A Message from Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse
As you may have heard, Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse will change CEOs starting next month. What will not change is our commitment to creating a community that’s safer for everyone experiencing domestic violence (DV).
We are grateful for everything that Ed Sakwa, our departing CEO, has done in his years of service with Emerge. Ed started with the
organization just after Tucson Center for Women and Children and the Brewster Center merged in 2008 to form Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse, and helped to ensure a smooth transition in the years following. Ed’s sense of humor, kindness, and commitment to survivors have helped guide Emerge’s operations through times of growth and difficulty—including maintaining uninterrupted services throughout the pandemic. In his final year at Emerge, Ed has been instrumental to the successful completion of our new $8.5 million emergency shelter. We wish him the best on his new career path and know that he will continue to be an ally for survivors and a mentor to men disrupting patterns of gender-based violence.
Introducing Emerge’s New CEO
We are thrilled to introduce you to our new CEO, Anna Harper. While she is new to this role, Anna is by no means new to Emerge or to the community we serve. Anna joined Emerge in 2009 and in her 15 years with this organization, she has led a transformation from traditional service delivery into a holistic approach that serves survivors in their full humanity.
Anna has demonstrated courageous leadership in reimagining what a community solution to the problem of DV can look like. She has guided this organization toward a collaborative approach that addresses the root causes of domestic abuse with empathy, hope, and love. As a result of her vision, Emerge has deepened our commitment to centering the humanity of survivors, and to addressing the many forms of trauma impacting the people we serve, including racism, anti-blackness, anti-immigrant sentiment, transphobia, and other forms of oppression.
Emerge is proud to take part in the collaborative work to address domestic abuse and other forms of violence impacting our community. We believe that the way forward is to build connections with other organizations, community groups, and individuals working to create a safer community.
Groundbreaking Initiatives for Survivor Safety
During her time as Chief Strategy Officer, Anna has helped to revitalize the coordinated community response to DV, not only in our community, but across the state. Anna has strengthened partnerships within the DV response system, always with a focus on prioritizing the safety and needs of survivors. More importantly, she has expanded the types of community collaborations Emerge takes part in to prioritize the experiences of those who are most invisible and unheard in our community, including Black and Indigenous survivors.
Some critical components of that work include the following projects:
· Helped to design Pima County’s Risk Assessment Protocol for the statewide risk assessment rolled out in 2018, and then rebuilt
that collaboration post-pandemic in collaboration with local law enforcement agencies and the Pima County Attorney’s Office. This protocol helps to identify DV survivors who are at high risk of being killed by an intimate partner and connect them to support services.
· Re-started the Pima County Fatality Review Team whose purpose is to better understand DV-related deaths and develop
recommendations for law enforcement, legal, health, and social services agencies to improve services to people experiencing abuse and prevent more deaths.
· Designed and implemented a cutting-edge Men’s Education Program to support men in becoming safer for their families. Most
recently, that includes the launch of Arizona’s first helpline for men seeking support with safely resolving relationship conflicts.
· Joined a working group focused on addressing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls crisis.
· Helped start key community programs focused on supporting youth and young people of color with taking leadership in addressing community violence.
The Path Forward for Community Healing
As the new CEO, Anna will continue to prioritize investing in and supporting a team that is leading the work forward to provide equity-centered services that are accessible to anyone impacted by domestic abuse in our community. We are confident in Anna and the Emerge leadership team’s steadfast commitment to doing what is right by survivors. This clear and principled approach will guide us through the coming years as victim services agencies nationwide weather the uncertainty of cuts to federal funding streams and protections for survivors.
To ensure that resources like our emergency shelter, hotline, and housing support services remain available, the team at Emerge will need our community’s support more than ever. Thank you for being a part of the solution to domestic abuse. We look forward to working with you to create a community that centers and honors the humanity of all survivors.
Stay tuned for more updates, including announcements about our new shelter, coming early next year!
With gratitude,
Board of Directors
Emerge Center Against Domestic Abuse