Barre Sexual and Domestic Violence Shelter Admits Men

Executive Director Bobbi Gagne

by Euan Bear

      The first shelter in Vermont and possibly in the nation to house both male and female victims of sexual and domestic violence has opened in Barre. The shelter is operating as a program of the Sexual Assault Crisis Team of Washington County.
      The shelter, on Cottage Street in Barre in the same building as the SACT office, is set up with two separate living areas, so that if there are both male and female residents, they need not cross paths, according to Executive Director Bobbi Gagne.
      The shelter’s governing group decided not to keep the location a secret, but instead to cultivate positive and watchful relationships with neighbors, the police, and local mental health agencies, according to Crisis Team Board President and shelter resident Keith Goslant.
      “We have seen between 50 and 60 male victims of sexual violence in a year,” said Gagne, adding that it was clearly time for there to be shelter services for male as well as female victims. “At this point, we’re inventing the wheel,” she said of the groundbreaking service.
      The shelter is for adults. Male victims of sexual violence (including adult rape and past childhood sexual abuse) gain access to the Crisis Team’s services – including peer support, referrals, and the shelter – the same way female victims do, said Gagne. People who need shelter or other services can call the SACT’s hotline or the office.
      Male victims of domestic violence, however, need to be referred through another agency – such as SafeSpace or another domestic violence group – to ensure that the person seeking help is not an abuser in search of a sheltered partner.
      “We have limited space, and we’re getting calls from all over,” said Gagne. The shelter’s screening criteria are pretty much what you’d expect: the person has to be nonsuicidal, able to stay on his or her own (that is, not have mental health or medical concerns requiring constant monitoring), and must not have sexually offended. These criteria apply to both men and women. The maximum stay is 3 nights.
      According to Gagne, the group is providing services to male victims with an all-volunteer staff because no one will fund them, although funding for services to female victims of domestic violence and sexual assault is available. “Our services are available to human beings,” she said. “For the last ten years we’ve seen more and more male victims of sexual harassment and sexual assault come through [the Crisis Team’s] doors. As a Native American Indian person, it did not make sense not to extend help to all human beings.”
      Because of the volunteer staffing at the shelter and for peer support groups, Gagne says, “what I give for male victims is not taking away from female victims.”
      She continues, “We might meet them a little more than halfway, simply because males have so few sexual violence resources. Men, for example, are more likely to come to the shelter at night – or outside their working hours – because they don’t feel okay about explaining their need for shelter to a boss.”
      The volunteers are so committed, she said, that they sometimes even buy out of their own pockets copies of the few books on male victimization that are available to give to male residents to take with them.
      The Sexual Assault Crisis Team has both men and women on its Board of Directors and as advocates and volunteers. Keith Goslant is both President of the Board and the volunteer “house parent” at the shelter. “We want to make sure,” said Gagne, “that any male victim coming through these doors doesn’t feel that 'this is just a feminist organization, men are not welcome here.’”
      Goslant was the perfect candidate to oversee the shelter, Gagne explained, because he has spent at least eight years with the Crisis Team as a volunteer, eventually becoming the Board’s president. “Because of his work in the field and with various populations of different genders, he could support male victims – and,” she laughs a bit grimly, “he was willing to do it for no pay.”
      The Crisis Team has only five to seven advocate-volunteers to cover all the shelter’s hours, according to Gagne. The group is always looking for volunteers, who will receive 30 hours of training.
      An open house will be scheduled later in the Spring.

To volunteer for the Crisis Team or at the Shelter, call 802-476-1388. Anyone in need of shelter or sexual violence support and advocacy services should call 802-479-5577.