Sanctuary from Oppression

This book describes the results of research §conducted in a domestic violence shelter in New York §City. The effectiveness of Sanctuary, a milieu §therapy model that integrates trauma recovery and §social justice empowerment, was the primary focus of §the study. The broader aim was to describe the §strengths, needs, resiliency, and impact of §interpersonal trauma on the women who resided in the §shelter. All who participated were very §enthusiastic. These women who had been silenced §by abusive partners, marginalized by a social §service system that did not adequately meet their §needs, and rendered invisible by a society that did §not fully understand their plight, wanted their §voices heard and their stories understood. They were §all women of color, negotiating racism, poverty, and §violence in their homes and communities. They sought §safety, respite, and nonviolence. Since unconscious §systemic racism is form of social violence, it is §vital that it not be replicated in the shelter. §Therefore, the residents' experiences of racism and §the meaning of racial identity in their lives is §included, and efforts to work from an antiracist §framework are described.