Safe Voices

All Safe Voices offices will be closed on Friday, June 19 in observance of the Juneteenth holiday

Helpline remains open and staffed 24/7. Please call 1-800-559-2927 to be connected with an advocate.

Safe Voices is hiring for four open positions! Two Overnight Safe House Positions, one Domestic Violence Intervention Program Facilitator, and one Community Response Program Manager. Anyone who's interested should visit our website at: https://safevoices.org/about-us/career-opportunities/ for more information and instructions on how to apply.

We try to make our Survivor Storytellers group a balance of developing storytelling skills AND using trauma-informed knowledge to take care of ourselves while doing that storytelling. Next week, we'll be leaning into the storytelling side by learning about "voice" and doing an activity together to help find our unique writing style.

Interested in taking part? Register for the next Survivor Storytellers meeting (next Thursday, June 25) here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/33x425h

Are you interested in being a volunteer on the Safe Voices Helpline? We have a training coming up later this summer! Dates are not firm yet, but we do know that this training will be:
- In-person in Lewiston
- 9am-noon, three days a week (Tues., Wed., & Thurs.) for approximately three weeks
- Likely happening in July, August, or September

All Helpline volunteers must successfully complete a background check after they have completed training. For more information about what it's like to volunteer on Helpline and to find a volunteer application, please visit: https://safevoices.org/get-involved/volunteers-interns/

These are just a few of the amazing advocates who work on our Helpline! One of the great things about having a local Helpline is that the people answering it — our Safe Voices staff and volunteers — live and work in the communities we serve. We know the transportation challenges in our rural communities. We know the court systems where we work. We know the dispatch response times in our unorganized territories. All of that means we can meet survivors where they are, with a deep understanding of the challenges they're facing.

It's been awhile since the Safe Voices office dogs have said hello! From left to right, say hello to Monty (who belongs to our Legal Advocacy Program Manager, Tori); Carly (who belongs to our Anti-Trafficking Program Manager, Kara); and Kristaps (who doesn't belong to any of us, but was a very special office guest while our Director of Development, Grace, dog-sat him for a friend!).

Safe Voices shelters became the first pet-friendly domestic violence shelters in the state back in 2019, and we are happy to also be a pet-friendly work place!

We are proud to share this op-ed from our partners at the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence. Mainers must not tune out domestic abuse.

Maine must not tune out domestic abuse | Opinion The stories remain objectively horrifying throughout Maine and the nation and should not be relegated to background noise.

Safe Voices is hiring for an Overnight Safe House Advocate and a Domestic Violence Intervention Program Facilitator! Visit https://safevoices.org/about-us/career-opportunities/ for more information about these positions and information on how to apply!

Thank you, Maine Needs (and Olivia!) for always making our work with you such a positive experience.

Recently, we got a large clothing donation from a business. With it, we were able to fully stock our Free Boutique and our closets at our shelter buildings. And we still had some left over! Since MaineNeeds so often supports us with specific needs that survivors may have, we immediately thought of them to share our surplus clothing with. When we dropped it off, the youngest front desk volunteer, Olivia, handed us a thank you as we left.

Thank you Maine Needs, Olivia, and donors who allowed us to share the bounty with these partners!

On Sunday, we got to celebrate the ribbon cutting of the new McCulloch Family Barn with our friends at the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals. Why was Safe Voices there? Well, MSSPA and Safe Voices have created a very special partnership to help survivors who need to flee abuse and who have horses that need to be cared for while they leave that abusive relationship, reestablish a home of their own, and set up a barn or boarding arrangement for their horse. This can take time, and often, time is at a premium when making safety plans. With MSSPA, Safe Voices can now work with survivors to place their horse in temporary foster care. Then, Safe Voices and the survivor can focus on safety planning and leaving, all while knowing the MSSPA is providing the very best care until the survivor is ready to bring the animal to their new home. This is a truly transformative partnership, and we are so happy to celebrate the milestone of this new barn with them!