Jeannine

Update from Jeannine

“So many good things have happened since the day Pat came to my house and took my picture!

The best was the passage in 2019 of LD 748 - An Act To Protect Survivors of Economic Abuse. [Jeannine crafted this important bill with her representative Jessica Fay]. I never gave up that fight. I went back to Augusta in 2019 to testify once again before the Judiciary Committee about what financial abuse is and why we needed to write new laws to protect victims, and this time they "got it." This time, though, I came with half a dozen of my sisters from FINDING OUR VOICES who testified along with me, and a cavalcade of other supporters and advocacy groups. The little mustard seed we planted two years earlier bore fruit in the form new legislation that was signed into law by Governor Janet Mills. That law has become a template for other states, as well, in their efforts to " slow the spread" of the pandemic of domestic violence against women. A movement is underway to take financial abuse much more seriously. I am grateful for that. I am also grateful to the MCEDV for honoring me with their 2019 'Champions of Change' award for my work to raise awareness of financial abuse.”

I learned of Pat's project on April 12, 2017. It was the day of my first testimony before the Judiciary Committee of the Maine State Legislature. I was working with my State Representative to write new laws addressing the problem of financial abuse as it related to domestic violence. I honestly felt at the time of my testimony that the lawmakers I spoke to just didn't "get it." They cut me off half way though my comments. I was frustrated. But as luck would have it, as my State Rep and I were leaving the room, a women with the Maine Coalition To End Domestic Violence (MCEDV) who was at the public hearing came up to us and offered her support and understanding. She wanted her group to follow up with a study on economic abuse in Maine independent of State government. I thought it was a great idea. That woman was Francine Garland Stark, Executive Director of MCEDV. She was aware of Pat's newly formed project, and thought I would be a great candidate. I thought that was a great idea, too! And the rest, as they say, is history. Pat and I have joined in advocacy, and have become great friends along the way.

Being an outspoken member of FINDING OUR VOICES has helped me in so many ways. The relationships I developed thanks to FOV helped me accomplish a huge personal goal to raise awareness of financial abuse and it's relationship to actual physical violence, and to get a historic first-in-the-nation bill passed making financial abuse illegal, and most importantly getting the legal definition of domestic violence in Maine to include "financial abuse" in the definition of the crime. That alone gives the courts and prosecutors the legal authority to speak truth to this form of abuse and do something about it...including citing it during sentencing or distribution of assets. I honestly never thought I would see such change in my lifetime, but it happened very quickly once I teamed up with Pat and Finding Our Voices.

On a personal level, getting to know all the women in the project has touched me deeply. I know I am not alone as I heal from my nightmarish 20-year-marriage, divorce, and the 15-year aftermath pockmarked by more than a decade of financial abuse against me and my children. We are sisters in survival, and it means the world to me. We lean on each other, and we learn from each other.