Offering Hope and Help
Unleashing “Superhero Survivors”
We unleash “superhero survivors” of abuse via trauma-informed, survivor-centered advocacy, while equipping the community for effective response to family violence.
Why Mother Justice Network?
Our purpose is to unleash “Superhero Survivors” of abuse, and equip communities for effective response to family violence. We will change how community professionals work with protective parents and their children to create safety for families chronically targeted by abusers.
Justice-Focused
We prioritize the human RIGHT to safety, health and well-being for adult and child victims of abuse. We believe abusers bear the sole RESPONSIBILITY to change their coercive and controlling beliefs and behaviors that lead to intimate partner abuse, family violence, post-separation coercive control, and counter-parenting.
Survivor-Centered
We are focused on survivor-identified needs and goals, because survivors are the best judge of their safety, survival and self-actualization needs. We promote responses that account for the WHOLE survivor, and her dreams and desires for herself and her entire family.
Trauma-Responsive
We model trauma-responsive service, because survivors deserve spaces where their natural trauma reactions are understood, and they are safe, believed, respected, admired and encouraged for their tenacity in the face of abuse. We prioritize creating space that feels safe for the victim, while honoring our own safety needs.
Change-Driven
We are driven to create social justice within every system, profession, and practice that currently contributes to the ongoing abuse of protective parents and their children. We seek feedback from BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, poor and non-Christian communities to improve our own responses to our communities’ most silenced survivors.
Maze of
Coercive Control
It’s not easy finding safety from someone who uses coercive control (tactics from luring and grooming, to economic control and medical neglect, to isolation and deprivation, to physical and sexual assault – and everything in between) to maintain their primary or dominant role in your relationship. On top of your partner’s abuse, every system has their laws, policies, rules, standards, applications, motives and myths that you have to somehow navigate.
Finding safely is not an event, it’s a process – a painstaking and painful process that takes the average victim 7 tries before she succeeds. It may be a decades-long process if you have children in common with your abuser. If you feel overwhelmed by the Maze of Coercive Control, you are not alone. It represents all kinds of factors that need to be considered for safety, and underscores that there are more barriers keeping you IN abuse, then there is help to get OUT.
The Push to Complete
Unfinished Business
Our laws are the foundation for all systems and institutions with which an abused woman and her children must interact in order to navigate to safety. Unfortunately, those same laws protect an abuser’s rights to maintain access to his “property” over the rights of women and children to be safe. Protective Mothers are drowning in a legal tide, their children swept away – losing their wellbeing, their futures and sometimes their very lives by forced contact with or custody to their abusers. Mother Justice Network is the floodwall to help stem that tide.
In 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, guaranteeing all white women the right to vote (a right that still, even in the 21st century, eludes women of color and other vulnerable populations due to the passage of more restrictive voting laws). Those suffragettes who gave their all for that right expected that women would go on to win full equality FOR ALL; sadly, we did not. Federal and international legislation exists, in various stages of development, that would improve the condition of women and children, and guarantee our fundamental human rights. Getting worldwide governments, even our own, to recognize and ratify these important rights for women and children continues to be an uphill struggle.
Mother Justice is committed to their passage and ratification, as the first stepping stone to guaranteeing the rights of mothers and children to maintain their parent/child bond (click links below to visit legislation).
Contact
Mother Justice
Help for Victim/Survivors
If you are a victim/survivor NEEDING HELP please contact Mother Justice below, and please indicate first if TEXT or CALL is best to set an appointment. Feel free to send a brief synopsis of your circumstances, but it is not necessary. One-on-one victim supports with Mother Justice are always FREE.*
* For Victim/Survivor Supports requiring travel: transportation costs, room, and board must be covered by the person seeking in-person advocacy services.
For Professionals or Groups
Please let Mother Justice know your training, service or speaker needs. All professional or group services and supports are fee-based. For general inquiries, appointments, professional consultation, and/or training fee schedules please use the form below.
Survivors Helping Survivors: Are you an individual survivor willing to help other survivors, even just by supportive listening? Are you a justice advocate, professional or program that assists protective parents? CLICK HERE to learn more about joining the Mother Justice Network.
Behind Closed Doors:
Coerced Control is Out-Of-Control
Family violence is a common problem in the United States and around the world, affecting an estimated 10 million people every year; as many as one in four women and one in nine men are victims of domestic violence. Virtually all community professionals who regularly work with the public come into contact with a domestic abuse victim at least once per week. If you know more than 4 women or 9 men, you know at least one survivor. Coerced control includes economic, emotional, psychological abuse, and MAY include physical or sexual abuse; children, disabled adults, and elders are often targeted too. Coercive control worsens psychological and physical health, decreases quality of life, decreases productivity, and contributes to early mortality.
58,000
9 in 10
… female domestic abuse victims go through extreme emotional distress. — CLICK FOR SOURCE
(When we looked at the US domestic violence statistics more closely, we learned that more than 47% of them deal with PTSD, 20% get depressed, and over 14% live with anxiety.)
30% to 60%
Domestic violence and child maltreatment in the same family has a co-occurrence rate of between 30% and 60%. (Edleson, 1999) — CLICK FOR SOURCE
1 in 3
… women, globally, experience domestic or sexual violence in their lifetime . — CLICK FOR SOURCE
(Additionally, a 2003 study about the risks of firearms in the home found that females living with a gun in the home were nearly three times more likely to be murdered than females with no gun in the home. — CLICK FOR SOURCE)
What Survivors are Saying
Survivors, their families, and the community cannot thank Kathy Jones (“Mother Justice”) enough for the countless hours she spends helping victims with SAFETY and legal supports. Here’s what they have to say:
"ONLY Solace I Found ..."
The ONLY solace I found when I left my abuser and started my process through the family court system was with a … READ MORE
"My Go To Resource ..."
For over 20 years Kathy has been my go to resource for every aspect of domestic violence. Her insights are invaluable … READ MORE
"Very Knowledgeable ..."
Kathy came to my undergraduate class several times to provide education about domestic violence. Kathy is very … READ MORE
"I Trusted Her Immediately ..."
I recently met Kathy at a Retreat that she conducted. I have to say, that I was instantly taken away by her nurturing … READ MORE
"Backbone of So Many Women ..."
Thank you for being the backbone of so many women surviving & thriving! The Ol’ Girls Club is getting bigger and better … READ MORE
"Unwavering in Her Efforts ..."
As a former Child Protection Field Worker & Supervisor, I had the privilege to work alongside Kathy beginning in the early … READ MORE
Mother Justice Network Blog
You can follow Mother Justice’s ongoing work, encouraging words, and articles the Mother Justice Network has found most beneficial.
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