Safe at Home Foundation Helps End Cycle of Domestic Violence

Steve Adubato talks with Ali Torre, President, and Jennifer Herbert, Director of Clinical Services, Safe At Home Foundation, about the organization’s mission to end the cycle of domestic violence by providing healing services and education to youth.

1/24/19 #2190

Excerpt:

"Hi, I'm Steve Adubato, this is One on One. We're at the Tisch WNET Studio in the heart of Lincoln Center. It is my pleasure to introduce two very special guests. Allie Torre is the President, Jennifer Herbert is the Director of Clinical Services of the Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation. I want to welcome both of you. Thank You. Allie, let me ask you this... we've talk... talked to Joe Torre many times at different golf outings and public events, he's been in the studio with us... about his personal experience with domestic violence. His dad was a cop in New York City? New York City police officer. And his mom was abused by his dad? Correct. And Joe had siblings… they were around... and they dealt with that. They experienced that? Yes. Silently? Silently. Yes. And how the heck did you... I know you... Joe has often said that you got him to talk about this, which then led to the organization... this organization being created. How'd you get him to talk about it? Well we went through a seminar called life success, right before we were ready to have our daughter and it was... they created a safe environment and a comfortable environment where he was able to do some meditation and reflect on what was... had... what was going on in his life in the past. And he went home that night, and called his sister and said, "Did dad hit mom?" And it was then that he started, you know, understanding all of these nervousness, this like insecurity and these feelings that he had kept within, not knowing where that came from. But once he started speaking about it, it was the beginning of the healing process for him. And then this all led to our foundation with the commitment that... you know, let's end this cycle. No child should have to live under these circumstances. And one of the things that's always struck me is... explain Margaret's room is? Margaret's Place is a safe... Margaret's Place, I apologize. Margaret's Place is a safe room in a school... named after...named after Joe's mother Margaret. And the school provides us with the space where all our services take place and in that room there's really a holistic blend of services. Preventive services, intervention services, for the whole school. So that kids can come and have clinical services... individual counseling and group counseling. They can also be part of a peer leadership program, they can take part in other school-wide programming, school-wide campaigns, they can get involved in a number of different ways, supporting different... supporting their friends and supporting different students in the..."