This has been a significant year for Safe Passage, the organization based in Northampton that helps victims of domestic violence in Hampshire County and the hilltowns of Hampden County.
The nonprofit agency announced Friday that it has purchased for $1.235 million a new headquarters at 76 Carlon Drive where it will consolidate its offices next May. Safe Passage has run out of space in its three offices in two separate buildings on Center Street.
Safe Passage also operates a shelter for women and children who are the victims of domestic abuse, and that location is not made public.
The new building will allow for better coordination of existing services, expansion of partnerships with other agencies and additional staff. “We have an enormous amount of client services that happen outside the shelter,” said Lynne Marie Wanamaker, deputy director of Safe Passage. Those include children’s programs, counselor advocates and legal advice.
“This is a huge moment for Safe Passage,” said Executive Director Marianne Winters, adding that it was able to buy its new quarters because of the community’s “stunning generosity.”
That is most evident at the agency’s signature event, the annual Hot Chocolate Run held the first Sunday in December. This year more than 6,000 people participated in the 5k race, 3k walk and noncompetitive fun run, and $615,000 was raised.
Despite the serious nature of domestic violence, the event is festive, with people running while wearing Santa Claus hats or dressed in animal costumes and bands playing music along the downtown route. The runners come from throughout western Massachusetts to support Safe Passage.
“It’s beautiful. It’s inspiring. It’s love from the region,” said ultramarathoner Michelle Murphy, of Lanesborough, who said the Hot Chocolate Run is so successful because anyone can do it. “I mean, what does a runner look like? Anyone can be a runner, and they have the fun run for families and dogs.”
Natasha Yakovlev, president of the Safe Passage board of directors, said money raised during the 14 Hot Chocolate Runs has helped pay for women’s legal expenses, counseling for children who have witnessed parental violence and a public-education program called Say Something. “It’s a workshop that’s free for the community to learn about violence and to learn to recognize domestic violence and its signs and report it,” she said.
Earlier this year, Safe Passage also began a support group for Spanish-speaking women who are victims of domestic abuse. The women share their experiences, support each other and talk with counselors about the roots of abuse and how it may have physical, emotional, psychological and financial impacts on its victims.
Immigrants without legal documentation are welcome without fear of deportation. The support group is part of Safe Passage’s effort to fill a gap in services for immigrants who often feel isolated by barriers of language and culture. The agency also is seeking to expand its reach by meeting Spanish-speaking women in community centers and churches throughout Hampshire County to make them aware of services offered by Safe Passage.
It has come a long way since the late 1970s when a grassroots group called Necessities formed in Northampton, seeking money and volunteers to offer temporary shelter for women who were leaving their homes to escape violence. The group started with a $2,000 private donation and, lacking a telephone number, communicated its mission by word of mouth. In February 1980, three volunteers from Necessities paid their own way to attend the first National Conference for Women Working with Domestic Violence in Washington, D.C.
In those early days, the agency sheltered women escaping violence in “safe homes” provided by volunteers and offered some counseling. Its long-term goals included a shelter of its own, but a volunteer at the time described that as “a fantasy.”
Four decades later, and after a name change in the early 2000s, Safe Passage’s new home will allow it to continue expanding its mission by partnering with other organizations to provide job training and ease the economic burden for women who leave abusive relationships, and hiring staff to work with transgender, gender nonconforming and gender nonbinary people.
The lives of thousands of women and children have been improved — and in some cases, saved — by the community’s sustained generosity that has fueled the growth of Safe Passage.
People who need services from Safe Passage should call 586-1125.