Silent cry raises awareness of domestic violence

A “silent cry” is a defense mech­a­nism in which some­one expe­ri­ences pain with­out mak­ing an audi­ble sound. Sometimes it is a cry for help that goes unno­ticed because of fear.

Brenda Marstella, direc­tor of Silent Cry, a new group to raise aware­ness of domes­tic vio­lence and help women and chil­dren who are vic­tims of abuse, said the name came to her when she was praying.

“Hear what they’re not say­ing,” Marstella said. “Does that make sense?”

It does to women who know.

Marstella, along with Ashley Kimbleton, coör­di­na­tor of activ­i­ties, and Jo Ellen Banks, admin­is­tra­tive assis­tant, have an ambi­tious goal; they not only want to do what they can to bring aware­ness to the issue and help women and kids, but they also want to even­tu­al­ly raise enough mon­ey to estab­lish a shel­ter for them in Clark County.

They believe it will cost well over a mil­lion dol­lars to build or rehab a struc­ture and staff it. They want help with grant writ­ing to pur­sue funding.

There are about a dozen shel­ters in Kentucky for domes­tic vio­lence vic­tims, but only one near Winchester that serves vic­tims from Clark County: GreenHouse 17 in Lexington.

The three women are work­ing on estab­lish­ing a board of direc­tors and obtain­ing 501(c)(3) non­prof­it sta­tus. They have held sev­er­al meet­ings and made many phone calls.

They are plan­ning a first pub­lic fundrais­er and aware­ness event at College Park on Saturday, June 6, from 1 to 4 p.m.

There will be guest speak­ers, a DJ, free food and refresh­ments, and fun activ­i­ties for the kids.

Marstella said sev­er­al local busi­ness­es have offered to sup­port the event, includ­ing Applebee’s, Broadway Liquor, Dairy Queen on Fulton Road, Maka Mia Pizza, Mason on Main, Pitmasters BBQ, The View at Southwind, and local churches.

They have also talked with a physi­cian, a physi­cian assis­tant, police offi­cers, and a ther­a­pist about vol­un­teer­ing their time once the shel­ter is estab­lished, and they already have a case manager.

“Eventually, we’re going to have to hire peo­ple,” the direc­tor said.

Marstella said Silent Cry is not a faith-based organization.

“Not everybody’s going to believe in God. We do, but not every­body is going to, so we’re going to help every­body,” she said.

She said the shel­ter will be tran­si­tion­al, not per­ma­nent. The idea is to help women find jobs, hous­ing, and oth­er things they need to be self-suf­fi­cient after about 60 to 90 days.

“We want to build their con­fi­dence. We want to work from the inside out,” she said.

The direc­tor said she has been vis­it­ing female inmates at the Clark County Detention Center for years.

“I’ve always had a heart for women and kids,” she said.

One thing she learned from talk­ing with women and girls at the jail is that about nine out of 10 of them have been sex­u­al­ly vio­lat­ed or beat­en or abused in oth­er ways, and most of the abuse has been at the hands of men.

For that rea­son, she said, the shel­ter won’t be tak­ing men who are vic­tims of domes­tic vio­lence, although she said she would also like to see some­thing done to help them as well.

Kimbleton said that, accord­ing to a report from the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet (justice.ky.gov) 45 per­cent of women and 36 per­cent of men in the state have expe­ri­enced domes­tic vio­lence. That’s the sec­ond-high­est rate of any state in the coun­try, she added.

Kimbleton has worked as a licensed peer sup­port coun­selor for a cou­ple of years, and Marstella has been a Casey’s Law advo­cate in Clark and Fayette coun­ties. Banks is the sec­re­tary and trea­sur­er at Ark of Mercy, a local church that is known for its social outreach.

“We all have our strengths,” Marstella said.

Those inter­est­ed in con­tact­ing Silent Cry may call Marstella at 859−771−2726 or write to Silent Cry, P.O. Box 301, Winchester, KY 40392.