Stay tuned for In Our Range on the way next, brought to you by Westgate Nursing Rehabilitation and Assisted Living Center.
Good morning and welcome to In Our Range.
My guest this morning is Rebecca Rogan, Executive Director with Dove.
Dove is the domestic violence program and shelter here on the range.
Dove Inc provides domestic violence escape for men, women and children in Ironwood, Michigan and the surrounding areas.
They offer a number of services to help with support,
hope and healing.
These services include violence information, emergency shelter, advocacy and counseling.
Dove prides themselves and their involvement in the community.
You can find more information on their website at dove-inc.net.
Their helpline number is 906-932-4990.
Rebecca Rogan has been executive director of Dove since 2021.
She has a long career in domestic violence intervention and brings this experience to her work here with Dove.
Good morning, Rebecca, and welcome to In Our Range.
Good morning, Mike.
Yeah, you were the first interview here on In Our Range about a year ago.
We got in right under the wire in October last year
for
domestic violence awareness month, and I appreciate you coming back.
Well, thank you.
It's always fun to be back.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and we're working to raise a little bit of awareness.
Yes.
And so I'm grateful for you for coming in and we've got a few things that we can discuss this morning.
But when you think about October coming around and you have an opportunity to speak to the public, if you only had one moment or one thing to say to people out there in the community about October and domestic violence awareness, what would you say to people?
I think what I would say to them is that it's happening here in our communities.
We serve folks both in Go Give It County and in Iron County, Wisconsin.
And I can tell you that just over the last year, for example, in comparing some clients and service statistics before I came on today, we are up over 30% in both the number of people that we're serving and the number of services that we're providing to those folks.
So it is unfortunately happening, but there is support for folks who are maybe experiencing domestic violence or sexual assault.
And we're here, no judgments to help in the way that the individual needs to needs help, that they identify it as how they want to be helped.
Yeah, because when we discuss domestic violence, we're talking about a broad range of
basically crimes and horrible things that happen
to
people from from the emotional abuse to the physical abuse to the sexual abuse.
There's financial abuse that occurs.
Sometimes when we see these numbers increases or decreases, it's hard to know what is behind them.
Right.
I mean, is there an increase in domestic violence?
Is there a surge of that happening on the range or is there just a surge of people reaching out for help more?
And there's almost sometimes no way
of really knowing.
There really isn't and I mean I'm glad that our agency is available for folks to reach out either because it's recently happened to them or it's happened in the past and they're having some experiences maybe that are negatively impacting their life that they want to try and work through and that we're able to provide those services at no charge.
to these individuals.
And one of the things you said early on in the intro, Mike, was you talked about the fact that we provide these services to men, women, provide services to everybody, transgender folk, gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, plus however you identify, we're there to support you.
And it's been
particularly interesting to me that in this last year we saw an increase in the number of women who were coming to us for services and the number of children and those were both in the 30% range.
But one of our biggest jumps was in the number of men that were coming for services to us.
Um, and that was nearly 40%.
Wow.
Yeah.
And so again, we don't know exactly why this is.
I mean, in the last year, we've tried to do some more, um, community programming so that people know exactly serve what services we do provide, but not only do we have.
Women coming in for shelter.
We have men coming in for shelter.
We have men coming in for assistance with personal protection orders as well.
You know, obviously as women coming in, but we want to make sure the community knows that we are available to anyone who is seeking services.
If we can't provide the assistance that the individual needs when they come in, so for example, we don't provide counseling per se because we don't have licensed counselors on our staff, we will help you find someplace that can help you.
So, you know, we will help try to make those connections with you if that's what you need for your service.
Yeah, that first step in intervening in a domestic violence situation is often just
the providing of options.
Absolutely.
When a survivor finds themselves at the point where they need help, they often have no idea what they actually need or what step to take forward.
And just sitting with a peer counselor or a crisis counselor who will listen, oftentimes there's a magical thing that happens right there
just in the having
their story being heard.
I have found it amazing how this movement of domestic violence intervention which began and maintains as a feminist movement has accepted and reached out to all genders.
Yes.
And where there could have been this fundamentalist
reaction to know we're just going to protect women.
Now, this movement has really stepped forward as an example for this where, yes, men have different needs, women
have
different needs, non-binary and trans folks have different needs.
There are different dynamics that occur within an LGBTQ relationship than what would happen in what they would call a heteronormative relationship.
And being able to
work through options with these people coming from different places and different needs is really incredible.
It really is.
When I started in the business in 1996, the commonly prevailing statistic was that somewhere between 85 and 95 percent of victims were women.
And I would do presentations that would often get me in trouble where I would say, you know, that means the other five or 10 percent are not aliens.
there are men who are being harmed by this as well.
And I think people have a really difficult time maybe wrapping their head around that because they see men as you know they're supposed to be the stronger sex or you know all of these different things that we have in our head.
Domestic violence isn't about
draw somebody being stronger than another person.
Like you said, domestic violence entails so many things that if I want to control someone, you know, if I foot three, I'm probably not really intimidating.
But if I can do it through other means like verbal abuse, emotional abuse, even financial abuse, it's still domestic abuse.
And that's what we need to start recognizing is that it isn't just
the physical abuse.
A lot of my clients would say that he didn't just slap me.
He started out with maybe name calling and he wanted to see how far he could push, you know, that line.
And then it was something else.
And then it was something else.
And then it was the physical abuse,
which could be isolating people from their support groups or controlling the finances, you know, and right in this day and age.
That could be basically controlled by either a man or a woman.
Correct.
And so there are a lot of tools that an abuser will use to maintain power and control over their person.
And so I think Dove is very sensitive and does a wonderful job of finding ways to work with these various groups.
And so really thank you for that.
You're welcome.
You're reporting a 30% increase in services overall with a 40% increase in men reaching out for services, but this is also coinciding with a drop in funding from the state of Michigan.
Would you care to address that for a moment?
Sure.
So we've been getting told for the last few years from the state of Michigan that
federal dollars coming into the states and almost every state that I'm aware of is being impacted by this, that the federal dollars are dropping.
We just learned within the last week what that's going to look like and for Dove in particular, we will be losing approximately 14% of our revenue.
That equates to approximately $42,000 for those of us who like hard numbers that we can
Relate to and the personnel level that equates to approximately one full-time employee.
Yeah, and we're already a small staff I mean as it stands right now.
We only have six full-time employees and one part-time employee and we are covering Services 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days across a
wide
Correct,
across the very wide geographic area.
And their services that we are providing are required by those grants.
So it's not like we can just cut something and say, okay, we can make up this $41,000 because we can cut this program.
We really have to take a look at how are we going to restructure and what that's going to look like.
I'm not completely sure yet.
My board and I are still working through this, but it's
going to look a little different.
What are some ways that the community can step up to bridge the gap in that funding?
So there's a couple things.
I mean, certainly, you know, individuals can donate anytime that they want, financial donations.
We're really restricted on what we can take in in terms of like furniture or clothes, not that those are not helpful because we have individuals who leave our shelter and go into their own places and they need everything.
but we don't have room to store that stuff long term.
So furniture, gift cards to Walmart, to Quick Trip, to shoe sensation, to Dunham's for example, those are always helpful for clients.
And again, also donating.
And one of the things that we have going on in October, which like you mentioned is a domestic violence awareness month, is we will be hosting a steak extravaganza on October 24th at the Aurora Club, which will be starting at six o'clock p.m.
Zee's Market in Wakefield, which a lot of people know kind of a fresh face, although I understand the family's been around for a little bit, but kind of a fresh face.
We'll be providing the meat this year.
And there's going to be a 50-50 raffle.
There's going to be some prize raffles going on.
There will not be any pre-selling of the tickets.
It'll all happen that night.
So if you want to come and win some money and walk out with some cold hard cash, you got to be there for the raffle.
So come and see us.
You'll be able to buy tickets.
And all that money that's raised will help.
of continue to provide the services the survivors in our community need and those are access to shelter access to advocates who provide support in so many ways like we've talked about and helping hold batterers accountable for their behavior it's always a fun time we have lots of laughs
Watching people, you know, running up to the table to grab their desired package of meat gets a little crazy.
But it really is a fun time and the Aurora Club, they're great hosts.
We enjoy having it there.
We always just have a really good time.
Yeah, the Aurora Club always seems happy to help out
in
moments like this.
And you mentioned it being a great time.
And, you know, just, I mean, the financial support is necessary and super helpful.
But often when
You have a big event like this and you have people coming together.
Yes, there are people who have received or are receiving or will potentially receive your services
in the
future and they're seeing literal people that they're sharing space with caring and giving to it and that can be so encouraging for
people.
Yeah, because I think when the folks see that things like this happening in the community regardless of what the cause is if whether it's
sheltering animals that don't have a home through hope, or it's working with folks who maybe have lost a friend or a family member through suicide with the gogibic range suicide prevention group.
Whatever it is, when you see somebody standing up and saying, maybe I've never been impacted by this.
This wasn't something that happened in my home, but I'm here to support this cause.
I think for survivors and I'm a survivor and I can tell you just personally that to see those folks coming out and saying yeah you know what I'm going to do this crazy thing and I'm going to spend money on these tickets so that other people have this service available to them that gives me hope and it encourages me in the work that we do as an agency that maybe someday
This agency won't be needed.
Now, I've, like I said, I've been working in the field since 96 and my mantra has always been, I can't wait for the day to the boss to come tell me that we don't need you anymore because we've got this resolved.
Hasn't happened yet, but I still hold on to that hope.
Yeah.
My old boss, Sherry told me, used to say, we're the only people trying to work ourselves out of a job.
Absolutely.
You had a smart boss.
She
was a wonderful human being.
Yeah.
Rebecca, thank you so much for coming in this morning.
Is there anything else you'd like to add or finish the interview with today?
Thank you to you for inviting me back.
Like you said, it's been about a year since we did this the first time around.
But also thank you to our community.
We could not do this work without you.
We see people step up every day in big and small ways, but mostly quietly.
You know, our community, yep, we come out for the steak feeds and the meat extravaganza and those sorts of things, but what happens behind the scenes in our communities?
Just blows me away every day, you know We've had some folks go into their own housing in the last year and we've put out requests on Facebook for example saying hey We've got somebody move it into their own place.
They need beds They need whatever and the community has stepped up and like it hasn't just been oh, yeah, we've got that let us come bring it to your door It's been oh, yeah We got this is it okay if we take this to where this person is moving to which has been tremendous for us because we don't necessarily have a truck
or a U-Haul to take it, but our community is fantastic and we come together like you said when something's happened and that's what I appreciate most about this community.
So even in the face of a rising need for services and even in the face of reduction of financial support through grants from the state and the federal level, the answer
is always the way our community shows up and helps out in even the most quiet ways.
And I'm just really grateful for the work you do, grateful for a community that supports an agency like Dove and welcome all of the listeners out there to keep up the support and do what you can.
Thanks, Maya.
Thank you so much for coming in, Rebecca.
You're welcome.
My guest this morning is Rebecca Rogan, executive director of Dove, Inc.
serving domestic violence survivors across the range.
Located in Ironwood.
Thank you for listening this morning.
Just want to remind you that if you need help or would like to provide help, support donations to Dove, you can give them a call at their number 906-932-4.
4 9 9 0 that is also the helpline number if you'd like to find out more information as well you can find it on their website at dove-inkinc.net and a reminder that the saturday meat extravaganza will be held on october 24th to benefit dove as a fundraiser there will also be 50 50 tickets sold that starts at 6 p.m if you'd like more information about the meat extravaganza at the aurora club
You can call 906-932-4990.
I know I'll be there.
I hope to see a whole bunch of folks out there supporting this wonderful cause.
Thank you for joining us here on In Our Range this morning.
Appreciate you listening and we'll catch you back here next week.
Stay tuned for In Our Range on the way next, brought to you by Westgate Nursing Rehabilitation and Assisted Living Center.
Good morning and welcome to In Our Range.
My guest this morning is Rebecca Rogan, Executive Director with Dove.
Dove is the domestic violence program and shelter here on the range.
Dove Inc provides domestic violence escape for men, women and children in Ironwood, Michigan and the surrounding areas.
They offer a number of services to help with support,
hope and healing.
These services include violence information, emergency shelter, advocacy and counseling.
Dove prides themselves and their involvement in the community.
You can find more information on their website at dove-inc.net.
Their helpline number is 906-932-4990.
Rebecca Rogan has been executive director of Dove since 2021.
She has a long career in domestic violence intervention and brings this experience to her work here with Dove.
Good morning, Rebecca, and welcome to In Our Range.
Good morning, Mike.
Yeah, you were the first interview here on In Our Range about a year ago.
We got in right under the wire in October last year
for
domestic violence awareness month, and I appreciate you coming back.
Well, thank you.
It's always fun to be back.
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and we're working to raise a little bit of awareness.
Yes.
And so I'm grateful for you for coming in and we've got a few things that we can discuss this morning.
But when you think about October coming around and you have an opportunity to speak to the public, if you only had one moment or one thing to say to people out there in the community about October and domestic violence awareness, what would you say to people?
I think what I would say to them is that it's happening here in our communities.
We serve folks both in Go Give It County and in Iron County, Wisconsin.
And I can tell you that just over the last year, for example, in comparing some clients and service statistics before I came on today, we are up over 30% in both the number of people that we're serving and the number of services that we're providing to those folks.
So it is unfortunately happening, but there is support for folks who are maybe experiencing domestic violence or sexual assault.
And we're here, no judgments to help in the way that the individual needs to needs help, that they identify it as how they want to be helped.
Yeah, because when we discuss domestic violence, we're talking about a broad range of
basically crimes and horrible things that happen
to
people from from the emotional abuse to the physical abuse to the sexual abuse.
There's financial abuse that occurs.
Sometimes when we see these numbers increases or decreases, it's hard to know what is behind them.
Right.
I mean, is there an increase in domestic violence?
Is there a surge of that happening on the range or is there just a surge of people reaching out for help more?
And there's almost sometimes no way
of really knowing.
There really isn't and I mean I'm glad that our agency is available for folks to reach out either because it's recently happened to them or it's happened in the past and they're having some experiences maybe that are negatively impacting their life that they want to try and work through and that we're able to provide those services at no charge.
to these individuals.
And one of the things you said early on in the intro, Mike, was you talked about the fact that we provide these services to men, women, provide services to everybody, transgender folk, gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, plus however you identify, we're there to support you.
And it's been
particularly interesting to me that in this last year we saw an increase in the number of women who were coming to us for services and the number of children and those were both in the 30% range.
But one of our biggest jumps was in the number of men that were coming for services to us.
Um, and that was nearly 40%.
Wow.
Yeah.
And so again, we don't know exactly why this is.
I mean, in the last year, we've tried to do some more, um, community programming so that people know exactly serve what services we do provide, but not only do we have.
Women coming in for shelter.
We have men coming in for shelter.
We have men coming in for assistance with personal protection orders as well.
You know, obviously as women coming in, but we want to make sure the community knows that we are available to anyone who is seeking services.
If we can't provide the assistance that the individual needs when they come in, so for example, we don't provide counseling per se because we don't have licensed counselors on our staff, we will help you find someplace that can help you.
So, you know, we will help try to make those connections with you if that's what you need for your service.
Yeah, that first step in intervening in a domestic violence situation is often just
the providing of options.
Absolutely.
When a survivor finds themselves at the point where they need help, they often have no idea what they actually need or what step to take forward.
And just sitting with a peer counselor or a crisis counselor who will listen, oftentimes there's a magical thing that happens right there
just in the having
their story being heard.
I have found it amazing how this movement of domestic violence intervention which began and maintains as a feminist movement has accepted and reached out to all genders.
Yes.
And where there could have been this fundamentalist
reaction to know we're just going to protect women.
Now, this movement has really stepped forward as an example for this where, yes, men have different needs, women
have
different needs, non-binary and trans folks have different needs.
There are different dynamics that occur within an LGBTQ relationship than what would happen in what they would call a heteronormative relationship.
And being able to
work through options with these people coming from different places and different needs is really incredible.
It really is.
When I started in the business in 1996, the commonly prevailing statistic was that somewhere between 85 and 95 percent of victims were women.
And I would do presentations that would often get me in trouble where I would say, you know, that means the other five or 10 percent are not aliens.
there are men who are being harmed by this as well.
And I think people have a really difficult time maybe wrapping their head around that because they see men as you know they're supposed to be the stronger sex or you know all of these different things that we have in our head.
Domestic violence isn't about
draw somebody being stronger than another person.
Like you said, domestic violence entails so many things that if I want to control someone, you know, if I foot three, I'm probably not really intimidating.
But if I can do it through other means like verbal abuse, emotional abuse, even financial abuse, it's still domestic abuse.
And that's what we need to start recognizing is that it isn't just
the physical abuse.
A lot of my clients would say that he didn't just slap me.
He started out with maybe name calling and he wanted to see how far he could push, you know, that line.
And then it was something else.
And then it was something else.
And then it was the physical abuse,
which could be isolating people from their support groups or controlling the finances, you know, and right in this day and age.
That could be basically controlled by either a man or a woman.
Correct.
And so there are a lot of tools that an abuser will use to maintain power and control over their person.
And so I think Dove is very sensitive and does a wonderful job of finding ways to work with these various groups.
And so really thank you for that.
You're welcome.
You're reporting a 30% increase in services overall with a 40% increase in men reaching out for services, but this is also coinciding with a drop in funding from the state of Michigan.
Would you care to address that for a moment?
Sure.
So we've been getting told for the last few years from the state of Michigan that
federal dollars coming into the states and almost every state that I'm aware of is being impacted by this, that the federal dollars are dropping.
We just learned within the last week what that's going to look like and for Dove in particular, we will be losing approximately 14% of our revenue.
That equates to approximately $42,000 for those of us who like hard numbers that we can
Relate to and the personnel level that equates to approximately one full-time employee.
Yeah, and we're already a small staff I mean as it stands right now.
We only have six full-time employees and one part-time employee and we are covering Services 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days across a
wide
Correct,
across the very wide geographic area.
And their services that we are providing are required by those grants.
So it's not like we can just cut something and say, okay, we can make up this $41,000 because we can cut this program.
We really have to take a look at how are we going to restructure and what that's going to look like.
I'm not completely sure yet.
My board and I are still working through this, but it's
going to look a little different.
What are some ways that the community can step up to bridge the gap in that funding?
So there's a couple things.
I mean, certainly, you know, individuals can donate anytime that they want, financial donations.
We're really restricted on what we can take in in terms of like furniture or clothes, not that those are not helpful because we have individuals who leave our shelter and go into their own places and they need everything.
but we don't have room to store that stuff long term.
So furniture, gift cards to Walmart, to Quick Trip, to shoe sensation, to Dunham's for example, those are always helpful for clients.
And again, also donating.
And one of the things that we have going on in October, which like you mentioned is a domestic violence awareness month, is we will be hosting a steak extravaganza on October 24th at the Aurora Club, which will be starting at six o'clock p.m.
Zee's Market in Wakefield, which a lot of people know kind of a fresh face, although I understand the family's been around for a little bit, but kind of a fresh face.
We'll be providing the meat this year.
And there's going to be a 50-50 raffle.
There's going to be some prize raffles going on.
There will not be any pre-selling of the tickets.
It'll all happen that night.
So if you want to come and win some money and walk out with some cold hard cash, you got to be there for the raffle.
So come and see us.
You'll be able to buy tickets.
And all that money that's raised will help.
of continue to provide the services the survivors in our community need and those are access to shelter access to advocates who provide support in so many ways like we've talked about and helping hold batterers accountable for their behavior it's always a fun time we have lots of laughs
Watching people, you know, running up to the table to grab their desired package of meat gets a little crazy.
But it really is a fun time and the Aurora Club, they're great hosts.
We enjoy having it there.
We always just have a really good time.
Yeah, the Aurora Club always seems happy to help out
in
moments like this.
And you mentioned it being a great time.
And, you know, just, I mean, the financial support is necessary and super helpful.
But often when
You have a big event like this and you have people coming together.
Yes, there are people who have received or are receiving or will potentially receive your services
in the
future and they're seeing literal people that they're sharing space with caring and giving to it and that can be so encouraging for
people.
Yeah, because I think when the folks see that things like this happening in the community regardless of what the cause is if whether it's
sheltering animals that don't have a home through hope, or it's working with folks who maybe have lost a friend or a family member through suicide with the gogibic range suicide prevention group.
Whatever it is, when you see somebody standing up and saying, maybe I've never been impacted by this.
This wasn't something that happened in my home, but I'm here to support this cause.
I think for survivors and I'm a survivor and I can tell you just personally that to see those folks coming out and saying yeah you know what I'm going to do this crazy thing and I'm going to spend money on these tickets so that other people have this service available to them that gives me hope and it encourages me in the work that we do as an agency that maybe someday
This agency won't be needed.
Now, I've, like I said, I've been working in the field since 96 and my mantra has always been, I can't wait for the day to the boss to come tell me that we don't need you anymore because we've got this resolved.
Hasn't happened yet, but I still hold on to that hope.
Yeah.
My old boss, Sherry told me, used to say, we're the only people trying to work ourselves out of a job.
Absolutely.
You had a smart boss.
She
was a wonderful human being.
Yeah.
Rebecca, thank you so much for coming in this morning.
Is there anything else you'd like to add or finish the interview with today?
Thank you to you for inviting me back.
Like you said, it's been about a year since we did this the first time around.
But also thank you to our community.
We could not do this work without you.
We see people step up every day in big and small ways, but mostly quietly.
You know, our community, yep, we come out for the steak feeds and the meat extravaganza and those sorts of things, but what happens behind the scenes in our communities?
Just blows me away every day, you know We've had some folks go into their own housing in the last year and we've put out requests on Facebook for example saying hey We've got somebody move it into their own place.
They need beds They need whatever and the community has stepped up and like it hasn't just been oh, yeah, we've got that let us come bring it to your door It's been oh, yeah We got this is it okay if we take this to where this person is moving to which has been tremendous for us because we don't necessarily have a truck
or a U-Haul to take it, but our community is fantastic and we come together like you said when something's happened and that's what I appreciate most about this community.
So even in the face of a rising need for services and even in the face of reduction of financial support through grants from the state and the federal level, the answer
is always the way our community shows up and helps out in even the most quiet ways.
And I'm just really grateful for the work you do, grateful for a community that supports an agency like Dove and welcome all of the listeners out there to keep up the support and do what you can.
Thanks, Maya.
Thank you so much for coming in, Rebecca.
You're welcome.
My guest this morning is Rebecca Rogan, executive director of Dove, Inc.
serving domestic violence survivors across the range.
Located in Ironwood.
Thank you for listening this morning.
Just want to remind you that if you need help or would like to provide help, support donations to Dove, you can give them a call at their number 906-932-4.
4 9 9 0 that is also the helpline number if you'd like to find out more information as well you can find it on their website at dove-inkinc.net and a reminder that the saturday meat extravaganza will be held on october 24th to benefit dove as a fundraiser there will also be 50 50 tickets sold that starts at 6 p.m if you'd like more information about the meat extravaganza at the aurora club
You can call 906-932-4990.
I know I'll be there.
I hope to see a whole bunch of folks out there supporting this wonderful cause.
Thank you for joining us here on In Our Range this morning.
Appreciate you listening and we'll catch you back here next week.