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| Group photo from AVA training held on October 22nd, 2011. |
AVA Training &You [Watch for upcoming training sessions]
Abuse Hurts! AVA Helps!
There is an epidemic affecting one out of every four women and one in six men. They suffer behind closed doors, most often concealing their pain, fearful of those on both sides of the door.
AVA [Advocacy for Victims of Abuse] is a ministry of the Evangelical Covenant Church. The East Coast Conference provides a training experience open to lay persons, clergy, church staff, professionals and volunteers in helping professions, Stephen Ministers or anyone desiring to learn more about how to help those affected by Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Abuse--two issues deeply impacting the Church today.
How can this training help me?
- It will equip you to come alongside a victim of Domestic Violence or Childhood Sexual Abuse with understanding and support.It will inform you about the issues in Domestic and Childhood Sexual Abuse.
- It will provide you with contextual understanding of the Scriptures that can be misunderstood in dealing with DV or CSA.
- It will acquaint you with the issues pertaining to DV and CSA, some sensitive and delicate.
Interview with Priscilla Borden, East Coast Conference AVA Coordinator The East Coast Conference Women Ministries Board is excited to introduce conference AVA Coordinator, Priscilla Borden, a member at East Bridgewater Community Covenant Church in Massachusetts. We asked her a few questions and here are her answers. We trust you’ll see why we are so delighted to have her on board.
WM: Tell us about yourself.
PB: Well, I’ve just celebrated my 60th birthday. I’m really excited and delighted about making it to this milestone birthday and I am looking forward to the next chapters of my life. I’m a folk dance teacher, 18th Century Re-enactor, Seamstress, gardener and social worker. I’m in my second marriage. I’m a 6th generation "Cape Codder" and was raised in a home that my great grandfather built. My brother raised the fifth generation there and it still belongs to the family. I’m the eldest of 7 and have 6 younger brothers. It took me 4 universities and 25 years to earn by Bachelors of Science degree in Counseling Psychology. My daughter and I both graduated from university together in 1999.
During my study I had an internship at Independence House in Hyannis, a Battered Women’s/Rape crisis agency. After my internship I became the Barnstable County Regional Coordinator for the Massachusetts statewide program SAFPLAN (Safety for Persons Leaving Abused Now) for persons seeking restraining orders. It is a program funded by the Massachusetts Office of Victim Assistance (MOVA). My job included the oversight, supervision and training of court advocates in four Barnstable County Courts. In 2001 due to a change in the SAFEPLAN program, I became a state employee as the Barnstable County SAFEPLAN Coordinator. Upon leaving the MOVA office I returned to Independence House and served as the Director of the Rape Crisis Program for 5-6 years. This program dealt with all issues regarding sexual assault, sexual harassment and incest from the Cape Cod bridges to Provincetown.
In 2006 I finally met a good man who wasn’t married and we united. I sold my home and moved to his in Abington, MA. The commute proved too daunting and in 2007 I left, just in time to be available for hospice care for my mother and sister. I cared for my sister in New Mexico as her husband was a long haul trucker and if he quit, they’d lose their health insurance. Two months after returning from caring for my sister my mother had her sixth and final battle with cancer. I am very grateful to God for the husband he gave me. His support was invaluable.
It’s taken a couple of years to recover, but when I began to look for work again, the rules had changed. Most positions now require a Masters degree and I couldn’t find work. So having taught myself at the age of 11 how to sew on my grandmother’s treadle sewing machine, I decided to make my hobby my work. I specialize in authentic 18th century clothing, formals and wedding gowns. My husband and I take our canvas tent; our cast iron pots and our period dress and attend local historical events. I’ve become an amateur historian with a deep interest in women’s history.
I’m a survivor of childhood abuse. During my “remembering time”, I had the great privilege of doing PTSD together with my mom. It was an incredible experience because most survivors have families that deny their experience. In fact that’s what happened to my mother.
WM: How did you learn of the Covenant’s Advocates for Victims of Abuse (AVA) training?
PB: I have Quaker roots and my husband is a Nazarene. There are no Quaker Meetings in the area. In the process of my husband and I seeking a home church, we found the Community Covenant Church in East Bridge water. I became a member in 2010. The Women Ministry there had a tea and I was invited. That’s where I found out about AVA. WM: I know you've received training for "Local Church Advocates" and training from the Director of AVA, Yvonne DeVaughn, to become our Regional Coordinator, but I understand you've just received some additional training. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
PB: I attended Mending the Soul training in Arizona. Mending the Soul is the healing component of AVA, made available for those who feel they would benefit from a support group led by a trained facilitator. I was apprehensive when I first went because I had been reading the book assigned and was concerned it would be a rehash of my life’s work. But I decided to make it a journey of patience. And I was incredibly thrilled at the way it was conducted. It was not boring and I loved the way it connected all the pieces biblically. I am just enthralled. It is really, really wonderful training. I also met a bunch of other AVA coordinators and may eventually remember all their names.
WM: Tell us about your church family.
PB: I really like East Bridgewater. I have incredible support from our pastor and have had all along. I once went to him about something he said in a sermon and he was incredibly open. The whole community is really supportive and open and is getting ready for us to hold our first AVA training event. We have a good Stephens Ministry going, too. I feel it is a real community. Women Ministry is coming together. It’s just a really great church. And it has a real pipe organ!
WM: What to you hope to accomplish as an AVA Coordinator? What’s your vision for AVA in the East Coast Conference?
PB: In my work at Independence House, I have sat with so many women who’ve been further abused or re-victimized by their church community. That hurts because I would not be alive today without Christ. It was His hand that kept me from committing suicide in 1990. But working in an agency, I’m not allowed to deal with those kinds of spiritual needs. There’s a barrier between what we’re trying to do with AVA and what’s going on in the Battered Women’s/Rape Crisis agencies. We need to start conversations and get to know each other better. And that’s all about relationships. We need to connect with our local agencies and communicate.
So, long term I’d like to improve the connections between community social services and the local churches. I have a vision of helping this collaboration, changing attitudes in the agencies and churches so survivors can heal sooner. I’d really like to see such strong connections that if a member of a church encounters a woman who is hurting she can say, “I know Sally Someone at such and such an agency and I bet she could help. Here’s her number.” And in the agencies I’d like them to know enough so that if someone says they are a Christian, and are looking for a church, they can say, “I know this program AVA…”
So for me personally it’s about starting, going to local minister’s meetings and making intros, letting people know we’re here. AVA and MTS are a priority for me. Everything else is second. I am reorganizing my life to do that. I am lucky I work for myself.
PB: I attended Mending the Soul training in Arizona. Mending the Soul is the healing component of AVA, made available for those who feel they would benefit from a support group led by a trained facilitator. I was apprehensive when I first went because I had been reading the book assigned and was concerned it would be a rehash of my life’s work. But I decided to make it a journey of patience. And I was incredibly thrilled at the way it was conducted. It was not boring and I loved the way it connected all the pieces biblically. I am just enthralled. It is really, really wonderful training. I also met a bunch of other AVA coordinators and may eventually remember all their names.
WM: Tell us about your church family.
PB: I really like East Bridgewater. I have incredible support from our pastor and have had all along. I once went to him about something he said in a sermon and he was incredibly open. The whole community is really supportive and open and is getting ready for us to hold our first AVA training event. We have a good Stephens Ministry going, too. I feel it is a real community. Women Ministry is coming together. It’s just a really great church. And it has a real pipe organ!
WM: What to you hope to accomplish as an AVA Coordinator? What’s your vision for AVA in the East Coast Conference?
PB: In my work at Independence House, I have sat with so many women who’ve been further abused or re-victimized by their church community. That hurts because I would not be alive today without Christ. It was His hand that kept me from committing suicide in 1990. But working in an agency, I’m not allowed to deal with those kinds of spiritual needs. There’s a barrier between what we’re trying to do with AVA and what’s going on in the Battered Women’s/Rape Crisis agencies. We need to start conversations and get to know each other better. And that’s all about relationships. We need to connect with our local agencies and communicate.
So, long term I’d like to improve the connections between community social services and the local churches. I have a vision of helping this collaboration, changing attitudes in the agencies and churches so survivors can heal sooner. I’d really like to see such strong connections that if a member of a church encounters a woman who is hurting she can say, “I know Sally Someone at such and such an agency and I bet she could help. Here’s her number.” And in the agencies I’d like them to know enough so that if someone says they are a Christian, and are looking for a church, they can say, “I know this program AVA…”
So for me personally it’s about starting, going to local minister’s meetings and making intros, letting people know we’re here. AVA and MTS are a priority for me. Everything else is second. I am reorganizing my life to do that. I am lucky I work for myself.