Anne Marie Hunter is the Co-Director of Safe Havens Interfaith Partnership Against Domestic Violence and Elder Abuse. Anne Marie Hunter is an ordained United Methodist pastor who has worked extensively in the field of domestic and sexual violence and elder abuse since 1984. Hunter holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Religion and Society from Drew University. While attending Harvard and Drew, Hunter worked for two battered women’s service groups: Harbor Me in East Boston, MA and Jersey Battered Women’s Services in Morristown, NJ. Hunter also served for six years as the pastor of a United Methodist Church near Boston, MA. In 1991, Hunter worked with faith-affiliated friends to found Safe Havens Interfaith Partnership Against Domestic Violence and Elder Abuse. Safe Havens is a religiously diverse nonprofit that works locally and nationally to strengthen partnerships between diverse faith communities and domestic and sexual violence service providers. These partnerships can strengthen community based responses to intimate partner violence, sexual violence, dating violence, and elder abuse. Safe Havens also provides national Technical Assistance for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. Safe Havens believes that faith communities have unique and critically important roles to play in providing holistic support to survivors of abuse and building a world in which abuse is unthinkable. These roles include intervention, prevention, help with accountability, and long-term social change.
Alyson Morse Katzman is the Co-Director of Safe Havens Interfaith Partnership Against Domestic Violence and Elder Abuse. Alyson creates, coordinates, and implements Safe Havens’ local and national work regarding sexual and domestic violence and elder abuse. She also provides national technical assistance on domestic violence and faith, elder abuse and faith, and domestic and sexual violence and faith in rural communities through Safe Havens’ national Technical Assistance projects, which are funded by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. Morse Katzman has successfully implemented trainings and workshops across the United States that address the importance of including faith communities in a coherent and coordinated community response to all forms of abuse. She is actively involved in Greater Boston’s Jewish Domestic Violence Coalition as well as in Jewish Women International’s Interfaith Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Morse Katzman received a Master’s in Public Administration from New York University and has extensive experience in public and non-profit management as well as community organizing.
In their work to keep older adults safer and to increase access to their services, it is good for E MDTs to consider that many older adults (above 80%) are faith affiliated and are deeply involved in their faith communities. In addition, research shows that if faced with abuse, many older adults would turn to their faith communities and leaders for help. To reach older adults where they are most engaged, and to establish trust with older adults, partnerships with local faith communities can open doors of support and referrals to services for older adults.
When thinking about faith and elder abuse, there are three foundational issues that EMDTs should consider. First, faith can be both a resource and a roadblock to safety. For example, the abuse of an older adult might be prolonged if they don’t reach out for help because they are thinking “peace in the family is my responsibility” or “I’m supposed to forgive 7 x 70.” At the same time their faith may be a significant source of strength and resilience. Recognizing faith as both resource and roadblock is particularly critical because elder abuse is significantly underreported.
Second, for many older adults, their faith community is also their social network. Empowering people in this network to recognize abuse, provide support, and offer referrals to local services can help to keep older adults safer by making help immediately accessible. When trusted faith communities provide information about local services, those local services are more likely to be trusted.
Third, faith leaders have the ability to speak out publicly to condemn elder abuse and to break the silence that surrounds it. By providing information, putting up posters, and opening this topic for conversation, faith communities can help to make it easier for older adults to reach out for help.
A Practical Next Step
One practical first step that any E-MDT can take is to map local faith communities and consider staff and board connections to those faith communities. Be sure to include many different faith traditions.
- How could you use your community connections to begin to build ongoing relationships with these local faith communities?
- What have you done in the past?
- Are there faith leaders who are already allies who could become affiliated with your E-MDT to offer their perspective?
Helpful Resources
One resource that may be helpful to E-MDTs as they reach out to local faith communities is Safe Havens’ Where Faith and Safety Meet faith community and service provider resources , which are available at https://www.interfaithpartners.org/elder-abuse.
Resources are also available through the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life at https://www.ncall.us/ and the National Center on Elder Abuse at https://elderjustice.usc.edu/national-center-on-elder-abuse/.
