.

The Volunteer Center of San Fernando Valley, a service of the Assistance League of Southern California, seeks volunteers for several agencies:

The Canoga Care Center needs people to work some evenings calling bingo, horse racing and other games. Children Are Our Future, a Canoga Park agency that operates group homes for troubled teens, needs clerical help. The Pacoima Senior Center also needs clerks. The Women’s Care Cottage, which provides food and referrals for homeless women and children, needs members for its board of directors.

For more information, call the Volunteer Center at (818) 908-5066.

Getting Involved is a weekly listing of volunteering opportunities. Please address prospective listings to Getting Involved, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax them to (818) 772-3338.