Direct Service Family Advocate

This position has a requirement that you live within a 30 minute drive of our office location in Sonora, California.
Full Time: 32 hrs.
Salary/Wage Range: $31.49 – 37.06
Benefits: Sick time, Personal Time Off, Holidays, Health Benefits for employee and Simple IRA match. Holidays and sick time paid upon hire, remaining benefits begin the first of the month following sixty days of employment.

Apply Online

General Description of Job

Under the direct supervision of the Advocacy Coordinator the Family Advocate is responsible for supporting families who are survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and or human trafficking. This includes developing and implementing family goals that meet the needs of each youth within the family unit. The Family Advocate is a mandated reporter and must adhere to all laws pertaining to that responsibility. This position is responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive youth program for the emergency and transitional shelters that CNVC operates. This position is the designated staff member that all youth will consistently look to for support that will be tailored to each family’s individual needs. This position will provide services in group and individual settings. This position must be willing to provide services from a place of cultural curiosity in order to provide services that are culturally competent.

This position provides direct services to domestic violence and sexual assault clients at the shelters or at the main office as required. These may include crisis line coverage, emergency response, peer counseling, advocacy or court accompaniment.

This position requires a willingness to work flexible hours, including some weekends, early morning, and evening hours. All employment is dependent upon grant funding and can be terminated dependent upon funding, county, state, and federal budgets.

Example of Program Duties

➢Provides emergency shelter intake, crisis intervention, assessments of parents and children, and peer counseling
➢Creates and provides age/ability appropriate trauma reduction activities. Examples are:
Facilitating and modeling healthy parent/child relationships through parent training/education in real life settings. This could be preparing meals with the families, going on outings in the community or collaborating with the development of healthy daily care routines.
➢Create weekly activity schedules for youth. Examples of classes and events scheduled weekly could include:
Interactive learning activities: gardening, cooking, art, music, outdoor play, and community outings.
➢Provide age and ability appropriate skill building and educational support.
➢Provide advocacy for children in schools, Child Welfare Services, Courts, etc.
➢Provide referrals and obtain resources necessary for the child to thrive.
Support case management plans in collaboration with Advocates to meet the needs of family members; may include safety, education, job training, housing, medical, psychological, and legal needs.
➢Conduct observations and assessment of youth in collaboration with parents and advocates.
➢Develop individual case management plans based on the information learned in observations and assessments that are appropriate for each youth in the family unit.
➢Facilitate children’s school enrollment and provide safe transportation as needed with agency vehicle.
➢Become familiar with laws and regulations pertaining to youth in educational settings and who are unsheltered. Use this information to advocate on behalf of survivors.
▪Example: McKinny-Vento Homeless Assistance Act
➢Implement trauma-informed programming focused on emotional regulation, coping skills, and resilience.
➢Must be willing to engage in courageous conversations with parents regarding immediate health and safety concerns regarding youth in adherence with CNVC’s philosophy regarding delivery of services.
➢Educate youth about domestic violence, personal safety and identification of feelings and needs at age/ability appropriate levels.
➢Model healthy communication skills and appropriate ways to express feelings.
➢Offer support and non-judgmental interaction through a non-biased and trauma informed lens.
➢Assist families with extracurricular activities depending on youth’s interests:
▪Dance, music, sports, etc.
➢Initial set up and maintenance of designated youth space.
➢Maintain inventory of necessary items for this space and care for the indoor and outdoor cleanliness.

General Duties
➢Conduct accurate data collection, documentation, and reporting
➢Participate in staff meetings, committees, trainings, education, and conferences.
➢Participate in Volunteer and Guardian Council meetings as requested.
➢Participate in fundraising activities as requested
➢Participate in Crisis Intervention Training as requested
➢Commitment to contributing to the operation and growth of the agency by taking on administrative/operational tasks and providing leadership as appropriate
➢Provide transportation for children and parents as required to meet mental health, physical health, economic, legal, educational needs.

General Qualifications
➢A minimum of two years’ experience working with children in an institutional setting (school, day care, recreation, church, etc)
➢A minimum of 24 units of early childhood development preferred (work experience can supplement units)
➢Working knowledge of software programs including Word, Excel, Access, Publisher preferred
➢Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, oral and written including:
ability to listen to make a difference instead of listening to defend or blame,
clearly state feelings and needs, and requests in I statements,
express disagreement in observation language,
➢Compose written documents that are grammatically accurate and spell checked.
➢Commitment to creating/maintaining a work environment that reflects the agency’s mission, values and philosophy.
➢ Commitment to the agency’s efforts to be inclusive and make the services accessible and welcoming to all people.
➢ Commitment to one’s own personal growth as key to working responsibly and effectively with others.
➢ Appreciation of the agency’s philosophical understanding regarding non-violence, oppression, and empowerment within a Feminist context

Requirements
➢ Reliable transportation, a valid California Driver’s License, Proof of Auto Insurance, and a current DMV printout, if requested
➢ Pass Department of Justice background check
➢ Pass TB test and other required immunizations, at the expense of CNVC if working directly with children or adults.
➢ Complete a minimum of 12 hours of CNVC approved communication/personal growth training. Non-Violent Communication skills training is preferred.
➢ Complete Sexual Assault & Domestic Violence Crisis Intervention Training.
➢ Demonstrable experience in good judgment when making decisions
➢ Ability to take initiative and use creativity and resourcefulness to solve problems
➢ Ability to balance autonomy, accountability, and collaboration within a team framework.
➢ Ability to collaborate with others, including ability to effectively and respectfully give and receive feedback.
➢ Ability to work in a collaborative fashion with a diverse population, staff, volunteers, Guardian Council, clients, community members, and community organizations.

➢ The work environment is in residential program settings. Local driving is required to various agency sites. Must be able to lift and carry 25 lb occasionally. Extend both arms above the head and /or reach below the waist, stoop, squat, crawl, bend the back to retrieve items, climb stairs. Must be able to sit and get up on one’s own from the floor/ground to engage with youth. Employees may also need to remain in one position (i.e. sitting or standing) for an extended period while completing work tasks.

Benefits:

• 401(k)
• Dental insurance
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Vision insurance

Education:

• Associate (Preferred)

Language:

• Spanish Speaking (Preferred)

Work Location: In person

JOIN US FOR ANOTHER EXCELLENT ESTATE SALE March 5-7

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, March 5 ($5 preview); 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 6 &7
WHERE: 10420 N. Airport Road, Columbia,
WHAT: A barn full of equestrian gear, antiques, vintage collectibles, fine china, linens, decor, and more.

No holds or requests to purchase items accepted online. 
PayPal & Credit cards accepted.

 .

. .

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Jan. 16, and Saturday, Jan. 17
WHERE: 23686 Marble Quarry Road Unit 69, Columbia, CA 95310
WHAT: Full household including kitchen items and appliances (refrigerator, free-standing freezer, washer/dryer) as well as furniture, collectables, clothing, and art.

No holds or requests to purchase items accepted online. 
PayPal & Credit cards accepted.

Mother Lode Mobile Estates 14192 Tuolumne Road, Space 20 in Sonora, CA.

Antique collectors, dealer and online sellers: you won’t want to miss the
latest estate sale!  The house is small but it’s packed with vintage furniture, artwork, books, pottery, furniture, crystal, stereo units, collectables, Christmas ornaments and so much more – all from the personal collection of a retired Bay Area antique store owner.

Open to public Fri. & Sat. May 23rd through 24th, from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. 
PayPal & Credit cards accepted.

20464 Britta Court in Sonora, CA.

Miscellaneous household items, trundle bed, complete bedroom set, living room furniture, expandable dining room table and chairs.

Open to public Fri. & Sat. May 2nd & 3rd, from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. 
PayPal & Credit cards accepted.

Center For A Non Violent Community asks you to raise your voice and stand with us in making the lives of the children, women, and men in our community safer. To give an electronic or monthly donation, go online to www.nonviolentcommunity.org/get-involved. 100% of your tax-deductible donation will be used in Tuolumne County. 

Whether it is physical violence, emotional harm, or financial abuse, everyone knows someone impacted by trauma. We can all admire and understand the courage it takes for survivors to come forward, so let’s meet them with compassion and support.

Join us in the fight against domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and child abuse — promote hope and healing with a donation to continue our work in 2023!

Please help us support the right of all people to live free from violence. Your donations provide emergency and transitional housing, peer counseling, and support for children and adult survivors. In 2022, we were able to provide $125,000 in direct financial assistance to survivors in our community.

Thanks to people like you, CNVC will continue to provide the following:

$25 supports a youth activity/excursion
$50 provides a sexual assault response kit with clothes and toiletries
$75 sponsors one session of youth enrichment groups
$125 provides a hotel stay for survivors fleeing violence
$150 provides a legal consultation or therapy session
$500 can help a survivor relocate to a safer location
$1,000 can support a survivor in finding permanent housing

To give an electronic or monthly donation, go online to www.nonviolentcommunity.org/get-involved.

Reposted from The Union Democrat:

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Tuolumne County, but domestic violence happens every month of the year, and it happens 365 days a year, Pam Orebaugh with the nonprofit Center for a Non Violent Community of Sonora said Tuesday in Courthouse Square in downtown Sonora.

Dixie Sky, a victim advocate for the Tuolumne County District Attorney’s Office, says her domestic violence case numbers have remained the same in recent years, but the cases have become exponentially more violent, with instances of strangulation and strangulation attempts.

“I have the same number of cases this year as two years ago, but they’re more violent now,” Sky said Tuesday in Courthouse Square. “The amount of violence has exponentially exploded. It’s the same number of cases, but they have become extremely violent.”

When Sky and other victim advocates work with domestic violence victims who have been hit, they are seeing more near-death experiences, Sky said. There are a lot more strangulations and strangulation attempts, and more domestic violence incidents that could result in death.

Nationally, individuals who experience nonlethal strangulation by their intimate partners are 750% more likely to be murdered by that partner with a firearm in future, Tuolumne County District Attorney Cassandra Jenecke told the county’s elected Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

So far this year, there has been one attempted homicide in Tuolumne County involving strangulation, Jenecke said. The most recent domestic violence homicide in the county was in 2020, Jenecke said.

While the lack of available, affordable housing and housing the homeless are among the biggest issues in Tuolumne County right now, domestic violence is the leading cause of homelessness for women, Orebaugh said.

Orebaugh, Sky, and others, including Lynne Hamilton, a resident of Oakdale who works for the Center for a Non Violent Community in Sonora, spent time Tuesday placing purple ribbons on trees in Courthouse Square and on posts along Washington Street in downtown Sonora to signify October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Purple is a color used by domestic violence awareness advocates because it was one of the colors used by women’s suffrage activists who fought to ensure women’s right to vote a century ago and make the Nineteenth Amendment part of the U.S. Constitution in August 1920, Jenecke said.

Purple is also the color used by National Coalition Against Domestic Violence organizers of the first Day of Unity that preceded Domestic Violence Awareness observations observed in October 1981.

There have been 201 new reports of domestic violence in Tuolumne County since October 2021, Jenecke said. The county provides more than 5,000 services to those individuals. Services provided by the District Attorney’s Office and the county government are separate from services provided by the Center for a Non Violent Community in Sonora, Jenecke and Orebaugh said.]

Orebaugh emphasized to the Board of Supervisors that the domestic violence survivors who approach Jenecke for victim services and criminal prosecutions represent people who choose to go to law enforcement. Orebaugh and others who work at the Center for a Non Violent Community in Sonora see more than 200 people a year, of all ages, genders, and orientations, and they provide just as many services to those individuals.

“The fear of going to law enforcement is rampant,” Orebaugh said. “Because there are people who are afraid to go to law enforcement. At the Center of a Non Violent Community we don’t require that you report anything to law enforcement.”

The nonprofit sheltered 87 people in fiscal year 2020-21, Orebaugh said, a total of 54 adults and 33 children.

“We only have one house, and six transitional housing units that are single-family homes,” Orebaugh told the elected supervisors. “So we are doing everything we can. But I strongly encourage you to find ways to increase available and affordable housing in our community. Domestic violence is the number one cause of homelessness for women. And it’s one of the biggest barriers we face getting survivors stability and safety.”

Domestic violence affects men, women, children and whole families, Orebaugh said. Jenecke and Orebaugh both addressed the Board of Supervisors before they voted to recognize October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Tuolumne County.

For more information about the nonprofit Center for a Non Violent Community in Sonora or to make donations, visit https://nonviolentcommunity.org/.

Contact Guy McCarthy at gmccarthy@uniondemocrat.net or (209) 770-0405. Follow him on Twitter at @GuyMcCarthy.

He is spreading the message through launch of a new public accessing programming TV show aptly named “Love Doesn’t Have to Hurt.” The show will focus on topics related to violence prevention and intervention, the history of the agency, relevant issues in the community, and “Someone Worth Knowing,” a segment which highlights a community member, volunteer, or staff who support the right of all people to live their lives free from interpersonal violence.

The first episode is available online at Access Tuolumne’s website and will air on channel 8 at 9:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 7.

Edmondson serves as host, producer, and set and graphic designer. Additional folks involved in the production include co-producer Pam Orebaugh, executive producer and camera operation Jerry Day, director Jim Garaventa, lighting David Chung, camera Gary Dupuich, teleprompter Jeffrey Ellen, and music “Promontory” by Patrick Karnahan and The Black Irish Band.

Center For A Non Violent Community provides 24/7 domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking crisis intervention and prevention services. For support or information, call 209-588-9305. 

Big changes in the coming year! 

More than 90% of people are afraid to access mental and physical health care when they have just fled for their life in Tuolumne County. It can feel like an impossibly big and overwhelming problem to solve. 

Antiquated technology and limited appropriate space hinders CNVC from providing safe and confidential places for survivors to access health care. It can be challenging to make a concept as big as access to health care concrete. By naming tangible solutions we begin to pull apart the multifaceted web of destruction to Restore Lives and Renew Futures. 

With a micro grant from the Sonora Area Foundation’s Innovation Project Challenge, CNVC had the seed money to get together survivors of domestic violence, staff, service providers, and volunteers. We brainstormed the best solutions to providing safe spaces for survivors. We begin with remodeling a series of dilapidated, unsafe garage bays into safe, usable space that is equipped with high speed internet and technolo-gy to be used by survivors, staff, and community partners. 

Next steps: CNVC Campus Expansion plan for Safe & Confidential access to: 

• Private mental and physical health care providers using on-line technology. 

• Space for healing (support) groups to meet in per-son as well as via technology which support self-efficacy, solace, and hope. 

• ADA compliant accessibility. 

• Space for survivors to meet with advocates. 

Cordelia Anderson describes “Gulliver Strategies:” Small actions that, taken together over time, can topple a giant. We know this will be a multi-year project and we are ready for it! 

“The world was staying connected online, so we hoped we could reach other men who may feel the isolation of the pandemic and offer brotherhood to get through it.”

— Scott Sunday, support group facilitator

Excerpt from The Union Democrat:

The Center for a Non Violent Community is known for its support of women and children, but it also offers two groups for men who need help dealing with life issues, including abuse or sexual assault.

“We know domestic and sexual violence aren’t just women’s issues — they affect whole communities. We also know the problem of interpersonal violence won’t be solved without men being allies and engaging in their own healing,” said CNVC Community Services Coordinator Pamela Orebaugh.

Mother Lode Men’s Circle and MENding Lives offer confidential support groups via Zoom through the CNVC and are open to every adult male aged 18 and over, according to CNVC facilitator Scott Sunday, of Sonora.

“It’s harder for men to express their feelings,” Sunday said. “We don’t talk a lot, so these groups are really important.”

The Mother Lode Men’s Circle was the result of brainstorming by Sunday and former CNVC employee John Fisher, who came up with the idea of a support group in early 2020 when uncertainty over COVID-19 was at its peak. The group came to fruition in late 2020, according to Sunday.

“The world was staying connected online, so we hoped we could reach other men who may feel the isolation of the pandemic and offer brotherhood to get through it,” Sunday explained.

The men’s circle allows members — currently ages 18 to 80 — to gather for fellowship, make supportive friendships, and explore and discuss today’s issues in a secure virtual environment.

Sunday believes that the men’s circle group can also be a “good starting point for men that may not be ready to talk about their abuse,” and could serve as a stepping stone to join MENding Lives.

“Scott Sunday has always been a champion to bring awareness and attention to male survivors, and bravely shared his experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse at the annual Prevent Child Abuse Tuolumne County luncheon a few years ago (this organization is now the Tuolumne Resiliency Coalition),” Orebaugh said.

Four years ago, he started MENding Lives, a support group for male sexual abuse survivors, like Sunday, who was sexually abused by his adoptive mother when he was a child.

The abuse led Sunday to some very dark places in his life and was chronicled on the website 1in6.org, which was created in 2010 in response to a lack of resources addressing the impact of negative childhood sexual experiences on the lives of adult men, one of many under-recognized aspects of childhood sexual abuse. In 2016, 1in6.org expanded its mission to include men who experienced sexual assault as adults. Its mission is to help men who have had unwanted of abusive sexual experiences live healthier, happier lives.

In 2007, Sunday was the plus-one to his wife and CNVC co-director Laura Sunday as they attended The National Sexual Assault Conference in Washington, D.C.

“There were over 100 vendors there representing women and children, but only one booth mentioned men — 1in6.org.,” Scott Sunday said. “That spurred me on. It is the reason behind the group MENding Lives and later, Mother Lode Men’s Circle. A common theme for men is: I thought I was the only one. You’re not alone.”

The need for men’s groups in Tuolumne County that were not spiritual or faith-based and not clinical therapy or rehab-related was evident to Orebaugh, she said.

“It is important to have a place for all men to express healthy masculinity in a safe space,” she said. “These groups offer man-to-man, guy-to-guy, peer support.”

Dedicated to meeting all of the needs of the community as a whole is the reason CNVC has other additional support groups including Healing Hearts and Renovando Vidas, for adults and Girls Circle and The Council for youth.

Laura Sunday supports her husband of 28 years and his dedicated advocacy for men. She understands the position he and other men have been placed in after working for the CNVC for 19 years.

“In order to heal our world, it takes unity in our community. Recognizing we all have our place no matter our age, sexual orientation, or beliefs,” Laura Sunday said. “Men have a vital role to play and have stood alone in silence for too long. All voices need to be heard.”

Give help, get help

Men interested in joining Mother Lode Men’s Circle or MENding Lives can contact CNVC at 209-588-9305 or email info@nonviolentcommunity.org to connect with a facilitator prior to joining.

• Mother Lode Men’s Circle meets from 6 to 7:30 p.m. two Wednesdays per month.
• MENding Lives meets from 6 to 7:30 p.m. two Thursdays per month.

To make a donation to CNVC, go to nonviolent community.org/get-involved.Donations provide emergency and transitional shelter, counseling, and support for children and adult survivors, such as the following:

$25 supports a youth activity/excursion
$50 provides a sexual assault response kit with clothes and toiletries
$75 sponsors youth enrichment groups
$125 provides a hotel stay for survivors fleeing violence
$150 provides counseling/therapy sessions for survivors healing
$500 can help a survivor relocate to a safer location
$1,000 can support a survivor in finding permanent housing
100% of your tax-deductible donation will be used in Tuolumne County.
Click here to Donate

Center For A Non Violent Community asks you to raise your voice and stand with us in making the lives of the children, women, and men in our community safer.

We have been living in unprecedented times for almost 2 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting impacts. Locally, we have seen a dramatic increase in youth sexual exploitation, which traumatized more than 100 youth in our community. 

Join us in the fight against domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and child abuse that are just as much a virus in our community.

Friends, like you, allowed us to provide families with healthy meals, one-on-one counseling, safe beds to sleep in, and education on how to be in healthy, safe relationships. For many of the children, it was their first time being introduced to friendships from all walks of life and being surrounded by safe adults. These services make our community stronger.

Please help us support the right of all people to live free from violence. Your donations provide emergency and transitional shelter, counseling, and support for children and adult survivors, such as the following:

$25 supports a youth activity/excursion
$50 provides a sexual assault response kit with clothes and toiletries
$75 sponsors youth enrichment groups
$125 provides a hotel stay for survivors fleeing violence
$150 provides counseling/therapy sessions for survivors healing
$500 can help a survivor relocate to a safer location
$1,000 can support a survivor in finding permanent housing

100% of your tax-deductible donation will be used in Tuolumne County.
Click here to Donate

With sincere gratitude, from your friends at
Center For A Non Violent Community

The Cycle Stops with Me

I didn’t understand how gender-based violence plagued my family until after I joined the movement.

I have seen with my own eyes 5 generations impacted. I know it goes further back. Again, that’s just what I’ve seen in my 32 years of life, from my great-grandmother to my nieces. Women whose bodies are riddled with disease, whose minds have been poisoned by self-limiting beliefs, and whose hearts carry so much trauma they seldom know how to fully connect to themselves, each other, or anyone else. It became the norm. It became our culture. It became “the type of family we are.”

I grew up in extreme poverty by U.S. standards. My mother, sisters and I lived in a trailer on my grandmother’s property. Some form of utility was regularly out – months without a phone, weeks of microwaveable meals because there was no propane for the stove. I was embarrassed then, and often angry with my mother.

It wasn’t until years later that I would come to understand she was a single mother trying to survive a divorce from an abusive alcoholic. Which is why she packed her life up from the Bay Area and relocated to a tiny, rural town hours away. She was lonely and vulnerable when she met my biological father. He wasn’t a winner either.

I was only 10 years old when my sister got married at 18. He was 26. I never particularly liked him. He was boastful and, in my child’s eyes, reminded me of a Disney villain – a long, skinny face with dark circles around his eyes and silly facial hair. Turns out my instincts were correct.

We didn’t talk about these things growing up. Especially not about emotions (because then we would have to acknowledge the situations we lived through). And definitely NEVER to others about family business. These heightened defenses were our way of life. A thick skin adapted over the generations — evolutionary biology at work. We survived. We didn’t thrive.

I love these flawed women, but over the years, I realized there was a collective mentality of “Well, it could be worse…” No one ever stopped to think or ask or demand for better. And they never would because this is all they had ever known.

The cycles of violence, poverty, and trauma ran in my family, until they ran into me.

Let me repeat that: It ran in my family, until it ran into me. I’m breaking the cycles.

I can’t control every branch of our family tree, and I can’t heal all the wounds. But I can change the outcome for myself. I can model a different way of living. I can help protect those who come next. I can work to stop violence before it starts.

I joined the movement in November 2016, leaving behind a career in journalism. Perhaps you can read between the lines why I could no longer be a witness and scribe to history, but wanted to take a role in shaping it.

Prior to joining the movement, I believed I was empathetic. I believed I could understand and express my emotions. I cared about violence against women in the form of domestic and sexual violence, knowing there were survivors in my family and community.

I can tell you those beliefs were quickly challenged. My workplace, Center For A Non Violent Community in Sonora, practices non-violent communication and hosts twice-annual trainings for staff and some community members. I came to realize that I could perform empathy, but how authentic could my empathy for others be when I had zero empathy for myself? There was no room for mistakes, for rest, for experimentation, or discovery through error. I had been taught perfectionism as armor, believing it was something to aspire to. I now know these beliefs are the chains of the oppressor and we must break free.

It takes vulnerability and courage to change.

It takes intentionality, accountability, united purpose, and empowerment to create lasting change.

As warriors on the front line of the movement, we combat gender-based violence in a myriad of ways. We listen, believe, and support survivors when many out there would rather pretend their truth doesn’t exist. We harness and consolidate resources to do more with little. We embrace our power and empower others to demand more. To expect better. To create places that are safe and affirming. To draft and implement policies that uplift the vulnerable and hold the Goliath’s (or Harvey Weinstein’s) of the world accountable.

But we also hold the movement itself accountable. First- and second-wave feminism was co-opted by whiteness. Social work and helping professions are historically grossly underpaid. Employer-employee relationships can easily become enmeshed with toxic cycles of power and control.

It is survivor-centered agencies and policies that flip these scripts. One way is to practice rest as resistance. I have heard self-care described as living a life you don’t need to escape from — we can model that. It does not serve survivors, agencies, communities, or the movement at large if we continue to enable the oppressor by practicing self-desertion or abnegation. The movement will benefit from our empathy, our bravery, our brilliance, our hard-earned wisdom, but not our suffering.

If we are suffering to do this work, we are perpetuating the harm. And that transgresses the foundational belief I hold as we do this work: Do no harm. Do no harm unto self and to others.

Caring for ourselves, knowing our worth, and setting standards that honor our whole selves will nourish the movement and benefit survivors. If we are blind to our own suffering, it will eventually blind us to the suffering of others and blunt our responses. Compassion fatigue benefits no one.

It is hard work to embrace the discomfort and vulnerability necessary to work this way. To challenge these norms. But it is essential work. It is the work, as I have come to learn.

If you are a part of this work, I thank you.

If you are a survivor, I honor you.

If you are a bystander, I implore you to join us because violence against women is a virus that impacts us all.

My name is Pamela Orebaugh and the cycle stops with me.

Liz Sewell was a guiding light for CNVC throughout her lifetime.  Her extraordinary way of thinking made a lasting impact on the movement to end violence.  She brought non-violent communication to CNVC as a way of life and daily practice.  She was a firebrand when it was a very unpopular way for women to be.  She spoke to my soul.  She taught me to have a voice and my opinion is not up for discussion.  Last week, she flew from her body to parts unknown.  I will dearly miss her.  A part of her is woven into the fibers of the fabric that make up CNVC and our community.
— Laura Sunday, CNVC Co-Director

Excerpt from The Union Democrat:

We have another amazing Estate Sale set this week! Be the first to preview this outstanding sale on Thurs. June 24  from noon  to 2 p.m. at 22080 Columbia Crest Drive. A $5.00 donation to be an early bird on that day.  This additional $ goes directly to services at C.N.V.C.

Complete household of very high quality goods.  Leather furniture, professional kitchenware, TV’s, original art, Chicos jewelry, yard furniture, telescopes, wicker settee set, vintage children’s books, vintage chrome dinette, 3 wine refrigerators (2 high capacity and 1 under-counter size), and exercise equipment.

Open to public Fri. & Sat. June 25 & 26.  10 – 4 p.m.  PayPal & Credit cards accepted.  Masks required.

Directions: Take Sawmill Flat Road just past Columbia College entrance.  Right on Covington Road and up hill approx. 2 mi. to T that is Covington and Columbia Crest. Take a left and go 1/4 mile further to 22080 Columbia Crest Drive. Driveway on the left. We will have parking help at the top of the driveway.   

High quality household. 3 TVs, leather recliner, couch, dining table/6 chairs, 2 excellent bedroom sets, hide-a-bed, kitchen stuff, BBQ, patio set, yard decor, ladders, rolling Craftsman tool chest, refrigerator, safe, massage table.  

Open to public Fri. & Sat. June 4 & 5.  9 – 4 pm.  Credit cards accepted.  Masks required.

CNVC aims to increase community awareness and engagement with key issues related to domestic and sexual violence, human trafficking, racial equity, and social justice through outreach and social media campaigns, and overall brand recognition and improvement. CNVC seeks a Social Media and Outreach Consultant to help strategize and create content to meet these objectives.

We are currently seeking proposals for services offered May-June 2021, which includes a targeted outreach campaign for Mental Health Awareness Month. Additional goals include website review for continuity, validity of links and resources.

Deadline for submission is April 8, 2021.
Submit completed proposals to Pamela Orebaugh at pam@nonviolentcommunity.org
For more information, call 209-213-6275.|
Click the link for full description: Social Media and Outreach Consultant