REACH Beyond Domestic Violence

REACH Beyond Domestic Violence believes that HOW nonprofits do our work matters – not just WHAT we do. To be effective for our clients, we must create environments where employees doing this hard work are respected and valued. The idea of “you are worth it” is missing from too many nonprofit workplaces. This drains employees of their compassion, energy, and creativity, leading to capable people – of diverse identities and life experiences – leaving workplaces dedicated to changing and saving lives. We talk with domestic violence survivors about healthy relationships, compassionate accountability, and resiliency. Yet most of the people doing this work are systematically devalued, overwhelmed, and underpaid, treated as martyrs with no need for the compensation or support that enables them to thrive.

REACH envisions developing practices that will shift the nonprofit sector toward emphasizing wellbeing for staff as a critical part of, and in conjunction with, doing the work itself. We plan to create a wellbeing incubator; develop, test, and evaluate different scenarios; and share our discoveries with other agencies. When we demonstrate as a society that we value the people who do the work, we also show that we value the people with whom the work is done.

Jessica Teperow has worked in the field of intimate partner violence (IPV) for the past 20 years. As a teen, Jessica made this her life’s work because she saw IPV’s impact on her own life and could see how its devastation is avoidable. She was drawn to REACH’s investment in prevention work and has been the Director of Prevention Programs since 2013. Jessica and REACH’s prevention team partner with organizations, schools, and communities to help them recognize the impact of trauma and IPV. They develop initiatives aimed at fostering social norms that promote healthy relationships and prevent gender based violence. 

These efforts focus on enhancing wellbeing, creating trauma-sensitive classrooms, and addressing overwhelm. Jess’s vision is that nonprofit organizations become sensitive to these same topics with their staff. She wants REACH to create ways for agencies to come at their work from a place of fullness (compensation, energy, compassion), which would avert burnout and ultimately benefits their clients. The goal is to make nonprofits more sustainable and impactful by shifting from self care to collective care where organizations show up for their colleagues so these staff can use their energy, creativity, and passion to more effectively show up for the clients.

Throughout its history, REACH has welcomed and supported all survivors of domestic abuse. One of every three women and one of every five men are subject to abuse or harassment at some point in their lives, and the problem cuts across every cultural, religious, national, gender, and socioeconomic sector. REACH’s emergency shelter is always at capacity. Our community advocacy program supports those for whom shelter is not an option so they can get help without having to leave their homes and community ties behind. We partner with more than 7,000 people each year in 27 Greater Boston communities.

Our work with survivors is complemented by our explicit commitment to the larger goal of shifting our culture’s thinking so that domestic abuse has no place in it. It is no accident that REACH has four full-time staff dedicated to prevention, education, and outreach. We are committed to fully engaging students, teachers, parents, congregants, and other community members in understanding what trauma looks like and how to respond to it. In doing this work, REACH has recognized that caring for ourselves and one another is integral to the work we do with our clients and communities.

REACH’s groundbreaking approach is embodied in the values we live every day.

• We are all in this together. We do our work as part of a larger movement, collaborating and supporting one another in task and spirit.
• We care for ourselves and one another. We recognize that survivors, staff, and volunteers are more than the trauma they have experienced or the job functions they perform.
• How we do our work matters. The respectful, equitable relationships we work for in the world have to start with us. We model this by believing survivors, honoring commitments, and trusting colleagues.
• We believe change is possible. We work to change social norms and systems in order to prevent and ultimately end domestic violence.

These principles are quite radical when most nonprofits rely on their employees’ compassion to do work often beyond reasonable expectations. REACH talks with survivors about forming healthy relationships, compassionate accountability, and resiliency. We are committed to treating professionals the same way. The world has many problems and also has people with the wherewithal to solve them. We must continue to create policies and practices that clear the way for them do to so, not hinder them by encouraging overwork and burnout.

REACH stands with survivors as they face difficult decisions and challenges to safety, stability, connection, and mastery over their own lives. We are doing what we can to interrupt the impact of domestic violence on children with individual and group therapy. We offer safe housing for families uprooted and made homeless by violence. These immediate impacts for children and adults are powerfully complemented by our work in communities. We engage neighbors, friends, students, and educators in efforts to shift social norms to prevent or reduce the impact of abusive behaviors, both for those who are targeted and those who are socialized to use them. REACH is helping to create positive change in schools, faith communities, businesses, and organizations. We see schools reacting in supportive ways to student disclosures, we see parents talking openly with their children, we see high school students joining abuse education groups in college. REACH’s messages are having an impact and increasingly becoming community practice. We are eager to expand this work further. We want to live the values we espouse, learning along the way, and sharing what we learn with our DV colleagues and beyond.