TRACY FITZPATRICK, a founding member of Providence-based nonprofit
Sojourner House, recently received the Legacy Award from the organization during Sojourner House’s annual Sojo MoJoe Breakfast event. The award recognizes an individual who is directly connected to Sojourner House and whose work leaves a lasting impact on the organization.
What would you say are your proudest achievements in helping Sojourner House thrive?
I am proud of being one of the founding members of Sojourner House. Over 40 years ago, during my senior year at
Brown [
University], I volunteered at [
Rhode Island]
Legal Services, where I first saw numerous cases of women accosted at home and realized they had few remedies for escaping domestic violence. I shared that with a student women’s group, and we decided to work against domestic violence. We … joined with community members and professionals in 1976 to incorporate Sojourner House – named after the abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sojourner Truth.
In 2016, you helped launch the organizational endowment program. What/whom does the program support?
The endowment is an investment in the long-term viability of Sojourner House. Regretfully, we don’t expect the need to disappear, so we want to be sure that Sojourner House has a stable, long-term source of funding. We must assure that Sojourner House will continue to empower those in need and will advocate for human rights and dignity for many generations to come.
When the Sojourner House started, domestic and sexual violence was considered a “silent epidemic.” Has that silence been officially broken within society in recent years, or is there more work needed to be done to break the stigma?
In 1975, the only public acknowledgement of domestic abuse was jokes made by late-night comedians about beating their wives. Women lacked economic and political power. The modern women’s movement was only a few years old, and domestic violence was not understood or even really named. Progress over 40 years has been significant, for sure, with shelters and programming available [such as] those provided by Sojourner House, and with enhanced awareness that domestic violence and sexual harassment exist and are not acceptable. And yes, it is still hidden and stigmatized. One only has to look at the cases of public accusations to understand how difficult it still is for a victim to put forth a claim of mistreatment against an employer, colleague or partner.
In what other ways do you plan to continue to offer your support for the organization?
I will continue to participate in the development of the Sojourner House Endowment Fund, as well as support Sojourner House and other programs like it.
