Vigil for domestic violence victims: ‘Unfortunately, Safe Voices has had a very active year’

FARMINGTON- Safe Voices, an organization that provides support to those affected by domestic violence, held its annual memorial vigil Monday night at the gazebo in Meetinghouse Park.

The vigil has been held every October for over five years now, honoring the victims of domestic abuse.

“Unfortunately, Safe Voices has had a very active year,” Hillary Hooke said. Hooke is the community educator in Franklin County, a role that she finds vital to the battle against domestic violence.

Aside from helping to organize the vigil, Hooke does outreach work in the local schools. Primarily, she works on educating kids on how to have healthy relationships and what those relationships should, and shouldn’t, look like.

Attendants of the vigil gathered in the gazebo where Kelly Bentley, a University of Maine at Farmington assistant professor, spoke.

“It’s hard to hear that it has been a busy year for Safe Voices but I wonder if this means as a society we are talking about it more,” Bentley said.

Bentley teaches in the Community Health program at UMF and is also a survivor of domestic violence herself.

“We need to start looking at this as a community issue. Everyone needs to be held accountable for these actions,” she said.

Participants were then given a chance to speak. Some spoke of their own experiences, while others spoke of second-hand trauma.

“Organizations like this mean a lot to me,” Tiffani Melia said.

Melia recalled witnessing the abuse on her mother, both physically and emotionally. The circumstances eventually led Melia to being placed in foster care. Now she is a sophomore attending UMF and an advocate for those affected by domestic abuse.

“I know I can’t fix things for her, but at least I can be active in the community,” Melia said.

For more information on Safe Voices visit http://www.safevoices.org/index.php