Boston Girls' Experiences with Violence, a Listening-Only Hearing, Being Led by Pressley

On Tuesday, Aug. 27, At-Large City Councilor Ayanna Pressley is leading a listening-only hearing for girls and their experiences with violence. Only girls and girls-serving organizations are testifying during the Committee on Women and Healthy Communities hearing, being held at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center's 2nd floor at 1350 Tremont St., at 2 p.m. Pressley spoke with David Ertischek of Patch about the listening-only hearing.

Patch: You’re holding a listening-only hearing for girls and girls-serving organizations to share their experiences of all forms of violence? Why a listening-only hearing?

Pressley: Because I think it’s a challenge for us often to actively listen. I think this is necessary. I believe the most effective hearing I’ve experienced was a listening-only hearing - Family Voices - I had three years ago, for families impacted by trauma, especially in the wake of a homicide. To empower those family voices to give them dignity and respect (to tell their) stories uninterrupted. It was compelling, sobering and instructive. It gave us the most sound road map to use in supporting them.

Given the issues facing girls, I just thought it was important to give them center stage to hear their front line personal stories without exchange and gratuitous interruption... My life's work is to make sure all programs are considering things through gender specific-lens. I was doing this before I was humbled enough to be elected to public office. What you find with a lot of development and youth development programs. It’s tiered in programming, with the first tier would be co-ed, then boys, then girls are always third. In terms of education, especially when talking about violence, I think the discourse is usually for at-risk and proven at-risk young men and boys. And that certainly sadly has a great deal of truth, but not to the exclusion of girls being subject to the same factors.

Patch: Who is attending?

Pressley: (Representatives from Boston Police, Fire, and many other departments and organizations are invited) ... I don’t want to narrow the scope of who should come. We need to address wholistically, anyone doing anywork in the city, but especially with youth, and I hope they would make it a priority and at least send a representative, because considering the unique challenges facing girls... The purpose of the hearing is to gather their recommendations for improving our violence prevention and response system to best meet their needs and support their healthy development.

Patch: What do you envision that entailing?

Pressley: The intelligence that we’ll get from them. People often elected say the best policy is data driven. To drill down on that more and get personal stories is the best data... What I expect to happen is these testimonies... and provide a road map. From a previous hearing, (we learned) there were a wealth of resources available but a lack of coordination... When families would go to the hospital to support a loved one, or after losing them, they would be quickly shuttled back onto the street. Now there’s a bereavement room at Boston Medical Center. That’s because the spectrum of providers who work with victims listened and took substantiative takeaways. And we did see more financial investment in trauma support, pursuing program grants not only for training... Now all proviers meet on a montly basis. Often when you need one service you need two others, and the providers were working with same families. The progress made - bereavement room, providers meet on a weekly basis, federal grants pursued, and a greater investment in trauma support. That came directly out of that hearing.

Patch: Girls are getting more violent? Why do you think that is? Are boys getting more violent, too?

Pressley: This is not just about girls evolving beyond cyber-bullying. You're going to hear some real raw truths from human trafficking to sexual violence to intimate partner violence. I pushed for a full sexual ed curriculum in high school, now it's a part of the wellness policy. We have to be making sure young people are learning about healthy relationships because we were seeing an increase in intimate teen partner violence. When you empower young people with information only then did they realize they were in an unhealthy relationship. Given an education they understood this is control, not love, this is abuse.

Patch: Do you think youth violence has to do with our pop culture of hip-hop, with musical acts such as rappers who verbally attack other popular rappers in a competitive nature, instead of being complimentary?

Pressley: The bigger issue is the culture and the world we live in. We have to be mindful of the specific messages being targeted to our girls.  

Patch: Is this a class or culture thing?

Pressley: I certainly know that violence is a product of a confluence of social determinants and ills, including wealth disparities and health disparites. I would put povery at the top of the list. Violence is invasive and permeating in all forms. It’s not just about youth street violence. If you talk to gang-affiliated men, they were raised by their mothers who saw them abused by their boyfriends. There’s no way the didn’t learn this, they only know how to express theimselve in one way. We have to talk about all forms of violence, and it isn’t contained it’s invasive and permeating. That’s why it’s everyone's prpblem.

Patch: We do have weekly incidents of domestic violence assault and battery in District E-5 (in West Roxbury, Roslindale, and Hyde Park).

Pressley: There is not one neighborhood or neighborhood civic associations meeting that there isn't a report of assault and battery, domestic violence, and attempted sexual assault. Not one. People can try to dismiss this – I don’t want to say that violence can't be contained and that it's coming for you. We are one city, and one community and whenever bonds of community are broken, we need to be working on this. These issues aren’t just one neighborhood's problem.