The Fight to End Domestic Violence

Investigating the hidden issue of domestic violence in Traverse City

by Sam Elkins content editor

Domestic violence is defined as “violence committed by someone in the victim’s domestic circle. This includes partners and ex partners, immediate family members, other relatives and family friends” (government.nl). When I read these words for the first time on the computer, researching cases of domestic violence and abuse in Traverse City, a feeling arose that I haven’t felt in a long time. I was looking at cases of people I’ve seen before, people I’ve been introduced to before, someone I’ve shook hands with in my home. Scrolling through local news, I saw things that absolutely horrified me. Seeing headlines like “51 Year Old Man Arrested on Third Charge of Domestic Violence” and watching YouTube videos of news reports in our town, I realized how this really affects people on an everyday basis. According to NCADV.org, nearly 20 people per minute are assaulted by an intimate partner, meaning nearly 10 million people a year in the United States are survivors of domestic violence. If you look in any public setting, there’s a large chance of someone there being a victim of domestic violence.

On May 3rd, a man named William Grant stabbed his wife to death with a pair of scissors. On July 10th, Jonathan Welch tortured and killed his girlfriend and another man not even a half of a week after posting bail. But those are just examples from across the country. In Traverse City, there is currently one hotline and one shelter for domestic violence, the Women’s Resource Center for the Grand Traverse Area (WRC). The WRC specializes in helping domestic violence and abuse victims and assisting with their recovery both mentally and physically.

I walked into the WRC headquarters near Munson Hospital, and I was shocked. Empty spaces, barely anyone there, and open rooms with no one in them. It was empty and quiet. Soon after my observations, I sat down with both Carl Mormann and Juliette Schultz, the director for advocacy and executive director of the WRC. The interview starts off slow, just talking about the basics of their jobs and daily lives at work, then Juiliette speaks up and reveals that she herself is a survivor, giving her a direct connection to both the job itself and the people and survivors that come into the WRC. Her current job on the board was offered during a lunch meeting with a couple of well respected people in the community. The main goal attached with being on the board is to oversee the finances of the WRC. “[My role was] making sure that the finances were running correctly and that the organization or the board was governing itself correctly. I helped out with some marketing initiatives, with some fundraising, but that’s sort of the overall purpose of the board,” Schultz explains.

Schultz introduces the funds that were raised by the thrift shop portion of the WRC, “They [first] raised $500. They put that toward the mission, and they decided we could do this if we had a storefront, and that started what was then called the Treasure Trove. The Treasure Trove was started over 30 years ago and grew, grew, grew and [was] moved a couple of times. Now we have two thrift shops, and they’re responsible for over $1,000,000 in revenue that goes back to the mission.” She mentions that the stores have all made notable progress since they’ve been open. The shops are able to raise enough money to give away $100,000 in free goods (food, clothes, etc) to 8 individuals every month. That being said, Mormann notes that the WRC provides quite a lot of services besides the thrift store. “[The WRC] obtains personal protection orders, helps folks with divorce proceedings, [and] tries to find referrals for legal services, which is a huge struggle right now. Housing is another big issue [that they deal with].” These are just a few of the services that the WRC is able to provide, and everything at the WRC is always 100% confidential, as far as cases go.

The WRC helps people with both simple and complicated cases; Mormann simplifies the case studies by describing the different types of “relationships” workers have with the victims. “[With] some of our clients, the relationship is very brief. They have a specific need. We were able to help them obtain that goal and then they move on with life and however they decide. Others are more complicated and more complex. We’ve dealt with clients in excess for a couple of years. If they were involved in a really bad situation, children may end up being temporarily placed in foster care,” Mormann describes. The shelter itself has 22 beds and is almost always around the 80-90% capacity mark. Currently it’s dropped to around 70%, but that could change within hours. Donations come through quite often and they make it so the shelter can be up and running and have the ability to help individuals for as long as the service is needed.

When I was leaving, they gave me a small tour of the offices and the smaller hallways, and it made me think: “The only hotline and shelter for domestic violence in Traverse City, and it’s not even the size of Central’s auditorium,” which made it even more impactful. They don’t even have ten staff members in the building at a time, and they deal with rushes of people throughout just one day. It can be packed full of people with cases already being tackled or new cases needing to be brought in. Or, it can be dead silent. You can hear a pin drop in a different room. People don’t fully grasp the work they do there, usually with very little endeavor. Their funding comes from two thrift shops on opposite sides of town, and all their profits go to helping the WRC, helping women in these situations to get what they need to recover, leave a dangerous situation, or get any other means of support, whether it’s mentally, physically, finically, etc. “There’s a bigger picture to this whole thing? This is real life. You talk about domestic violence, but it’s broader in and of itself. Maybe someone that comes to us is homeless, [but] does that mean that someone should abuse them?” Mormann questions. “No, but all of those things are barriers that prevent them from moving forward in life. So not only are you dealing with the domestic violence issue, you have to help that person with all those other issues… For someone to be successful, to be able to put their lives back together and move forward, they have to get beyond all those things, [too].”

In the work they do, the WRC goes above and beyond. They cover things like teen pregnancy, child abuse, mental abuse, and drug or alcohol addiction. For something that’s just known as an old worn down brick relic near Munson, the building’s insides actually save lives. They do unspeakable work and unthinkable wonders to better our community with little recognition and praise. “We’re here to…offer them those options and let them know that there are resources available, what they look like, and how [they can] obtain them. And when they realize that those things are available to them, they’re more apt to remove themselves from an abusive situation. That’s the ultimate goal.” //