In Chester County, a nonprofit helps survivors of domestic violence by addressing roots of trauma | Philly Gives

omestic violence counselor Michele Camburn can chart the painful legacy of violence in her own family.

Two nieces and a nephew dead of drug overdoses.

That’s one of the reasons why Camburn is so committed to helping survivors of violence at the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County. “I’m so grateful I can do this,” Camburn said. “It’s joyous work. It’s hope.”

Yes, the dollars donated to the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County pay for immediate needs: short- and long-term housing, legal representation, counseling, food, clothing, child services, and the tools needed to build a community. But they also buy a safer tomorrow, two or three generations into the future.

Although Camburn didn’t grow up in Chester County, what her family experienced over generations is typical in domestic abuse situations — wherever they occur.

As youngsters, Camburn and her four siblings lived in a violent household. Her mother was beaten regularly by her father. He choked her mother so much that bruises appeared on her neck.

The children weren’t spared. Camburn went to Catholic school with obvious welts on her legs and no one said anything.

Camburn’s parents split up. “My mother started to get help when her five children were wild animals,” Camburn said. Camburn became pregnant early. “I was a terrible mother,” she said, although her children are now fine.

She and her siblings, now also fine, struggled with crime and substance abuse. Some of it impacted their children — two generations away from their grandmother, who was also abused as a child — three generations in all.

“Generational trauma reverberates through my family,” Camburn said. “It has to stop somewhere.”

It explains the urgency and compassion with which she treats the center’s clients such as Robin, who, like other clients at the center, wanted desperately to tell their stories so they could save others from domestic abuse.

“The more we share our stories, the more people realize that it can happen to anybody, and it doesn’t matter your socioeconomic status or your education,” said Robin, who would only agree to be interviewed if her last name was not used because of concern for her family’s safety.

“Help is here,” she said. “Reach out your hand.”

At the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County, help comes in many forms.

Most important is a hotline where a trained person answers the phone 24 hours a day. There are outreach centers in Phoenixville, Coatesville, Oxford, and Kennett Square, with services also provided in Spanish.

Over its 49 years in existence, the center has built strong relationships with the county’s police departments.

“We train law enforcement on how to identify and refer survivors to our organization when they are on the scene,” said Dolly Wideman-Scott, the center’s chief executive officer.

The center implemented its Lethality Assessment Program, which consists of an 11-question survey that police administer when answering a domestic violence call. Taking the abused person aside, officers ask 11 questions about spying, choking, threats to kill or injure, the accessibility of a gun, and even the presence of a child in the household who is not the abuser’s.