The Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers (MAPS) is planning a variety of events to mark Domestic Awareness Month in October.
- Cambridge: Martha Vasconcellos, Supervisor of Domestic Violence Services for the Boston area, will visit Brazilian businesses along Cambridge Street and distribute educational and prevention materials during the month. Staff are also participating with a table at the Cambridge City Hall Candlelight Vigil October 6 and distributing education and prevention materials.
- Somerville: MAPS will join with the Somerville Anti-Violence Task Force for a candlelight vigil being planned in Davis Square on October 7, from 5 to 7 pm. MAPS will have a table there with DV material in Portuguese.
For more information on Cambridge and Somerville events, please call (617) 864-7600.
- Dorchester: Domestic Violence Prevention Advocate Dulce Depina is developing a project together with Dorchester staff members Donna Landry-Rodrigues and Dulce Almeida including outreach presentations and distribution of brochures and fly about DV for the Women’s Group at Upham’s Corner Health Center, as well as at a local high school, at MAPS during a Saturday Café Crioulo, and in a local Laundromat, also on a Saturday. Please call (617) 825-5897 for more information.
- Lowell: On October 15, MAPS will have its biggest monthly Health Fair ever. Domestic Violence Prevention Advocate Kate Lessard will use that day to mark Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“We will start the Clothesline Project in Portuguese in collaboration with the Rape Crisis Center,” said Lessard. “The Clothesline Project is a visual display of shirts hung on a line. Each shirt is decorated to represent a particular woman’s experience about violence directed toward her.”
Lessard added, “The shirts will be decorated at the Health Fair by survivors themselves, friends or family of survivors.”
The Lowell DV staff will also be working with area churches throughout the month of October including holding a cell phone drive with the churches to help battered women, as well as speaking after services at two churches that have large Portuguese-speaking congregations. For more information on Lowell activities, please call Lessard at 978-970-1250.
MAPS is a private, nonprofit organization with six offices throughout greater Boston, Framingham and Lowell. The agency has provided health and social services to Portuguese speakers since 1970. MAPS’ Domestic Violence Services are supported by the Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health and Executive Office of Public Safety as well as the Mass. Department of Children & Families, the Theodore Edson Parker Foundation, TJX Foundation and other sources. MAPS is a member of Jane Doe, Inc.
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