History

Patrisha launched Finding Our Voices in February 2019, three years after her husband of 29 years was convicted of domestic abuse, with an exhibit of photo portraits of survivors, audio of their voices telling their stories, and customized Power and Control wheels at the Camden Public Library in Patrisha’s hometown.

More than half the subjects were women in the community, including Patrisha’s hairdresser Kate; the daughter of Patrisha’s best friend, Bekah; Patrisha’s architect neighbor Meg who designed the library addition in which the exhibit was held; Mel, owner of the local natural food store; and Christine, who had been framing Patrisha’s photos for a decade, and shared that she too suffered abuse by intimate partners just in time to frame her own portrait for the exhibit.

Patrisha set the opening reception for Valentine's Day, thinking that attendance might be light because women would be out with their boyfriends and husbands. Instead, guests overflowed the large meeting room 20-deep.

 In the year before the pandemic hit, Finding Our Voices brought its photo/audio exhibit, slideshow presentation and Survivor Speaks panel discussions around Maine and into Connecticut and Massachusetts, including a three-month exhibit at Maine’s Holocaust and Human Rights Center and State House; high schools and universities; a conference of district attorneys; and the women’s unit of Windham Prison.