An organization of survivors, by survivors, for survivors

On the eve of Thanksgiving, I reflect on my three months as Development Director and I’m amazed at the commitment of our staff, and how creatively they support survivors: Kinship’s Manhood Project teaching healthy relationships to black youth, and LGBTQ’s art therapy workshops and exhibit are just two recent examples of this.

I’m delightfully surprised by your generosity. When we sent out a call for volunteers, you responded; Holiday Drive gift cards for survivors are coming in, and we’re reaching new donors through GiveGuide. Internally, technology applications and processes adopted early this year are starting to pay off. And have you noticed our updated website?

Domestic violence isn’t the cause-du-jour but I know that you know how it intersects with homelessness, suicide and mass shootings. I’ve begun meeting with our grantors, a task made easy because our team with lived experience is frankly, kicking butt. Bradley Angle is truly an organization of survivors, by survivors, for survivors.

Come get to know us better. Interact with Executive Director Bri Condon and Housing Program Manager Liliana McDonald at our Together to 2022 event on December 10. They will share the year’s highlights, our plans for 2022, and answer your questions. Please join us!

Marina Bhargava
November 24, 2021

New Kinship Program & Re-Designed Space!

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We are so excited about our new Kinship Program! The program is designed to interrupt the cycle of intergenerational violence experienced by survivors from Portland’s Black and African American community.

Our goal is to offer culturally specific and trauma-informed services that promote healing for marginalized families who have survived domestic violence. The program is for youth ages 10-18 with parents receiving services through Bradley Angle’s Healing Roots program.

We conducted a community needs assessment, developed a performance evaluation plan, hired staff from the target community, and created a trauma-informed and culturally inclusive space for our Resource Center’s program activities in North Portland. Please see the design mockups above. These activities will include individual and group interventions, culturally specific mentoring support, mental health services, and families’ opportunities to learn and heal together.

Once again huge thank you to Sherwin-Williams for their generous paint donation & Neil Kelly Company for donating their time to help us redesign our entire downstairs.

To receive further updates on this program, please follow Bradley Angle on Social Media! #Kinshipcares

 

COVID-19 & Survivor Safety

 

 


As you are already aware, many Portland organizations and businesses have begun to temporarily close their doors to help dampen the spread of COVID-19. At this time, Bradley Angle will continue to remain open and operating to serve survivors who may be negatively impacted by COVID-19, but we need your help! Abuse is about power and control. When survivors are forced to stay in the home or in close proximity to their abuser, abusers may take advantage of an already stressful situation to gain more control. Bradley Angle is dedicated to providing safety and assistance to every survivor and we know that during this uncertain time our help is needed more than ever.

How COVID-19 can negatively impact survivors:

  • Abusive partners may withhold necessary items, such as hand sanitizer, disinfectants, and medicine.
  • Abusive partners may share misinformation about the pandemic to control or frighten survivors, or to prevent them from seeking appropriate medical attention if they have symptoms.
  • Abusive partners may withhold insurance cards, threaten to cancel insurance, or prevent survivors from seeking medical attention.
  • Programs that serve survivors may be significantly impacted. Shelters may be full or may even stop intakes altogether. Survivors may also fear entering shelter because of being in close quarters with groups of people.
  • Travel restrictions may impact a survivor’s escape or safety plan – it may not be safe for them to use public transportation or to fly.

In order to successfully continue to aid survivors during the COVID-19 epidemic we need the help of our community. If you are able, please consider making a monetary donation to Bradley Angle. Gifts of any amount will greatly assist both staff and survivors and allow us to continue to provide necessary services.

SEND SUPPORT

We are taking the nature of COVID-19, the social atmosphere, and physical safety precautions around this very seriously.  Our team is currently working to develop the most informed configuration of service delivery for our survivors during this time. As a supporter of Bradley Angle and the work of our Advocates and Coordinators, I will be maintaining my focus on keeping our staff employed and not causing more undue stress on our human resources. Please consider that while many people are being asked to stay home and travel outdoors less for safety for some, some are not all. The individuals we serve at Bradley Angle often find that remaining home can can cause increased level of stress, and for many households, they can experience an increase in domestic violence.  In an instance where our participants might be second guessing their own journeys to seek freedom and liberation in such a time of instability, our Advocates are only a phone call away to provide reassurance and individualized care.

Bri Condon, MA
Executive Director

“I think it’s a start to saying that this is not okay.”: Alexxis Robinson-Woods speaks with KGW8 about Weinstein verdict

Source: KGW8

Author: Maggie Vespa

 

After five days of deliberation, the jury’s verdict in the criminal trial of disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein traveled from coast to coast in an instant.

Alexxis M. Robinson-Woods was sitting in a meeting when she heard the news.

“My boss came in and knocked on the door, and then of course I started getting text messages and emails saying ‘Hey, did you see what happened?’” she said in an interview with KGW Monday.

Robinson-Woods is the program and services director for Bradley Angle, a Portland-based nonprofit that serves survivors of all kinds of violence and abuse, including sexual.

She called Monday’s verdict “a start.”

“I think it’s a start to saying that this is not OK. Regardless of how much power you have, how much money you have or the color of your skin for that matter, we’re coming into this [moment] where Bill Cosby [who was convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault in 2018] just ended up with the stuff that he dealt with. Now here it is, Harvey Weinstein is now being convicted of similar things,” she said.

“Now the power is no longer an issue. The color of their skin is no longer an issue. I think this will catapult things to start moving forward or, at the very least, might get some people to stop and think before they act.”

You can read KGW8’s full article here.

Can I get an “I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD”?

It’s Black History Month!! I’ve grown up in a world where white America has identified the black race. As a child schools didn’t know anymore than I did. So as I got older I vowed to only uncover the beauty in being Black…. Black History Month pays homage to the African diaspora of profound people throughout history… So I would like to take the time and highlight the beauty of BLACK EXCELLENCE!

Black history month started off as Negro week during the 2nd week of February because it happens to be Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglas’s birthday. James Brown is our Man of the day! I can remember my uncle dressing up in his platform shoes and whatever pimpish 70’s outfit he wanted to relive and play his records and one the songs he would play is James Brown.
James Brown wrote I’M BLACK AND I’M PROUD which he literally wrote this on a napkin in his hotel room. It’s songs this like that still promote black excellence to this very day “Say It Loud” as the most influential single of the 20th century. But what cements the claim is the second half of that title: “I’m Black And I’m Proud.”
In 1967, African Americans were still called Negroes. That was the term used by civil rights leaders, by the respectable middle class, and by white people who had some modicum of respect for their fellow man. “Black” wasn’t an epithet, per se, but it was far from the preferred term, and was sometimes used as an insult. By the late ’60s, some efforts had been made to reclaim the word, and some inroads had been made. But James Brown blew things wide open with those five words: “I’m black and I’m proud.”

As uplifting as the language of the Civil Rights movement had been in the decade prior, the tone was one of equality—“we’re as good as you, we’re the same as you, we deserve the same treatment as you.” Brown’s statement was no less noble, but the tone was completely different. In this song, Brown loves being black, he’s proud of who he is, and he portrays his race as something to celebrate, not as an obstacle to work around. What’s more, Brown doesn’t simply ask the listener to feel the same way—he insists on it.

The result was an instant smash. The song went to No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was one of Brown’s 16 no. 1 hits on the R&B charts. But the cultural impact was bigger than that: By the end of the decade, “black” had replaced “Negro” as the preferred term. That didn’t happen only because of “Say It Loud—I’m Black And I’m Proud,” but Brown put the phrase on everyone’s lips. The singer himself had become the public embodiment of Black Pride, even cutting off his iconic pompadour and going natural for several years following the song’s release.

Best, Black and Proud!

LaVonda Johnson
Economic Empowerment Coordinator & Direct Advocate

A Partnership to Serve HIV-Positive Survivors

A post written by Kiera Hansen, Bradley Angle Community Based Services Manager

Through an incredible collaborative effort, I am pleased to report that Bradley Angle and Cascade AIDS Project (CAP) secured three-year grant funding through the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) Program and the Violence against Women Act (VAWA) to offer more services to HIV-positive survivors.

Survivors of domestic/intimate partner violence are at an increased risk for HIV. We also see HIV-positive individuals experience domestic/intimate partner violence at higher rates than the general population.

This new program is designed to help HIV-positive domestic/intimate partner violence survivors in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area connect with the housing and supportive services they need to live healthy and safe lives. The funds will be managed by the Portland Housing Bureau while CAP and Bradley Angle will administer the project’s day-to-day programming.

In the domestic/intimate partner violence field we know that lack of stable and affordable housing is often reported by survivors as being one of the primary reasons they stayed in a relationship that was not healthy for them.

In the HIV prevention field, research shows that once in consistent and safe housing, people living with HIV are more likely to:

  • Think beyond their basic survival and seek health care and supportive services
  • Access HIV treatment that works for them
  • Take their medication consistently which leads to decreased risk of HIV transmission
  • Experience better overall health outcomes

We are thrilled about this opportunity to engage in a collaborative effort that bridges the gaps between these intersecting services and provide housing stability.

For more information on either of these programs contact:

Kiera, Kierah@bradleyangle.org

With participant referrals contact:

Omer, Omere@bradleyangle.org

 

In dedication to Tami Best

A post written by Angela Frazier, a former Bradley Angle staffer and Tami’s daughter

I recently lost my mother, who experienced domestic violence in the latter part of her life. At the time, I was on staff at Bradley Angle. The Bradley Angle staff, my former colleagues and friends, and BA board members attended her service. I am so thankful for their support during this difficult time. But their support didn’t end there.

When presented with an opportunity to name a new program at Bradley Angle, my former colleagues chose to honor my mom. I never imagined they would do this and allow her legacy to live on. My family and I are truly humbled by this gesture. Knowing that a place will honor my mom and will continue to help survivors like her is unbelievable. I can’t thank Bradley Angle enough for the love and support they have shown my family.

I know what it feels like to not have a space for your life. It truly warms my heart to know that survivors will not only have a safe place, but a place to themselves. It is often that when a space in a shelter opens up there’s only one room for an entire family, but these apartments will allow families to have their own home… all to themselves. The shelter expansion will help even more families in Oregon who need to leave an abusive relationship. My family is thankful that these survivors will not experience the continued abuse that my mother dealt with: They have a place to go.

Knowing there are loving and caring people at Bradley Angle dedicated to ending domestic violence in our community, helps our family to heal. I find hope in seeing the good that comes from this program.

I look forward to hearing the stories of the people who are living in or leaving the program, to seeing the facial expressions of the parents and kids when they learn they have their own rooms and a safe place to live, and perhaps even planning a holiday meal with Damian Lillard’s personal chef, Kenneth James. But mostly, I look forward to starting a tradition to honor my mom on Mother’s Day by offering gifts and lots of love to the moms living in these apartments. That’s what I would do for mom.