Welcome, everybody, to Midday Magazine for this Tuesday, October 22nd, 2024.
Have your host, James J. Maylove here.
We're going to spend the next half an hour with our friend, Jessica Jinski, Program Services
Manager with our Wisconsin Rapids Family Center.
Jessica, thank you so much for joining us today.
Good morning.
Appreciate the time, as always, from you and all of our friends at the Family Center.
As a note to the audience, I am on the board of the Wisconsin Rapids Family Center.
And even if I was not, this is a topic I've been very, very honest about and very blunt
about because I believe that it's a topic that is black and white and a society in life
where there is so much gray in the world.
And not a really clear cut answer for certain things.
This particular topic is very black and white to me.
You're either on the right side of history or not.
And our society has done a good job in recent years of trying to bring more awareness to
this, of being able to talk about these subjects in an open voice and not in a hushed voice.
But there is still a lot of work to be done.
And we're going to talk a little bit about that today.
We're talking about a special vigil that is going to be coming up.
And we're doing a lot of this conversation because we have to, and it's important for
us to, but also because October is domestic violence awareness month, Jessica.
That is correct.
It is.
Now, we'll get into some of the things that the Family Center are going to be doing to
highlight this month, including the vigil and some other interesting things.
But I wanted to make sure to hit some stats that are really, I think, important to the community
and understanding this.
And I understand too that this topic can be uncomfortable for some people.
For some people.
Yeah.
And I understand that.
And I say, I reach out to those individuals out there.
This is uncomfortable for a reason.
And the only way for one to get over the discomfort is to fix and help this situation.
But also the more we talk about it, the more open we are with it.
The people that pry and the cowards out there that are hurting loved ones and doing these
things, they thrive in the darkness.
They thrive in the uncomfortableness.
They want us to not talk about these things and to feel awkward and all that about it.
So the way to fight that, one of the ways to beat that is to be able to talk about it
in an open conversation and being, you know, facing these things.
You should light on it.
Absolutely.
Well said.
Jessica, you had some stats for us, one of the touch on.
Yeah.
So last year in the state of Wisconsin, unfortunately, 85 individuals fell victim to domestic homicide.
Making Wisconsin the sixth highest as far as those numbers are concerned in the nation.
So that's quite a significant number of people who have lost their lives due to domestic
violence.
I'm a transplant, I'm not from here, but I've spent second half of my life here in
this state.
And I love this state.
I love the people of it.
All my children were born in this state.
My brother was born here.
And while I'm not a true Wisconsinite, I have a lot of love for Wisconsinites.
And one of the things I have learned about Wisconsinites, you guys are proud of being
from Wisconsin.
We are.
You guys are proud of Wisconsin.
We love being cheeseheads.
And it's beautiful.
I love it.
I love it.
I, this is, if you are proud of being a Wisconsinite, this is one of the things that should alarm
you.
It does.
And it should note.
It is alarming.
There are a lot of layers to this conversation when it comes to this.
And I'm just focusing on Wisconsin, of course, where we're doing this show.
But when it comes to this being sixth on the list in the nation, I would think that if
you are a Wisconsinite, you would take some, some note to that.
And I'm like, well, we need to bring that down.
That I want to have pride in my state.
I want to, I want to, I want to be proud of my state.
I'm not proud of that.
I wouldn't be proud of that.
So I would want to work towards bringing those numbers down and, and keeping Wisconsin
out of that ranking.
Part of how you do that is some of the work we're doing here and some of the work the
family center is doing currently.
Exactly.
Exactly.
When it comes to that too, I got to imagine too, there are the listeners out there that,
they realize, you know, I'm not far removed from this, even if this, this hasn't happened
to you.
You may know somebody or you're more than likely statistically, you do know somebody
that has dealt with domestic violence on some layer or some level that hopefully brings
it home a little bit more of, you know, hopefully you out there listening, don't deal with
this.
I don't want that for anybody, of course.
But we all statistically see the numbers and we know that just by that alone, you are
going to probably, you probably know somebody that is going through this and having some
empathy, some understanding of that can only make us stronger as a community and, and
shed some more light on these things so that we can, you know, help make it better.
Correct.
Yeah.
And there is a running theme.
And I believe last year, one thing that we're really focused on is the fact that everybody
knows somebody.
It's not as uncommon as people would like to believe, whether it's a neighbor or, you
know, a friend or a coworker, you know, approximately one in four people are victims of domestic
violence.
Yeah.
So, so it's very unlikely that you don't know somebody that's been affected by this in
some way or another.
Those stats, and this is not worthy to any kind of stats you hear or anything out there.
When you hear that one in four, that's literal, everybody.
If you know four people, you probably, you know somebody that is dealing with this.
So keep that in mind, not only with this, but with other conversations and certainly
with this topic throughout the month of October and just going forward, it's important.
And all of this is important as well, especially, and then this one gets a me emotional and
I get on a soapbox on this one, so I'm going to warn everybody right now.
But we are in a go time in politics.
We are rounding third.
We are heading home.
November 5th is right around the corner.
There are a lot of positions that are up for election.
Yes.
I cannot stress enough that one of the more important topics you need to be thinking about when
you're going into that booth is how the our representatives feel about domestic violence
and how much they are supporting our domestic violence shelters.
This is important, no matter what time of year, no matter when we're talking about this,
but it's incredibly vital right now because of the cuts to funding that have happened
in the recent years.
Yes.
Yeah.
Just this last year, our primary funder, Voka, our funding was slashed by over $400,000.
So as you can imagine, that's had a great impact on our organization.
However, in order to fill that gap, we've just been simply increasing fundraising events.
We've been cutting organizational costs in an effort to not cut those services to the
people who need them.
So we're working very hard to maintain our client base while facing those significant cuts.
So we're just finding new and innovative ways to help fill those gaps to keep providing
the same quality of services to unfortunately the same number of people that we have served
in the past.
We have a lot of individuals that have a lot of empathy for our teachers out there.
Unfortunately, it's a common story nowadays of hearing a teacher having to go out and
buy supplies for their students because they don't have the funding.
We empathize with that.
We feel for it.
We have things going on in our communities to raise funds and everything for these events.
I feel a very similar thing is happening to our local family centers around the country.
I'm just focusing right now on our local Wisconsin Revit's Family Center, but it is not just
the Family Center.
It is domestic violence shelters around the country that this is happening to where instead
of cutting things for the clients, you guys are cutting staff salaries and things like
that.
Things that should not have to happen, especially when we are trying to get good people
in these jobs and everybody knows nobody's going to, you know, the way to bringing good
people is having a decent living that you can make at this job.
That's vital to this.
So it's counterintuitive to be cutting funding for us to be doing that when we need this
more than ever.
We started talking stats.
We gave you those stats.
Those are legitimate stats and they're not going down.
They're hitting a good, they're lower than maybe when we were kids in such, but they're
not where they should be.
If you look at where things were when the pandemic was going on and we're still dealing
with some of the aftermath of that when it comes to this.
It has never been more important in our society to be funding our domestic violence shelters
and yet our government has decided that this is apparently not the time to do that.
I cannot stress enough when you were in that voting booth on November 5th.
I ask you, I'm not telling anybody what to do certainly, but I'm asking you to research
these things and understand who you were voting for and where are they representing their
communities.
Because the communities want this.
There's no community in America that doesn't want a well-funded domestic violence shelter.
The people understand how important this is.
You go ahead and talk to any stranger and they'll tell you where they stand on this event.
This is that common now.
But unfortunately that's not getting through to a lot of the people that are helping
make these decisions.
Correct.
Make my decisions.
Yeah.
While we can't do much about these things, it feels like at times this year and coming
up in weeks from now, we can get informed, understand who you are.
Get out there and vote for myvote.wi.gov.
Make sure you are registered and get in that voting booth and vote for people that are
supporting our communities, supporting our domestic violence shelters.
I encourage you to.
I'm not telling you to or anything obviously, but I do encourage you to.
This is too big of a topic.
As those stats, if some of these things that I've rambled and I've said here haven't
gotten to you, those stats should.
Those stats don't have an opinion.
Those stats aren't voting for a Democrat or a Republican.
They are just numbers and they're telling you, right, point blank to your face, we need
to attack this.
We need to address this situation now.
It's too important.
It is.
I'll just get off my soapbox here real quick.
It's in a high soapbox.
I've got to take my time just to get down.
One of the ways that we are bringing attention to domestic violence awareness month, the
family center doing some interesting and fun is not the right word maybe.
But I know behind the scenes that there aren't a lot of moments to be able to smile and
enjoy your job and things with the work that you guys do.
The painting the town purple is a fun idea and I've heard some good things about this
one.
Yeah, it's great.
So October is, as you know, domestic violence awareness month.
We have quite a few of our local businesses and business owners who participate in what we
call paint the town purple.
And that's where they decorate their marquees in support of domestic violence awareness
month.
And specifically, Wisconsin Rapids Family Center, a lot of these businesses will have their
employees actually dressed in purple, take photographs, send them to us so that we can
share them on our social media platforms.
And it's just a great way for them to show their support in our cause and what we're
trying to accomplish.
So yeah, it's pretty fun.
So as people are going about their days out and about throughout the city of Wisconsin
Rapids and other parts of Wood County, they can see some of those marquees on display.
It's, it's, there's a layers to this one as well with the like everything we're talking
about today, Jessica, certainly, you know, doing this is great to show support to the staff,
to you, the team at the family center, bringing attention to domestic violence in this
month.
It's certainly important.
But if I can read, you know, I, I try to see all angles on these things and all layers.
And, and one of the things about this is, well, maybe this topic doesn't seem as vital
to you as it does to us or something.
But I bet you care about your business and I bet you care about your community.
And the PR of this cannot be taken lightly.
There is no marketing team in the world that could give you a price tag on what the PR
level that you get from being a part of this, from supporting this.
The numbers will tell you that the surveys will show you.
This is where our society is going.
We are not okay with this anymore.
This is again a black and white topic.
We are on one side of history.
We want you to be.
When you are a business and you are wearing purple or you're supporting this and you're
getting on social media feeds and everything, you can't buy that kind of marketing.
Right.
You cannot buy that kind of good PR.
You literally can't.
There is no marketing team out there that could say, well, for $1,000, you can, no, no,
you can't put a price tag on something like this.
So if I can't reach your heart, maybe I can reach your business mind and show you how
important this is, not only to our community, but how beneficial this can be to your business
being a part of this.
It's good to do and we want people to do it for their, you know, their heart to support
you, our family center and these things.
But if I can't reach you there, I bet I can reach your wallet, I bet I can reach
your business mind.
It's a great and it's a smart idea to do and it's not just this event, but any event
the family center is doing, supporting the family center, investing in the family center
is an investment in our community.
It is.
It really is.
And on our end of things, I mean, just the fact that local businesses are bringing awareness
to the situation and shedding light on it to us.
That's priceless.
Yeah.
Well said.
Yeah.
Yeah, I know when I was a kid and maybe, you know, some guys would be making an off-color
joke that I didn't agree with and I would try to stand up to it and how alone I felt
in those situations.
I can't even begin to imagine what it can be like working at the family center or being
a victim of this and how alone it can feel sometimes.
It's such a great point, Jessica.
Yeah.
For you guys, popping around town, you see businesses doing these things and stuff.
Hopefully it helps you through those, the grind through those harder times when it feels
like, you know, it can feel endless, I imagine, sometimes, and can feel so helpless sometimes.
Letting as community, letting you guys know how much we have your back and how much we
support what you're doing and keep up the great work and we've got you and we appreciate
you.
That's another thing you're doing when you're supporting the family center.
You are.
It goes so much farther than we can put into words.
It does.
It really does.
Just got.
Did you have anything else that you wanted to touch on with that or you want to get
into the vigil?
Yeah, we can get into the vigil.
Yeah, let's talk about that.
That's a great event.
And I'm really looking forward to that.
Let's tell people about it and win in this.
Sure.
So in honor of the victims of domestic homicide, annually, we hold our domestic violence
awareness month vigil.
This vigil is open to the public.
This year, it's actually going to be held at the community theater, which is a very
nice venue.
It's taking place October 24th from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
And the address is 220 Third Avenue South in case you are unfamiliar with where the community
theater is located.
We're hoping that we have a really great turnout.
Typically, we do.
We during this time give out community awards to individuals within the community who
have gone above and beyond to show their support to the family center.
So that's our opportunity to honor those individuals who throughout the year have stood
out amongst, you know, above some of the others, not that anybody, everybody's important,
but there's just certain people who have really truly gone above and beyond to show that
additional support when we needed it most and to our clients.
So really looking forward to that.
The award ceremony is always my favorite part.
There's a beautiful theme to this year's too.
The Healed Hold and Center that as a really hits, you know, the first time I read it,
it hits me.
It's a really good one.
It reminds us to work together to help heal victims, hold space for survivors, and center
those most vulnerable and protect, you know.
This is the definition of what a community is, you know, looking out for each other,
bringing each other's back and being a part of this visual like so much that we've talked
about today is one more opportunity, one more example of showing your community where
you stand with this and who you stand with.
Exactly.
And having each other's back is so vital to this topic.
It really goes so much farther than I think we can really realize and put into words.
Correct.
And the large part of what we do is promote that healing, allowing that space for individuals
and their children to heal from things that have happened and providing that emotional
support and, you know, all of the things that they could really use when they come in
during that time of crisis.
One of the things we've touched on today organically is the children in this situation.
And I think that that gets a little lost in the shuffle sometimes for individuals out
there that aren't, you know, like us and have this topic around every day and such.
It's an important part of this and an important part to keep in mind when we're talking about
this.
Think what you will of adults or what have you.
There's no child that has to be in this situation.
There's no child that wanted to be in this situation.
It is the job of a society to look out for its children, to look out for its elderly,
to look out for those that they cannot.
It's a Gandhi quote, but it fits for all of us.
This is our job as a society, I believe, to look out for each other, especially to
look out for children and to look out for those that need that.
Yeah, well, the children, they're our future.
And, you know, all of that takes place, you know, all that starts in the home and when
you have a healing and peaceful home environment, I think that makes for individuals, you
know, healthier individuals in the future.
Well said, Jessica.
With this visual, is this something that people need to register for?
Can you just come on by and take in the event with us?
They can just show up.
Excellent.
And I do want to send a big thank you to our, my second home, Wisconsin Thrabbs Community
Theatre hosting this event.
It has got the space.
It's a community hub.
It's a very good vibe, a very good energy in there.
And it is, again, just all these things I've been talking about, it's Synergy 101.
It's working together and we are stronger when we work together, especially when our
non-profits do.
We see a lot of that in this community.
And so that is a really cool thing and appreciate them doing this and so much appreciate
our Wisconsin Thrabbs Family Center and the vital, important work you guys are doing
day in and day out for our community.
Appreciate you Jessica.
Thanks so much for joining us today.
Thank you so much.
Again, keep in mind everybody that you're going to be seeing purple about throughout
town that is supporting what the family center is doing and domestic violence awareness
month vigil is happening from 6 to 7 Thursday, October 24th at the Wisconsin Thrabbs Community
Theatre at 2 23rd Avenue South.
We will meet you there and bring your hearts, everybody.
It's going to be a heart full event, we're looking forward to it.
Jessica, thank you again for the time.
Thank you.
We'd like to remind everybody as well that the Family Center has a crisis line 24 hours
a day.
It is available if you need it.
And please spread the word about this number, 715-421-1511.
It's 421-1511.
You can also reach them on their business line at 715-421-1559, it's 421-1559, email them
info at familyctr.org, info at familyctr.org, and of course you can find out more at their
website, familyctr.org, and be sure to follow them on social media.
It's a great way to keep up to date on what they are doing and to share things like the
visual on your social media pages, you just don't know who might see it that wouldn't
otherwise.
Again, familyctr.org is the website.
We'll be back with more Midday Magazine coming up right here on 975-FM, 1320 AM, WFHR,
locally grown radio.
