Mission Justice

At Safe Passage, we are on a mission.

Whenever I think about our work, my memory brings up the line “your mission, if you choose to accept it…”. At the beginning of each episode of Mission Impossible, the main character receives a tape, a mission, and a choice. Throughout our 42 years of work, Safe Passage has chosen — and then chosen again — our mission to address the impact of domestic violence and engage and educate our community. Our history is filled with the ways that we have provided a path to hope for survivors in current experiences of domestic violence and in the aftermath – through counseling, advocacy, safety planning, shelter. We have invited our community to engage with us as volunteers, activists, donors, partners, and stakeholders.

We write this post during a time when many of us are looking for ways to be helpful, ways to engage in our civic life while facing conditions that often feel too divisive, too dangerous, too anxiety producing. We might even be fighting a temptation to tune it all out, to turn inward, to wait until it all passes. The people who work and volunteer for Safe Passage face that same temptation. Yet we know that every small action, every survivor who finds a little bit of hope, and every person who learns how be a force for good can completely change the world for the better.

We are committed to amplifying hope. We are committed to engaging our community and to building real solidarity in service to justice. We hope that you’ll join the conversation as we shine a light on the full range of the impact of domestic violence on our community. Based on our history of empowerment and solidarity, we will reach for deeper understanding. We will continue to build our programs from the basis of our mission to be of service to those who are in most need of our help. The work to end and address domestic violence firmly links us with the struggles of all people experiencing injustice in our community and across our country. We work to amplify our connections to issues related to reproductive and economic justice, civil rights for people of color, LBGTQ+ communities, immigrants, people in isolated rural areas, and people with disabilities.

We know that marginalization is dangerous – it increases the risk for violence while decreasing access to resources and help.  We work every day to express our solidarity with people and communities impacted by marginalization. We know that it is on us to be the organization that all people can rely on and trust when they need us. It starts with believing. At Safe Passage, believing survivors is at the core of our mission. We believe ALL survivors deserve safety, justice, and respect. We believe survivors are the experts in their own experiences. We believe that survivors know best how to keep themselves and their children safe. We believe that survivors are capable of building lives defined by their own dreams and needs.

We also believe in our community to take action, make change, and eradicate violence from our world. We believe everyone has a role in ending domestic violence. At Safe Passage, we know ours, and we are ready to help you find yours. Won’t you join us?

Marianne Winters, Executive Director