What is your most memorable story?
One of the moments that has impacted us the most was sitting in court watching a young woman representing herself in a hearing for the contested Family Abuse Protection Act order. She spoke on her own behalf with confidence and strength. She did not allow the glares and muttered comments of her former partner to bother her, nor did the fact that he had an attorney to assist him.
How do you address organizational barriers?
Our staff are constantly working with community partners who perennially don’t really see survivor advocates as legitimate service providers. Our staff deal with this with a great deal of professionalism, regardless of how difficult the situation is. We’re able to maintain partnerships because of the advocates’ continual professional behavior, even when it it would be a lot easier for the advocates to withdraw from some partnership situations–but the people who would bear the biggest consequences of this would be the survivors, and we’re here to support them.
What are you excited about and proud of with your organization? What are some goals you hope to achieve?
We are really proud of the diversity of community partnerships we maintain and are continually building on. Tides of Change is at a lot of tables representing survivor concerns and bringing survivor experiences to numerous important community conversations on child care, housing, chronic disease, substance use, criminal legal services, and more. We’re small but mighty. What really excites us is that our organization keeps growing towards the future and are expanding our services to all survivors with the hope that change will continue to happen. We are proud to be a part of an organization that started “back in the day” as a grassroots, local group of woman who wanted to serve and support victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence but more importantly desired to see change happen in Tillamook County. And as TCWRC has just rebranded itself Tides of Change, the emphasis on social change continues!
Longest employed staff at your organization
Name: Eleanor, Advocate/Volunteer Coordinator
Number of years at ToC: 16
Eleanor’s comfort food: Baked potato with the works
Favorite quote: Do unto others as would want do to you
What drives Eleanor: Justice for All