PDC Orenda Center and Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Domestic Violence Advocate

Tuesday, October 28th, 2025 -- 12:01 PM

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Personal Development Center is a private, non-profit victim services agency providing case management, advocacy, and prevention education to individuals and families in the North Wood County and Clark County area.

Having served the community since 1977, the agency has a history of identifying and addressing needs within an atmosphere of confidentiality and concern and provides a wide variety of services.

For our final interview for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, I spoke with Maria, a Domestic Violence Advocate, and she discussed her role at the PDC in more detail.

Listen to the interview with Maria here!

Please contact the PDC Orenda Center if you have any questions or feel you may need their services.

(AI assisted transcription with Otter.ai):

Maria: "Besides working one-on-one with survivors, I do my best to be out in the community as well. Some of you may have seen me at the Community Health and Resource Fair in Abbotsford, or go into your business to raise awareness."

"Most of my work includes helping underrepresented populations experiencing domestic violence, including Latino, indigenous and Mennonite populations, to name a few."

"In my position, I'm here to support survivors of domestic violence through times that may be difficult or terrifying. When I say support, my support looks like empowering survivors to be able to reclaim their power back for themselves."

"Every survivor is unique. I may assist in helping with restraining orders, being that moral support in court if needed, creating a safety plan for situations that may arise, or helping you find another resource in our community you may need."

"Some people may think, 'why don't they just leave?' When it comes to underrepresented populations, there could be several factors at play, one of them being inter-generational violence."

"Inter-generational violence happens when the abuse affects several generations within a family, often used in connection with societal trauma inflicted on racial and ethnic groups."

"However, this cycle of inter-generational violence can be caused by family violence as well. Abuse tends to be learned behavior, and when the abuse is normalized by frequent acts of violence in the home, whether physical, emotional or by course of control, the cycle continues."

"It is difficult to break the cycle of view of abuse when an individual views the abuse as a normal way of interacting in the relationship to prevent the cycle of abuse from continuing generationally, there must be more awareness around the issue and we here at PDC do our best to educate and inform our communities so that it may reach someone who needs the support to help them take that step in breaking the cycle."

"It doesn't matter who started the cycle that you have the power to end it and keep it from continuing."

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.