Half of the 45 Maine survivors featured on the Finding Our Voices bookmarks — being held in the photo by Waterville Police Chief William Bonney — are from Midcoast Maine. Chief Bonney is also joining the conversation. Photo by Patrisha McLean.
Half of the 45 Maine survivors featured on the Finding Our Voices bookmarks — being held in the photo by Waterville Police Chief William Bonney — are from Midcoast Maine. Chief Bonney is also joining the conversation. Photo by Patrisha McLean.
The public is invited to a Finding Our Voices program on how domestic violence impacts children. Midcoast Maine survivors will share how they and their family members were terrorized in what should be the safe place of home. This free event will take place in Waterville at the Maine Film Center at 93 Main St. Sunday Feb. 12 at 2:30 p.m.
The program begins with short films on Courtney Billings, a hairdresser in Rockland, and Christine Buckley, owner of Christine’s Framing in Camden, talking about growing up in fear and chaos with their mothers’ violent boyfriends, vowing to avoid this in their dating life, then finding themselves trapped in it by their own intimate partners. Local filmmakers Matt Siegel and Josh Gerritsen as well as other colleagues made these movies pro-bono for Finding Our Voices. Another film in the program is Timekeeper from the UK which is having its North American premiere. Timekeeper focuses on a young boy’s experience of coercive control — also known as emotional abuse — and was created to help teachers recognize when children are going through domestic abuse, and also how to best help them.
Billings and Buckley, as well as five other survivors, will discuss the abuse they and their children endured, or are still enduring, and how to break the cycle. Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney and Waterville Police Chief William Bonney will join the community conversation.
“Two days before Valentine’s Day is perfect timing,” said Patrisha McLean, founder/president of Finding Our Voices, “to shine a light on the mixed messages in some families over what love is, and what it is not. Talking about it, parents to children, children to parents, neighbor to neighbor, is the first step to healing, and to healthy relationships with family members and intimate partners.”
This free event, sponsored by the Oak Institute of Human Rights at Colby College, has first come first served seating. For more information email Patrisha at hello@findingourvoices.net or visit watervillecreates.org.
