Monday, March 15, 2010

Looking for Male Victims of Domestic Abuse's True Stories

From David Fitzpatrick's: As part of my job with a newspaper, I interviewed Jan Brown, who runs the Domestic Abuse Helpline for Men and Women. This toll-free, national helpline is run here in Maine, and is the only one of its kind. I was astonished to learn that, despite the numbers we often hear, male victims of abuse by intimate partners is far higher than society believes. I won't belabor the point here, or try to educate anyone, or argue the various numbers. That isn't the point.

The point is that there is no other agency like DAHMW. It exists solely on the work of volunteers. Ms. Brown doesn't take a salary from it, and in fact spends a lot of her own money. She can't get the same grant monies that domestic-abuse programs for women get. She alleges she's actually excluded from most of it. As such, she runs this on about $15,000 a year--on a good year. Yet she helps more men and women than you can imagine, and in fact helps men who literally have no other choice.

I am putting together an anthology. This anthology is not fiction. It will be a collection of essays by men who have been victims of domestic-partner abuse, either physical, sexual, emotional, or mental, or by those who know or have helped men who were victims.

And all profits from the anthology will be donated to the DAHMW. I hope to help bring some recognition to this problem and help the DAHMW in its mission.

Please visit Epic Saga Publishing for more info on the project and to contact David with your story.

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