Thank you all for your time and interest in Emerge!

We began this newsletter with a little over 600 subscribers gleaned from past trainees, the 2005 Detroit, MI batterer intervention conference, and a collection of agencies and individuals we had interviewed in the past while conducting research.

Today, our subscriber list has almost 1100 members and is continually growing! We hope that you will continue to join our discussions, read our articles and maybe even come to Cambridge to visit and attend one of our trainings!

Here's a synopsis of each month's newsletter including pertinent links and information. Click on the months and you will be directed to the archived newsletter on the Emerge website. If you would like to learn more about Emerge's staff, click here. Again, please feel free to e-mail or call us if you have any comments or thoughts on any of our articles.

JANUARY 2006

by David Adams and Susan Cayouette, Co-Directors

As a subscriber of the online Emerge newsletter, we hope you have had the opportunity to appreciate Emerge’s unique role as a national innovator among abuser intervention programs, and will support this work by making a donation. Your donation will help Emerge to continue to publicize this work to the growing number of agencies and organizations around the world that seek to create similar opportunities for men to confront violence toward women. Thousands of other programs have depended upon the example and information provided by Emerge. Emerge does not receive any dedicated funding to provide this online assistance, so we rely on you to continue and to bolster this work.

Emerge also responds to many inquiries from therapists seeking information about how to better identify abusive or controlling behavior in relationships. These requests for information prompted Emerge to develop specific tools for therapists to use in distinguishing abusive behavior from other kinds of behavior that are harmful to relationships. These tools were unveiled in the two “Is This Abuse?” conferences that Emerge held in the past year. As one therapist who attended put it, “The conference was one of the most useful I’ve ever attended.... The assessment tools are a tremendous resource for therapists and will really help me to be more confident in spotting abuse and in knowing what to do when it’s there.”

There has been a growing interest in Emerge’s fatherhood education program for men with histories of domestic violence, and every month we respond to numerous requests for technical assistance. Established in 2000, Emerge’s Responsible Fatherhood Program fills a gigantic void by helping formerly abusive men to become more responsible co-parents as well as more positive role models for their children. As one recent program participant put it, “The class helped me to better understand my daughter and to see, through her eyes, how much my hurting her mother was hurting her. The class definitely made me a better father”. This work has been welcomed by custodial mothers who want their children to have a relationship with their fathers so long as co-parenting can be respectful and collaborative. One custodial mother commented, “(We’re not getting back together) but I’m glad he {her estranged husband} took the class. He’s been more affectionate with the kids and he’s been more civil towards me, which I appreciate.”

If you’ve been receiving the Newsletter since last January, you know about the other pioneering programs that Emerge has developed, including abuser interventions for teen offenders and men and women in same-sex relationships. Please make a donation to Emerge so that we may help others replicate this important work.

You could also support Emerge's work by volunteering in our Cambridge office, by attending one of our trainings, or by purchasing materials through our website.

Thanks again for your interest in Emerge!