New director reaffirms RAVE mission of breaking the cycle of violence
Morrison leads multi-county organization

By Rhonda Westfall

Every 15 seconds today and every day here in the United States, a woman will be beaten.

Each hour, 78 forcible rapes will occur.

In nearly 80 percent of the homes where a woman is battered by her partner, children who live there are also abused.

These are cold, hard statistics - about living and breathing human beings who may very well be your friends and neighbors. Sexual assault and domestic abuse cross all socio-economic boundaries - it doesn't happen only to "those" people.

Beth Morrison, whose first day on the job as the new RAVE director was March 12, knows the statistics and the people behind them all too well. Her work during the past 20 years with adults and children who have suffered physical and emotional trauma stemming from abuse has taken her from Michigan, to Arizona, and back again.

"I got started in the field of domestic violence back when I was a student at Central Michigan University and worked in a shelter in Mt. Pleasant," the native of Hillman in northern Michigan says of her introductory work in social services which became a career.

"It was my first, real eye-opening experience working with children who are forced to live in that environment - I just got hooked on trying to help them."

Following her graduation from CMU, Morrison served as an assistant director of a rape crisis center in Arizona where she developed and implemented a crisis shelter system for women and children. The licensed therapist for sexual assault and abuse worked extensively with children, adolescents and adults, both on an individual basis and in group settings.

Morrison and her husband returned to northern Michigan in 1991, where she was employed in the Gaylord area as a school social worker. A move to mid-Michigan resulted in her serving for the past four years as executive director of the Eaton County Youth Facility, located in Charlotte.

Although she's been in the RAVE director's chair for less than a month, Morrison is pleased with what she's seen so far.

"I'm really impressed with the commitment of the staff and the RAVE board of directors to provide quality services to our clients," she says. "I'm also impressed with the commitment to RAVE that I've seen from community residents in general, and other agencies that we work in cooperation with."

That commitment from the community has been ongoing since the formation of RAVE in 1983. Volunteers have spent countless hours in training for RAVE's many programs, such as the crisis line that takes telephone calls seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Last year alone, 1,427 calls were taken and 1,002 families were aided via RAVE programs.

In addition to the crisis line, RAVE provides a host of services at no cost to area individuals in need - families right here in Clinton County. Services include individual, group, rape crisis, and child sexual assault counseling; legal advocacy and assistance with court proceedings; housing assistance and respite child care; transportation and childrens groups; and other assistance.

One of the most significant accomplishments of RAVE that directly involved community residents was the establishment of an emergency shelter program in Clinton County in 1985.

RAVE also operates a shelter in neighboring Shiawassee County, a partner along with Ionia and Montcalm counties which recently merged with the organization.

The shelters are a safe haven for women and children to stay after leaving a violent situation in their own homes. A total of 5,381 "safe nights" were provided in 2000, and 16,143 meals were served in the shelters.

While the addition of two counties to the overall RAVE program has produced challenges in the past year, it also creates opportunities to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, Morrison says.

"We will be conducting a needs assessment survey in the coming months, using focus groups in each county to help guide us as we do strategic planning for the future," the director says.

"We really need input from the various communities - what works or needs to be done in Shiawassee, Ionia, or Montcalm counties may not be the same as here in Clinton County."

Morrison also hopes the agency can provide information to the public which will stress prevention - stopping violence before it occurs.

"Domestic abuse crosses over to violence in general," she says. "We need to talk with youth and youth groups - demonstrate the importance of respect for each other.

"You can't look at school violence, without looking at domestic violence and sexual assault."