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    Sunday, November 03, 2024

    Step by step, Safe Futures walk fights domestic violence

    Some of the hundreds of people start the 7th annual Safe Futures Walk honoring National Domestic Violence Awareness Month at Duck Pond Park in Waterford Sunday. (John Shishmanian/Special to The Day)
    Some of the hundreds of people during the 7th annual Safe Futures Walk honoring National Domestic Violence Awareness Month at Duck Pond Park in Waterford Sunday. (John Shishmanian/Special to The Day)
    Jennifer Zubek of Colchester, right, gets a hug from Katherine Verano, CEO Safe Futures, after Zubek talked about her domestic abuse as a child and adult just before the 7th annual Safe Futures Walk honoring National Domestic Violence Awareness Month at Duck Pond Park in Waterford Sunday. (John Shishmanian/Special to The Day)
    Groton Town Police Chief L. J. Fusaro, left, Safe Walk chairman Mike Buscetto and Waterford Police Chief Marc Balestracci lead hundreds of people during the 7th annual Safe Futures Walk honoring National Domestic Violence Awareness Month at Duck Pond Park in Waterford Sunday. (John Shishmanian/Special to The Day)
    Norwich Free Academy cheerleaders join hundreds of people during the 7th annual Safe Futures Walk honoring National Domestic Violence Awareness Month at Duck Pond Park in Waterford Sunday. (John Shishmanian/Special to The Day)
    Waterford Police officer Eric Fredricks and Ethan Stone, 11, of Waterford, with Fredrick's comfort Black Labrador named Hodges who helps comfort families of domestic abuse just before the 7th annual Safe Futures Walk honoring National Domestic Violence Awareness Month at Duck Pond Park in Waterford Sunday. (John Shishmanian/Special to The Day)
    New London High School cheerleaders Tatiana Pemberton, left, and Aiyanna Mitchell just before the 7th annual Safe Futures Walk honoring National Domestic Violence Awareness Month at Duck Pond Park in Waterford Sunday. (John Shishmanian/Special to The Day)

    Waterford ― Jennifer Zubek, director of Groton’s Riverfront Children’s Center knows all too well the effect that domestic violence can have on families, having survived it twice.

    Zubek shared her story Sunday, at the annual Safe Walk fundraiser at the recently renovated Arnold E. Holm Jr. Memorial Park.

    The annual event helps nonprofit Safe Futures support a variety of free, discreet advocacy, counseling, support, safety planning and other programs it provides for victims of domestic violence across 21 regional towns and two tribal nations.

    It also helped to raise money for a project to build a new regional family justice center in town that Safe Futures CEO Kathie Verano hopes will break ground next year.

    So hundreds signed up for walk, the fee for which was $25 per adult. Admission was free for children. Sunday’s crowd included members of many area police departments, residents, many service animals and athletes from several area high schools. Raffle tickets were sold that raised more money.

    But before police and this year’s honorary chairman Mike Buscetto, owner of Filomena’s restaurant, led them for a walk around the new boardwalk that goes around the park’s duck pond, Zubek emphasized to them the importance of early intervention in domestic violence.

    “A survivor of domestic abuse as a child, as an adult I had looked to create a safe space for my own children,” she said. “So I couldn’t reconcile it when I found myself in an abusive relationship in my 30s.”

    Zubek recalled how as a child, she stayed up in her room waiting in fear for her father to come home, drunk and banging pots and pans in the kitchen. Each time, she hoped he wouldn’t start a fight with her or her mother.

    Then, decades later, she had tried to seek a protective order against an abusive man she was in a relationship with. She said thankfully, she was able to leave him earlier than most victims do, but was denied the protective order. Seven years after leaving, he tried to break into her house while her children were home.

    “Seven years after I left my abuser, and still my youngest son had to witness his father trying to break into our house, fighting officers and getting tackled to the ground. It’s what happens to families every day,” she said. “The thousands of parents who are struggling to protect their children while trying to survive the trauma themselves.”

    Trauma, she said she could have been spared, if police, and the judge who denied her protective order, had listened. And if she’d known about shelters where she could find safety.

    “This is why we must speak up,” she said. “This is why we must demand more resources, more protection for the victims of abuse. You can not allow anyone to feel like they’re alone, trapped or without hope.”

    Once complete, the proposed Center for Safe Futures at 994 Hartford Turnpike will provide victims and their families with legal, mental health and counseling services ― courtesy of numerous partnering agencies ― all in one building, Verano has said.

    The nonprofit is still about $1 million away from reaching its fundraising goal for the new center. Verano said she won’t know for about a week how much money was raised Sunday.

    Meanwhile, Verano said that the center has already been designed, but now the architect is fine-tuning little things in the building design, like where the electrical outlets and bathrooms will go. The next step is hiring a project manager. Safe Futures has just prepared its request for proposal for that manager, Verano said.

    “So that will be going out soon, so that we can then hire a project manager. Which means we’re getting close to the final cost. Which means in the new year, we’ll be able to break ground,” she said.

    Once the manager is hired, they will be able to put out individual contracting bids for work for the new center, using the architect’s design.

    The agency hopes the Center for Safe Futures will allow earlier intervention in domestic violence situations, something that can also help identify would-be abusers and involve them in counseling services, if needed. It will also provide child care services.

    Those in attendance voiced their support for Safe Futures mission.

    As Barbara Sahagan, a Mystic resident and one of the walkers Sunday, left with a raffle basket of toys, she said she has been a supporter of Safe Futures for many years.

    “Because I believe everyone should be able to live a safe life, without fear of those in their lives.”

    Police Chief Marc Balestracci, calling Safe Futures a great organization, said he recognizes there’s “a lot of work still to do” to ensure victims of domestic violence are protected.

    “The police departments represented here today are committed to partnering with you all in that effort,” he added.

    Verano said just last year, Safe Futures Lethality Assessment had identified 537 victims across Southeastern Connecticut who were at risk of being murdered.

    Safe Futures next event in October ― Domestic Violence Awareness month ― will be the candlelight vigil for victims of domestic violence homicides, on Oct. 16.

    d.drainville@theday.com

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