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Helpmate's Cody - A Helper Who's Been There
by Lisa Drake
Joyce Cody - Helpmate's New Executive Director
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She was afraid of her husband and afraid of being sent back to Mexico. The young, petite Hispanic mother of two small children, one of them in diapers, had come to the Helpmate office in Marshall for help.
Helpmate is an organization dedicated to helping people suffering from domestic violence.
Joyce Cody was there for her. Cody was recently named to become director of Helpmate, but at one time she knew what it felt like to be a client. She, too, is a young woman in her twenties. She was abused for 11 years by her boyfriend. She said that she often felt like she was leading a double life. She knew that she was smart and likable in one way and felt so degraded as a human being in another. She was being abused by someone who said he loved her.
Cody listened to her new visitor explain her fears in Spanish while her children played. Helpmate is child friendly. There is a play area right in sight of Cody's desk. If someone wants more privacy, there are rooms where they can go where the walls are painted a light yellow, almost as a sign of hope that things can be better.
Helpmate began in Madison County as a satellite office of Helpmate of Buncombe County. There seemed to be an increasing number of victims of domestic violence from Madison County, and so in 1987 an office was set up in Marshall, and Helpmate of Madison County started serving the community. By 1993 Helpmate-Madison had a 24-hour crisis line, crisis counseling and support, court advocates, community outreach programs, and had bought a house to have shelter for victims of domestic violence.
Because of a funding crisis in 1998, a new board of directors was appointed. Mars Hill College Sociology Instructor Laurie Pedersen was asked by the North Carolina Council for Women to serve on the Board of Directors and became board president. During this time, the Board of Directors had to work on reorganizing the administrative side of Helpmate, and Helpmate has been thriving ever since.
Laurie Pedersen has since stepped down from the Helpmate board, but she continues to stay involved. This year her Feminist Research Methods class undertook a project of observing how the court system of Madison County treats women, and saw Helpmate's impact on the problem of domestic violence.
Its mission statement is "Promoting domestic peace and safety through advocacy, support, and community education." Helpmate believes that everyone has the right to live without violence. They operate out of a model of empowerment. They do not tell their clients what to do when they call or come in. They know that victims know their abusers better then Helpmate ever will. Therefore, Helpmate advocates listen to their clients, talk about all the options available and allow them to decide what is best.
Domestic violence organizations across the state of North Carolina served .51% of the population during fiscal year July 2001 to June 2002. Helpmate served .93% of the population in Madison County during that same time period.
One of their most important services is to support people who have been abused when they come to court. Helpmate advocates sit with them and explain what goes on there.
To help Pedersen's class feel at home, out-going Helpmate Director April Burgess came to Mars Hill to teach the language heard in court where people become "plaintiffs" and "defendants" and a "50B" is a judge's order to an abuser to stay away from his (or her) victim. The class toured the Madison County courthouse in Marshall, an old, dark building across from the second red light in Marshall.
The prisoners's dock
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In the court room they saw the wooden desk on the right where the plaintiff sits and the one on the left where the defendant sits. They saw the boxed-in area where the prisoners are brought in orange jump suits before their hearing. Even with all this preparation, anyone might feel nervous and intimidated, even if they do not have to stand before Judge Bruce Briggs.
Judge Briggs is known as a very strict judge. He is what you think of as an old style Southern Gentleman. He does not allow hats, tank tops, sagging pants and talking in his courtroom. If a defendant does not show up on time he issues a warrant for their arrest.
Any victim of a crime would feel so much better having someone like Joyce Cody beside them, but her Spanish-speaking clients who are illegal immigrants especially need support. These women even have more hurdles to cross than a client that is a citizen. They are afraid to call the police or pursue a criminal action, because they think they might be sent back to Mexico. That was exactly the issue that plagued the young mother who came to the Helpmate office not long ago, but she was lucky to find a friend who understood her situation from the ground up.
Joyce Cody has lived in Madison County all her life. Her father has a farm in Madison County where she has a house that she lives in now. And it wasn't too long ago that she herself went to a meeting about domestic violence sponsored by Helpmate and decided to make a change in her own life. She also chose to go to Mars Hill College and major in social work, so that she could help empower women that are in the same situation as she was. Now she follows April Burgess as executive director. Burgess plans to attend law school to follow a path she, too, discovered in Helpmate.
At Mars Hill Cody also decided to learn Spanish. Her father employs Spanish speaking workers for his farm. Joyce has been able to use her Spanish speaking skills to communicate with her father's employees as well as communicate with her Spanish-speaking clients.
"We all work really hard to meet the women where they are," she said. "Sometimes we only listen and handout tissue, but I find it such an honor to be able to do that much".
If you know someone that is in a domestic violence situation or if you are a victim (Both men and women can be victims.), what can Helpmate do for you? Call the crisis line 828-649-2446 or the toll free number 888-765-3441, if you are at a telephone booth. They have many services including the crisis line, an emergency safe house, individual counseling, information and referrals, court advocacy, support groups, community education, and professional training. If you would like to volunteer at Helpmate there are many things you could do. Just call and ask.
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