Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Speaker to explore how men can end domestic violence

Photos and story by James Hill

One in four women have been physically assaulted or raped by an intimate partner (Institute of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). National speaker and local psychologist Chris Huffine wants to do something about it.

Huffine will lead a workshop at Portland Community College on what men can do to end violence against women at 11 a.m., Tuesday, Nov. 25, Room 103, South Classroom Building, Sylvania Campus, 12000 S.W. 49th Ave. This event is free and open to the public.

The need for this kind of educational workshop is huge. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics Crime Data, on average, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in the United States every day. In 2000, 1,247 women were killed by an intimate partner. Huffine’s talk will point out how, over the last 30 years, efforts to help women victimized by domestic violence hasn’t stopped men from continuing to use violence. Consequently, the work to stop male violence requires working directly with men and boys.

A licensed psychologist with more than 17 years experience in the field of domestic violence, Huffine specializes in counseling, teaching, training other therapists, and speaking locally and nationally on the topic. She is the founder of Allies in Change Counseling Center. The agency currently offers abuse intervention groups for men and women, a relationship-support group for women, a parenting class for men who have been abusive, and domestic violence evaluations, as well as individual and couples counseling.

This workshop hits home for its organizer – second-year student Shannon Mackaben. She is the mother of two children and a student advocate with the college’s Sylvania Women’s Resource Center.

“For years it has been mostly women addressing the issue of domestic violence,” Mackaben said. “These women have made a huge difference by creating battered women’s shelters, helping pass laws to protect women, and generally helping women see that violence perpetrated against them is not their fault. But if anything is going to change permanently, if the violence is going to stop, men are going to be the solution to end it.”

The Sylvania Women’s Resource Center provides a central campus location for services that support the academic achievement of women, while working to increase access to education for women, improve the retention of women students at the college, and encourage women’s leadership development. It is open to all students, staff, and faculty.

For more information on this workshop, call (503) 977-8101.