Health and Anti-Violence

Cut It Out Cambridge (CIOC)

A collaboration with the Cambridge Public Health Department, the Cut It Out Cambridge initiative trains salon professionals to be able to recognize signs of abuse and to safely refer clients to the appropriate local resources. Research shows that most domestic abuse victims never call the police or go to a shelter. However, they do talk about the abuse with someone they trust. Salon professionals are skilled and experienced listeners. Many women and men suffering from abuse feel comfortable confiding in them. CIOC’s innovative approach—harnessing local small businesses to respond to, and have a positive impact on, the public health crisis of domestic violence—is rooted in a community-based response model. CIOC helps to educate and empower members of the Cambridge community whose involvement in addressing domestic violence has yet to be tapped.

Visit Cut It Out Cambridge on Facebook 

Cut It Out Cambridge PSA

The CIOC pilot trainings were filmed by two local documentary filmmakers, Kim Romano and Hermine Muskat. They used their footage to produce a three-minute public service announcement that aired on local cable stations CCTV and City TV-8. In the pilot project, stylists with deep roots in Cambridge neighborhoods were trained by health professionals to listen non-judgmentally to their clients’ stories and offer appropriate referrals. All five salons involved in the pilot training were familiar with abuse in all its guises and greatly appreciated the information and guidance they received.

If you have trouble viewing it here, try viewing the Cut It Out Cambridge video on YouTube.

Domestic Violence-Free Zone (DVFZ) Core Group member

Under the direction of the City-Wide Violence Prevention Coordinator at the Cambridge Public Health Department, the Core Group works to produce systemic changes in city policy, guide the projects of the DVFZ, and organize the city’s yearly Domestic Violence Awareness Month activities. Since the passage of a city ordinance in 1994 that defined Cambridge as a Domestic Violence-Free Zone, the Commission has served along with other Core Group members including the School Department, the Police Department, the Department of Human Service Programs, and the City Administration.

You Find Your Strength

The Commission endorsed and supported You Find Your Strength: A Guide for Women Who Are Homeless By Women Who Are Homeless in Cambridge and Somerville, an urgently needed publication for women facing homelessness that offers support, wisdom, and practical information and advice. In addition to the many homeless, or formerly homeless, women who contributed to the project, the guide was made possible through the combined efforts of Sarah Zaman, Harvard Medical School student; Pat Maher, Healthcare for the Homeless nurse practitioner; Barbara Watts, Cambridge housing advocate; and Yadira Ramos, editor/designer.

Reaching Out About Depression (ROAD)

Although now operating as an independent project under the direction of the Cambridge Health Alliance, ROAD was initially developed through the Commission’s Kitchen Table Project (KTP), in which low-income women met weekly to discuss the effect that welfare reform had on their lives and the difficulties they had faced in accessing traditional social service programs. During the KTP discussions, every participant came to identify depression as a significant challenge in her life. Through a community support network that it helped to develop, the ROAD program now assists women experiencing stress or depression with strategies and resources that promote self-empowerment, connectedness, and improved quality of life.

Domestic Violence-Free Zone (DVFZ)

During the mid-90s the Commission played an early and pivotal role in the City’s formation and declaration as a Domestic Violence-Free Zone. At that time, the initiative recommended that the City view the DVFZ as a community development centerpiece; an economic development centerpiece; a focus of the educational system; a permanent and substantial factor in the development and allocation of affordable housing; a public health standard to be used to measure "quality of life;" and as a critical economic factor affecting the vitality and sustainability of the city. At its core, the DVFZ called the community to rise to the challenge of domestic violence; to plan to build a future that would attain the equality of women, and to support a systematic framework for the healing and recovery of all victims of violence.

Domestic Violence Task Force (DVTF)

For more than 15 years, the Commission’s director has chaired monthly meetings of the Domestic Violence Task Force. Comprised of public and private organizational representatives, the DVTF convenes to create alliances, share information and perspectives, confront problem areas, discuss new ideas for public education, and improve intervention and prevention work in the city.

High Risk Assessment Team Advisory Board

During a spike in statewide domestic violence fatalities in 2008, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a public health advisory on domestic violence. Locally, the rise in abuse prevention orders in Cambridge District Court prompted the communities of Cambridge, Arlington, and Belmont to form a High Risk Assessment and Response Team (CAB HART) to reduce and prevent domestic violence homicides. Through CAB HART, the existing relationships between police, courts, and community providers are refined and tightened; enabling the team to quickly identify the cases with the highest risk of lethality. After identification, CAB HART members work to develop individualized intervention plans to interrupt the cycle of escalating violence.

The CAB HART approach is modeled after the successful and innovative High Risk Response Team created by the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and includes both a primary team and an advisory group. Participants include the Cambridge, Arlington, and Belmont Police Departments, The Guidance Center, Cambridge Public Health Department, RESPOND, Inc., Transition House, the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Office of Probation, Department of Children and Families, Probate Court, and the Commission.

5th Grade Girls’ Sports Day

In consultation with health and fitness experts, the Commission determined that girls at the fifth grade level are at an ideal developmental stage to begin making the choice to incorporate physical activity into their later adolescent and adult lifestyles. In 1997 the Commission planned its first 5th Grade Girls’ Sports Day for all Cambridge Public Schools. Now an eagerly anticipated annual event, the day is organized in collaboration with the School Department’s Health, Physical Education, and Athletics Department and represents a unique citywide attempt to direct girls toward physical activity as a way of life. Research has shown that girls who participate in organized sports and other forms of physical exertion on a regular basis are at a substantially reduced risk for teenage pregnancy, smoking, obesity, and osteoporosis.

Girls’ LEAP (Lifetime Empowerment and Awareness Program)

For more than 10 years the Commission championed Girls’ LEAP, an innovative program for girls that began as a community response to a wave of violence against women in Cambridgeport in the mid-90s. Although now Boston-based, LEAP’s first programs were offered in Cambridge. Identified as a girl-focused self-defense and conflict resolution curriculum, LEAP empowers young women to hone their physical skills, engage their internal self-awareness, empower their own leadership potential, and improve their contact with community leaders. It also brings together young women with older women in their lives in a unique intergenerational approach to defining and actualizing a family- and community-based approach to safety and security.

Women’s Heritage and the Arts

Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project

History helps us to learn and understand who we are. Each time a girls opens a book, hears a story, or visits a museum with few to no recognizable faces or experiences, she is by definition taught that she is "less than". The dreams and aspirations of girls and young women are compromised when history does not tell the whole story. The Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project was established in 1996 to recognize and celebrate the historical contributions of Cambridge women and currently boasts more than 400 women and women’s organizations in its database. This phenomenal database captures the lives of well-known and not-so-well-known women who have made significant, lasting contributions to the city in the past and present. The site is dedicated to Cambridge women and women’s organizations, which are organized alphabetically as well as by topic (i.e., by a woman’s occupation or area of interest). Designed to be a work in progress and always seeking to add to its database, the Project encourages nominations. Download a nomination form.

Filament/Firmament

A public art piece resides at the main branch of the Cambridge Public Library thanks to the collaborative efforts of several City departments. Filament/Firmament, by local artist Ellen Driscoll, incorporates etched glass, text, woven cable, and textile imagery into a skylit atrium linking the old and new buildings into a permanent installation. The public artwork developed out of a comprehensive research and outreach effort coordinated by the Women’s and Historical Commissions and the Cambridge Arts Council. During the early planning stages, important public meetings were held to gather information and remembrances about women’s lives. The exhibit serves as a long-awaited commemoration of the contributions women have made to the life of the city in a creative and artistically interpretive way.

Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project and Filament/Firmament Media Station

The impact of the two-story design on all those who pass through the Filament/Firmament exhibit in the Cambridge Public Library goes beyond the visual. An interactive educational component enhances and enriches the visual experience. A media station provides visitors with an opportunity to access the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project website. Created by a partnership between the Women’s Commission and the Historical Commission, the interactive site preserves the contributions women have made to the city within a searchable database that is organized alphabetically as well as by topic (i.e., by a woman’s occupation or area of interest).

Memory Lane: Women’s History Walks

Designed to promote health and wellness as well as an interest in the well-known and little-known sites of Cambridge women’s history and inspired by the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project database, the Commission created a series of self-guided walking routes that each explore a different Cambridge neighborhood. Created for men and women of all ages and abilities to complete at their own pace, walks can also be completed while on lunch break. Many residents and employees have taken advantage of getting outside, getting some exercise, meeting some new faces within the city, and learning more about Cambridge women’s history. The walking routes are also available through the Cambridge Public Health Department, Community Development Department, Cambridge Walks, and the Cambridge Office for Tourism. Download the pdf for each walk: Area IV, Cambridgeport, Riverside and Cambridgeport, Mid-Cambridge

National Women’s History Month Celebration

National Women’s History Month, or the study of Women’s History as a discipline, was not established or even freely accepted thirty years ago. Women’s History Month actually began as Women’s History Week—as an addition to International Women’s Day on March 8. Since 1987, however, women’s history has been celebrated throughout the entire month of March. Each year the Women’s Commission, in partnership with the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project, honors the diversity of women and celebrates their accomplishments by developing a variety of programming, installations, and events in Cambridge that inform, educate, and inspire the public.

International Women’s Day Breakfast

International Women’s Day (March 8) is an occasion marked by women’s groups around the world. The date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday. When women on all continents, often divided by national boundaries and by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic, religious, and political differences, come together to celebrate their Day, they look back to a tradition that represents at least nine decades of struggle for equality, justice, peace and development. Simply put, International Women’s Day is the story of ordinary women as makers of history; it is rooted in the centuries-old struggle of women to participate in society on an equal footing with men. Serving on the planning committee that brings the ever-popular International Women’s Day Breakfast to Boston-area women each year, the Commission helps determine a relevant topic and assists in securing leading experts to deliver keynote addresses and participate in panel discussions for the 150+ attendee event.

Research, Education, and Outreach

Report on the Status of Women and Girls in Cambridge

In 2008, the Commission produced a comprehensive, first-of-its-kind report on the status of women and girls in the city. Written in collaboration with the Institute for Community Health and the Cambridge Public Health Department, the report is an easily accessible resource that enables policymakers, program developers, and others to make more informed decisions about their work, as well as to stimulate further program and policy research. In addition to providing a current picture of women and girls in Cambridge, the report serves as a benchmark by which to measure and track future trends. Overall, the report helps the community to assess women’s levels of, and barriers to, equality and progress in achieving opportunities. (download the Report on the Status of Women and Girls in Cambridge)

Women’s Data Workshop

The Commission sponsored the Women’s Data Workshop to provide community leaders and stakeholders with an opportunity to explore and interpret data from the Report on the Status of Women and Girls in Cambridge. The Commission reviewed and analyzed their combined responses to develop three key strategies to increase general program impact, as well as recommendations for five key areas of City programming—Economic Issues, Older Women, Women’s Health, Women’s Safety, and Young Women/Girls. (download the recommendations, A Look at Women in Cambridge Now)

Women Shaping Policy

The Commission presented City Council with its preliminary findings from the Women’s Data Workshop. The document, A Look at Women in Cambridge Now (download the pdf), recommended three strategies for City departments and agencies to improve policy, programming, and funding opportunities:

1. Increase information sharing: Capitalize on the community and professional connections made at the workshop. Provide a web-based tool forcommunity-wide dialogue, sharing best practices, offering technical/collective assistance, and strategy;
2. Increase gender-based data collection: The most marginalized populations-homeless women and children, immigrant populations, those in the lower socio-economic groups-are not sufficiently represented in the current data. Develop protocol and methods that enable agencies and City departments to collect better data;
3. Increase assessment and evaluation: Expand program assessment and evaluation to include gender. Create an assessment tool for organizations and City departments to objectively gauge their gender climate and improve program outcomes.

Financial Literacy and Retirement Workshops

The Commission annually hosts a citywide workshop focused specifically on the financial issues facing women today including credit card debt, home buying, saving for retirement, paying for college, money management, budgeting, and identity theft.

Alliance for Girls’ Services – Cambridge

The City of Cambridge has a number of agencies, organizations, and City departments that currently provide a variety of programming for girls and young women. Co-founded with Cambridge Community Services, the Commission provides leadership to a broad-based coalition invested in enhancing the precision, caliber, and impact of programming offered to girls in the city. This locally-focused coalition has created a strong network for broadening ideas, increasing knowledge, and developing collaborative efforts. It provides participants with an opportunity to exchange information, share best practices, examine standards, identify gaps, review funding options, as well as consider other common interests and concerns.

City Employees’ Committee on Diversity

The Commission’s director participates on the committee, whose goal is to celebrate, educate, and promote the diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds of City employees by offering various educational events and activities throughout the year.

Immigrant Women’s Roundtable

The Immigrant Women’s Roundtable (IWR) was born out of the Women’s Data Workshop on the Report on the Status of Women and Girls in Cambridge (download the pdf), the IWR is a response to community members who voiced their concern that immigrant women’s influence is typically neglected, especially in quantitative city-wide statistics. The absence of any accurate source of data concerning immigrant women living in Cambridge not only hinders their political participation in, and use of, the programs and services that are available to them, but also conceals the gaps in service that still exist. Comprised of providers (i.e., ESL, healthcare, public housing) and immigrant women, the IWR meets monthly to strategize and improve the mechanisms to better reach and serve marginalized communities in the city and to engage them not only as immigrants, but as women. A city-wide survey of immigrant women is being developed to gather data to better connect with elected officials, City departments and agencies. This data will be used to create a summary of immigrant women and children in Cambridge and provide a clearer picture of who is living in our community.

The Mayor’s Girls Leadership Group

Mayor E. Denise Simmons created the Girls Leadership Group to further her agenda for young women’s leadership development. Meeting monthly, the leadership group for 8th grade girls provides support, advocacy, and leadership skills for the young women participating. The Commission’s director serves on the advisory board.

Highlights of Past Programming

WomenSpeak

The Commission assisted with the production of two bi-weekly cablecasts on the local access station, CCTV. Tess Ewing, from UMass Boston’s Labor Resource Center, hosted WomenSpeak, a program dealing with women’s workplace issues such as family leave, discrimination, unions, and wage parity; and The Center for New Words, hosted by Jaclyn Friedman, interviewed talented women writers.

Women’s Health Task Force

In existence for close to 20 years and chaired by the Commission’s executive director, the Women’s Health Task Force was established by the Health Policy Board of the City of Cambridge to support existing women’s health projects, particularly the Midwifery Program, and to identify gaps in services for women. Under the authority of the Cambridge Health Alliance and composed of Health Alliance governing board members and administrators, local service providers and community representatives, the task force’s formally stated mission was: "to promote and monitor services for women organized around the needs and values of the woman patient; and to oversee the efforts of the Cambridge Health Alliance to improve the wellness of women, to address the factors that influence the health and well-being of all women in Cambridge and Somerville, and to ensure that services needed by women in the community are available throughout the Alliance." During its many years, the task force advocated for specific health services, educational and prevention programs, and making a health care setting sensitive and welcoming for women and girls of all ages, in addition to promoting the Cambridge Hospital Breast Center, expansion of the Labor and Delivery Suite, and improvement of the reimbursement formula for the Cambridge Birth Center.

Older Women’s League (OWL)

The Commission worked for many years with OWL, a national organization striving to improve the status and quality of life for midlife and older women, to plan programs and forums on issues affecting older women and working on legislative initiatives.

Women2Women

For more than 10 years, the Commission coordinated efforts to hold an annual day of physical, social, and emotional wellness workshops for high school girls attending Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.

Kitchen Table Conversation Project

Originally aimed at women who were losing their welfare benefits, the Kitchen Table Conversation Project became the catalyst for what is now known as ROAD (Reaching Out About Depression). The Kitchen Table Conversations Project provided resources that women actively used to address immediate social, economic, and personal issues; offered support through weekly discussion, mutual problem-solving, and social/cultural activities; engaged women in projects that enhanced their trust in their own experiences and ways of knowing, and helped them to envision, expand, and pursue their own personal and vocational goals; and helped them to identify concrete opportunities for participating in public deliberation and action around social issues.