We appreciate you, Carol!
A dedicated volunteer with Women Aware for over 12 years, Carol parlayed experience as a volunteer peer group leader with Women Helping Women in Metuchen into service as a Domestic Violence Response Team volunteer for Women Aware. With compassion and common sense, Carol conveys to victim-survivors that she is someone who cares about their safety and is willing to listen without judgement. For Carol, safety planning with every survivor is key. Safety planning helps prepare the survivor if the abuser is no longer in the home, but also allows the survivor to be prepared if they return home to the abuser and need to escape in the future.
The best part of Carol’s volunteer service are the people. She feels Women Aware staff support her in every way, from debriefing after a tough encounter to laughing and hugging when they connect at an agency event. Carol speaks highly of the South Brunswick Police Department (SBPD) because they treat victims with compassion and are knowledgeable about the process a victim has to go through; she feels supported and appreciated when she is called out to SBPD headquarters. That being said, the victim-survivors are whom Carol remembers most. “Every time I go to headquarters, it is because a victim has taken a step toward saving their own life.”
Carol will always remember one client. The victim was brought to police headquarters when police responded to a call. The victim believed it was her neighbors who called police during a particularly loud and abusive episode with her husband. She wanted to shield her son from knowing she was at the police station, yet Carol pleaded with the victim to let the police pick him up for his own safety. She declined, but then found out it was actually her son who had called the police. The victim agreed the police could go to her home to check on her son. While Carol and the victim waited for the police to return with her son, he walked into the police station, accompanied by his father. As the husband tried to convince police he was the victim, Carol reassured her the abuser would not be able to trick the police. “The irony of that day stays with me.”
Carol is proud to be a New Jersey realtor, who enjoys working with first-time home buyers and helping them achieve the American Dream. She also enjoys working with sellers who are transitioning to a larger home or downsizing. Carol loves “old school” R&B music and is a big fan of comedy.
It was a beautiful day at Johnson Park, Piscataway as runners, walkers, sponsors, volunteers and supporters turned out strong to support victim-survivors of domestic violence and their families at Women Aware’s Moving Beyond Abuse 5K & Charity Walk. “You are saving lives,” said Women Aware CEO Phyllis Yonta.
