Martha Herm is the executive director for The Center for Prevention of Abuse. She is responsible for managing the budget, grant procurement, program development and representing the agency to community and funding sources while supervising a staff of 95. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology teaching from the University of Illinois at Champaign and her master’s degree in public administration from the University of Illinois at Springfield.
She began working at The Center for Prevention of Abuse as the finance and facilities supervisor in 1989. She was named the executive director in 1990. The agency works to change the lives of men, women and children caught in the web of interpersonal violence and abuse.
She is also involved with the Rotary Club of Peoria, Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Illinois Certified Domestic Violence Professionals, Inc., Illinois Domestic Violence Advisory Council, 10th Judicial Circuit Family Violence Coordinating Council, Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the Heart of Illinois Agency Execs.
Tell us about your background, schools attended, family, etc.
My daughter is the fifth generation to live on our family farm, located between East Peoria and Morton. When my three brothers and I were young, we raised everything from sheep and hogs to pumpkins. There was actually little tillable acreage, so farming was just a sideline and the way we earned money to pay for college. Our-bread-and-butter was a family business called "The Dick Herm Firm," which was a livestock commission company at the Peoria Union Stock Yards.
All of us worked there at some point in our lives. My turn came much later when I moved back from San Francisco in my early 30s. My mother wanted to retire, so I took her place managing the business while my dad continued the livestock sales and the radio broadcasts. His livestock reports had quite a history. He was on the air for 30 years and also had a local TV show during 10 of those years. He opened each program with "It’s a beautiful day in the bullpen." People got a kick out of it because he said that whether it was 20 below or a raining cats and dogs.
While Dad was the big personality of the family, Mom held her own in a more quiet and genteel way. She taught home economics at Bradley for several years and helped build Illinois Central College by serving on its first board of trustees. She was the great organizer, whether it was church or 4-H or international student exchange programs. She made sure we were exposed to the arts, leadership opportunities, travel, and a lot of hard work. It was a struggle financially, so I made all my own clothes and we canned and froze tons of fruits, vegetables and meat.
We all went to the University of Illinois at Champaign. My major was biology education after a start in pre-med. After graduation, I wandered around the country and the world for 10 years. Besides backpacking around Europe, I taught school in Connecticut, was a 4-H agent in West Virginia, managed the housekeeping staff at the Sheraton in Madison, Wis., and kept the books for a tour company in San Francisco. Then it was back home to the family business.
While working, I earned a masters in public administration from the University of Illinois Springfield campus while raising my daughter as a single parent. Now she has graduated from college and is on her own in Chicago.
You’ve been executive director of The Center for Prevention of Abuse since July 1, 1990. Tell us about the purpose/programs of the Center.
Every day at The Center for Prevention of Abuse we save and change lives of men, women and children caught in the web of interpersonal violence or abuse. The agency began as a rape crisis hotline run by volunteers.
Today, the agency consists of five different departments: WomenStrength serves victims of domestic violence; InnerStrength counsels persons sexually assaulted, abused or harassed; SeniorStrength reaches out to the elderly who are abused, neglected or financially exploited; YouthStrength is the school-based prevention program; and FamilyStrength teaches domestic violence perpetrators how to have healthy relationships and solve problems in a nonviolent way.
How has the Center changed over the years to meet the needs of the abused in the area? How is the Center funded?
When the agency began, most clients were young women with children. Today our clients are men and women, old and young, victim and perpetrator.
Adding elder abuse services in the mid-1980s was a big step because it meant a much higher percentage of male clients, and obviously a high concentration of older clients. But working with the abuser is probably the greatest departure from the beginning vision, but if family violence is going to end, we cannot continue to just put band-aids on the victims. Getting to the source of the problem means changing the behavior and attitude of the abuser.
The best prevention, however, is to teach children healthy problem solving skills and respect for others. If these kinds of good habits become universal, then family violence will be a thing of the past.
The Center is mainly funded by government grants, but the local contributions, United Way and our fundraisers—especially the Duck Race— make up the rest.
Unfortunately, our caseload needs outweigh our income. Last year, we worked with more than 5,000 individual cases and presented prevention programs to 20,000 students in the tri-County area. Those statistics are staggering, but the need is even greater, according to research studies. As an example, one in three girls and one in five boys is sexually abused before they turn 18. Another states 4 percent of all persons over 60 will suffer elder abuse. If everyone came forward that needed help, we would be overwhelmed.
How many paid staff at the Center? How many volunteers? How do volunteers support the mission and work of the center?
Volunteers gave life to the agency 25 years ago, and they continue to be an important resource. Even though our staff has grown to 95, we still rely on 300 volunteers to fill the gaps to make sure no one is turned away. A very special group of volunteers serve as crisis line workers and hospital advocates. They help us out at night and on weekends when we are very short staffed.
The advocates respond to calls at the emergency rooms, no matter the time of night, to give moral support to raped or battered victims. This kind of advocacy is crucial because the victim’s life has just been turned upside down and she or he is facing this situation alone, usually. Our volunteers are there, on the front lines, to comfort, explain options and offer future services.
Other volunteers help us with children’s programming, holiday parties, yard work, and fundraising. Of course we have a board of directors and others who serve on planning and policy committees.
How unique is the Center for Prevention of Abuse from the YWCA and/or other social programs? Is the Center for Prevention of Abuse modeled after any other organization in the U.S.?
The mission of The Center makes us unique—offering safety and support to persons threatened by abuse and violence. We are like many agencies, however, in that we help clients with housing, employment, parenting and life skills training, but they are secondary issues. Ensuring a safer way to live in a relationship is primary.
We are the only agency in the state to have domestic violence, elder abuse and sexual assault services, and abuser intervention programming under one roof. In some quick Web searches, we have not found any others nationally, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
We feel the multitude of services enables us to help the whole family and the whole person. For example, a senior woman may be financially exploited and battered by her nephew. If the nephew is apprehended, there is great probability he will be court ordered to our abuser program. In this case, staff experts in three of our departments work together on this case—elder abuse, domestic violence, and batterer intervention. The senior’s family may also come for counseling and to learn how to better care for and protect the victim. We like to think of ourselves as a "one-stop shop."
Who/what are the most pressing needs today? Is there a "typical" client?
The agency as a whole does not have a typical client, but each department has a general profile. SeniorStrength clients are 60 and older and 30 percent are male.
InnerStrength clients are mainly young women (18 to 24) who have been sexually assaulted, but sadly, one-third of the caseload is composed of young children.
In WomenStrength, again, the typical age is 18 to 24. Most clients are women with small children.
In FamilyStrength, participants are men mostly aged 20 to 30. In all, one-third of all our clients are people of color. Most clients are at the lower end of the economic ladder. Having said that, it is important to know family violence cuts across all socioeconomic lines equally. It’s just that because there are more poor people than wealthy, most of our clients come from that stratum of society.
There has been a dramatic increase in the numbers of reported abuse over the last decade. Do you see those numbers increasing or decreasing in the next ten years? Why or why not?
When our agency was formed 25 years ago, it was taboo for a woman to admit that she was a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault because society blamed her. It was the right of her partner to "keep her in line" with force or take advantage of her poor judgment by raping her if she were in the wrong place at the wrong time. "She ought to know better" or "she had it coming" are the two most common excuses men said, and unfortunately still say, to justify their behavior.
The women’s movement helped tremendously. It was the force that spawned agencies like the Center. We rose up all over the county, passed laws making family and sexual violence a crime, and pushed law enforcement and the courts to respond appropriately. The more victims trust the system to help them, the more they feel they can come forward. Here in central Illinois, we have one of the highest caseloads in the state. I think it’s because we have been able to put a responsive and streamlined system in place.
There are always ways to improve it, but we have made great strides in the last few years. I hope the numbers will peak soon, so we can concentrate more on prevention education. We have two models that give me hope—the movements to curb drunk driving and smoking. Both behaviors were accepted and even laughed off. But advocate groups got moving and pushed for strong consequences to the behaviors. Now drunk driving is a very serious offense, and people know that they might lose their license or be sued.
Today, the number of drunk drivers has plummeted. While smoking is not a crime, there are corporate consequences for not providing a healthy environment. Think of the huge payouts the tobacco companies have had to make and the many practices that have changed. You can’t smoke on airplanes or in hospitals or the movies. Smokers are segregated in restaurants. Because of the strong health education lobby, smoking is considered a bad thing to do and the numbers have gone down.
I think we are in a similar pattern with interpersonal violence. Community leaders are learning family violence is everywhere and is the root cause of many problems.
Employers see excessive tardiness and absenteeism and low productivity in employees who are victims of family violence. One out of every three persons walking into an emergency room is there because of family violence. The same is true in the courts. Our jails are filled with batterers and sexual perpetrators. Children living in violent homes have tremendous problems in school. All of these effects are costly and lower a business’ bottom line and raise everyone’s tax bill.
When everyone realizes family violence is not OK and we enforce strong consequences to condemn the behavior, the numbers will greatly decline. I think we’re getting close to turning the corner. If that happens, our work would not decline, but it would change. Our focus would shift to be more prevention education and professional training. Any progress will have to be continually reinforced or things will relapse. I would hate to return to life as it was 25 years ago when women and seniors were too terrified to ask for help.
What are some of the misperceptions of family violence? What are the local statistics of abuse in central Illinois?
The greatest misconception is abusers are people out of control because of substance abuse or stress. The truth is that abusers are in control and stay in control by using violence and abuse to do so. They may use alcohol, drugs or stress as excuses, and those problems may make the abuse worse or more frequent, but they are not primary causes. All of us have stress in our lives. Does it make us beat up our family or molest our children? When difficult things happen at work, do we punch our boss or co-workers? Is everyone who uses drugs or alcohol to excess a batterer or rapist? Not at all. Abuse is the technique used by some to get their way.
People who are abusive get programmed that way very early on. In most cases, adult abusers grew up in an abusive home or where there was little consistency. For example, they may have had an alcoholic parent. The child never knew what each day would bring. So as an adult, he or she does whatever it takes to have things in control or in order.
For those growing up with violent parents as role models, the child learns that is the normal way to solve problems. Of the 225 men who participate in our batterers program every week, 95 percent admit they were abused or witnessed abuse as children. What more proof do we need that abuse is a learned behavior?
In your opinion, what is the key to stopping family violence?
The key to ending family violence, then, is education. The Center allocates as much as we can to our YouthStrength department. There are two reasons.
A child raised in an abusive household is 1,000 times more likely to be an abusive adult. And a child’s world view is pretty well set by age 10. Therefore, it is imperative to counteract anything negative very early on about what a child learns at home about problem solving, respect and empathy for others, anger management and impulse control. It can’t be done with just one classroom presentation. It has to be drilled into their psyches just like we go over and over multiplication tables.
We have many, many programs to offer to all ages, pre-school through college. Some address body safety and date rape prevention.
Others work with conflict resolution. We work with children and youth directly, or we train teachers and day care workers how to implement curricula throughout the school year. Programs are available to churches and youth groups as well as school classes.
FamilyStrength is both an intervention and prevention program. Research shows an abuser will have five victims in a lifetime. If we can turn around his attitude during our six-month course, we will have prevented many future problems. But undoing habits and feelings of 20 or 30 years isn’t easy. Perpetrators take a long time to embrace the concepts of mutual respect and partnership in a relationship. Once they do, however, they see great benefits particularly for their children.
In our global society, do you believe television, music, internet, various types of addiction, etc., play a role in perpetrators of violence?
I think the media and entertainment industry (including sports) are contributors because they glorify violence in many ways. So, again, the people who have learned to use violence as a way of life will feel justified in being abusive because they think the media and entertainment fields condone it. Most of us, luckily, hear and see the same things, but we cannot imagine mimicking the violence.
How do law enforcement officers, hospitals, and counselors interact with the Center?
As I said earlier, we have worked hard to develop a community-wide response to family violence. We help train law enforcement and hospital personnel on the dynamics of family violence and appropriate ways to handle these cases.
Top officials like judges, state’s attorneys, police chiefs and probation officers work with us to set policy and procedures to streamline family violence cases. The system has been deluged with cases, so that in itself has forced us all to work smarter and more collaboratively.
A statewide initiative of the Supreme Court coaxed chief judges to form family violence coordinating councils in their circuits. We were one of the first to step forward, and we’ve had terrific leadership from Judges Courson, Gorman, Black and now Barra. Judge Black was so committed to the concept that he chaired the statewide council for seven years.
Our next collaboration is just getting off the ground with the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) process. Specially trained nurses called Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) and police officers, along with our advocates, are putting together a protocol to use with rape victims. The idea is to minimize the number of times the victim has to tell his or her story about the assault and to ensure there is good, accurate evidence to convict the assailant.
All along, we have had great relationships with the hospitals. Volunteer advocates and staff attend to any victim that appears at an emergency room and wants our assistance. We are available 24 hours a day. Understandably, the ER staff does not have the time to just sit with the victim and be the shoulder to lean on. That becomes our job.
We cannot do everything for every client, so we rely on the wonderful social service network here to provide the services that we cannot.It may be housing needs, adult day care, employment and educational assistance, or life skills training. It’s our job to connect our clients with the community resources they need.
Tell about the capital campaign and the needs of the Center.
Nearly 20 years ago, the agency asked the community to help build a safe shelter to serve the tri-County area. When staff and clients moved in in 1985, the shelter was one of only four facilities in the nation specifically built to be a shelter for battered women and children.
According to my predecessor, the staff thought they would never use all the space. Today, we have outgrown it many times over because of the exploding caseload and the new programming added over the years, especially elder abuse services and prevention programming.
We are in desperate need of more space. Therefore, we are taking a bold step to launch a campaign to add two new wings to our shelter facility. We are at a standstill in being able to create long-term solutions to family violence.
I already mentioned how important it is to help children through severe emotional and physical trauma. Our children’s area is about the size of a large bedroom. If we are going to be effective with children when they stay in the shelter or come with mom to support groups, they cannot be squeezed into a small room. It would be wonderful to have special nooks and corners for each different age groups. We need therapy rooms more conducive to healing than the converted furnace room used now. That is just unacceptable.
We also want to add a second level to our shelter care. We’d like to build some family and single units so the abused seniors have a quiet place to live until we can find them more permanent arrangements and so that young moms and their children have their own separate place to stay until mom gets things stabilized before moving out into the community. The emergency shelter is definitely important for the immediate crisis time, but getting started on a new path in life takes time and a different kind of support and counsel.
Finally, because of our phenomenal growth, we’ve been forced to lease offices in several locations, which makes it difficult to offer our "one-stop shop" set of services.
Centralizing our Peoria offices will help families get what they need at one time and at one place. We are still committed to our outreach offices in Pekin and Washington and to keeping the abuser program separate in East Peoria, but we are not working efficiently or as effectively by being scattered here in Peoria.
Given enough resources, what new programs would you develop?
I’m not sure I would develop any new programs at this point. What we really need right now is more people to do what we are already doing so each client gets more in-depth, longer lasting help.
Many clients and men in the Family Strength program ask for follow-up services and someone to talk to when the going gets tough. We are spread too thin to respond in the way we would like or is needed.
How does family violence affect the work place? How can and/or should businesses support the Center?
Employees bring their home problems to work. If things are bad at home, they don’t give their job full attention. They are often late or absent. Lowered productivity is just one ramification of family violence in the workplace. Another is victims may be stalked or attacked at work. This makes the workplace dangerous not only for that one individual but for innocent bystanders.
Businesses should have policies and procedures in place to protect their employees as much as possible and to offer the kind of support needed to help employees, whether victims or abusers. Abusers need to be sent to intervention programs and victims need whatever it takes to keep them safe.
We always welcome financial support from the business community and hope that it is viewed as an investment in a healthy, productive workforce.
What has given you the most satisfaction as executive director?
I am so proud of my staff and our volunteers. Each day we face very difficult challenges and we rise up to meet them. Some days we do a better job than others, but, in general, we don’t back down. Our SeniorStrength staff go into some very dangerous homes to meet with elder abuse victims.
Volunteers and staff are called to the hospitals at all hours. InnerStrength and WomenStrength counselors hear one horrendous story after another. Children tell YouthStrength staff very sad tales about what is going on at home. FamilyStrength facilitators have to bluntly call abusers to task about their posturing and put down of their partners. Our work is not easy, and I am continually amazed by the courage, persistence and commitment of staff and volunteers. The fact that they all trust me to lead them is very humbling.
What is the greatest frustration in regard to family violence?
It is very difficult to always hear the question, "Why doesn’t she leave?" If we ever get to the point when everyone asks, "Why does he do it?" then I know we have made progress. Family violence will have shifted from blaming the victim to holding the abuser accountable.
What message would you like to send to the community regarding the Center?
The Center cannot make family violence and sexual assault go away by ourselves. Everyone has a part to play. Business has a role as does health care, education, criminal justice, and religious groups.
Individuals have the responsibility to condemn abusive behavior in themselves and others and to help victims know where they can be safe. If we can be a catalyst to raise the community’s consciousness high enough, then amazing changes are possible. We can have a safer, more peaceful place to live. TPW