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November 21, 2003
"Marilyn Smith, Abused Deaf Women's Advocacy Services"
An interview with Marilyn Smith, Executive Director of Abused Deaf Women's Advocacy Services, and a 2003 Leadership for a Changing World awardee. Questions and answers will appear below starting at 1 pm EST on Friday, November 21. You may ask a question in advance by clicking on the "Submit a Question" button. Due to time constraints, not all questions will be answered. You may need to refresh your screen during the interview to read the most recent responses. Leadership for a Changing World
Thank you for joining us today for Leadership Talks with Marilyn Smith, Executive Director of Abused Deaf Women's Advocacy Services in Seattle, WA. Marilyn is also a recent recipient of the Leadership for a Changing World award.
Marilyn, can you tell us what brought you to social justice work?
Marilyn Smith
I became deaf in early childhood (at the age of 6) and knew back then that things weren’t quite “right” for Deaf people in this world. I started speaking up at a very young age and haven’t stopped. My whole professional career has been in the non-profit sector and all my volunteer and professional work has focused on improving the quality of life for Deaf Americans. The murder of a Deaf woman by her abusive Deaf husband in 1981 really propelled me into doing what I do today. I had long dreamed of working with and for victims since I was raped as a college student in 1970. The injustices I suffered both as a victim and as a Deaf person were something I have never forgotten.
atlanta
How do you decide on what programs ADWAS offers?
Marilyn Smith
It started out with our mission back in 1986. I tried to determine what clients needed, what wasn’t available, and what were the most immediate priorities at the time and went from there and just kept adding and adding services. The community is involved at ADWAS already. On the board we have volunteers, on our hotline. So we’re constantly being told what’s working and what we need to add. Most of the staff members are members of the community as well. We are members of the community. Plus we’ve had a few focus groups. When we do publish anything we get input from a panel just to be sure that we’re on the right track, on target, and we’re making sure we’re hearing their perspective.
Des Moines
Are the greatest threats of abuse against Deaf persons most often from within the Deaf community, from personal aquaintences in the hearing community (hearing spouses, family members, etc.), or from hearing "strangers"? To what extent do you try to spread awareness within hearing communities?
Marilyn Smith
The threat is equal. Deaf people abuse one another and hearing people also abuse Deaf people, so there’s really no different there. But we focus more on spreading awareness in the Deaf community and we want to spread the word that abuse in our own community is not acceptable. For the hearing community our emphasis is more on how they oppress us as Deaf people and educating them on basically how not to oppress us as Deaf people.
miami, fl
In your profile it talks about the model and training project from which 15 new domestic violence/sexual assault Deaf organizaitons were founded on. What makes this model so successful?
Marilyn Smith
Probably because it was created by and for Deaf people. Basically that’s it. I mean, Deaf people created it. We know what’s best for us, we know what works, we know what cultural rules need to be addressed. When clients come to us they don’t have to worry about their Deafness. We focus immediately on the abuse they’re experiencing. That’s basically it.
huntsville, il
Do you work with or partner with hearing organizations that work on the same issues?
Marilyn Smith
Yes, we collaborate very actively with hearing organizations and have done that since the beginning. The county coalitions, the state coalitions, cross training, we refer back and forth with hearing agencies. Sometimes we’ll get a hearing mother with a Deaf child and the child has been raped. We’ll send the mother to a hearing agency to get help. In Washington state there seems to be a lot of emphasis on working together and collaborating. We have a fantastic system here. There’s an attitude here that one agency just can’t do it all.
Milwaukee, WI
When you first decided to set up the domestic volience program or shelter- how did you get started, how did you get others involved to form a program for the Deaf, Deaf-blind and hard of hearing? How did you raise money for this purpose?
Some of us are trying to think of ways to form a program or shelter for the Deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing here in Wisconsin. I would appreciate your input to help us get ideas to get started.
Marilyn Smith
I’m not going to say it was on impulse. I really studied the issue for about 2 years. A Deaf woman was murdered here and I started thinking something’s really wrong with this picture. I talked to a few hearing agencies that were trying to serve Deaf victims, but it wasn’t working. We got their support, then I met with several members of the Deaf community, mothers of Deaf children as well, and I asked them if they’d support my efforts to set up something and they said yes. So I just quit my job and started in my basement in my home. There wasn’t a lot of pre-planning then. We didn’t have a big vision there. Basically we just didn’t want to see another Deaf woman killed. It took a lot of sweat and tears and a lot of determination. There were some people watching, thinking, no, it’s not going to work. And I was really stubborn and I still am very stubborn.
As for funding, we had a lot of volunteers for the first few years. I had to do other work just to supplement my income. There was no big check in the mail. I myself had to do a lot of footwork, meet people and convince them why this was so important. So we started off with $4,000 and for us that felt like a million dollars. I mean if anyone asks me what was the most important thing that we could do before setting up a program I’d say most importantly you need to be patient and understand that it is hard, hard work with a lot of rewards later.
Tallahassee, FL
Marilyn, have you noticed any trends in the acceptance of the Deaf community nationwide?
Marilyn Smith
Deaf people are certainly more visible than 20 years ago. We have many things to thank for that including the Deaf President Now movement at Gallaudet University (my alma mater) in 1988. Of course “visible” and “acceptance” are two very different things. There are some days when I feel the acceptance has reached a remarkable level and then I hear about how many deaf babies are being implanted – and I begin to wonder once again. But for Deaf adults I can say yes the quality of our lives have improved considerably which means there has to be some increased level of acceptance of Deaf people as a cultural minority.
St Paul Minnesota
As a Deaf social services professional working in a Deaf DV program we see many barriers systemwide. In your experience what is the most difficult barrier to access to safety for Deaf victims of domestic and family violence?
Marilyn Smith
I would say the biggest barrier is the lack of understanding in the criminal justice system. Our work has been focusing on the criminal justice system to try and make things accessible. We take one step forward and then it feels like two steps back with them. For most people it’s already a very complicated system to understand. You can imagine how much more difficult it is for Deaf people. I think Deaf people easily fall through the cracks in the criminal justice system and I think a part of it is they don’t know what to do with them in the system, so they just kind of drop their cases rather than deal with the issues of getting an interpreter or understanding cultural rules and so on. So we constantly have to be watching them. So our system here has changed a lot since ADWAS came about. We’re always keeping an eye on them and reminding them it’s really an ongoing thing. I think that’s the biggest barrier.
Brooklyn, NY
What are the ways (i.e., print, events, demonstrations) you have found most effective in reaching the Deaf community?
Marilyn Smith
The best way to reach the community is word of mouth. Before you do that you have to be sure that your agency really can keep things confidential. It’s vitally important in the Deaf community. As I said, the staff are also members of the community so we know a lot of information, yet we have to go out and behave as if we didn’t know that. So word of mouth is a very powerful way of reaching the Deaf community. Of course, we have events, but the events are more to show them that what we do is not that scary. Our events are focused more on bringing in the community to help them see that abuse is not acceptable and there are ways to work through it. But in order to get the community to come we need to use word of mouth.
Minneapolis, MN
Can you give an example of a cultural rule or norm would come into play for a Deaf woman who has been abused? Maybe one that the hearing community at large may not be aware of?
Marilyn Smith
For hearing victims of domestic violence the woman can, not easily, but she can move to create a new life for herself. A hearing woman can create a new circle of friends completely different from her old life, but for a Deaf woman that’s impossible. Our community, although it’s big, it’s not that big. The Deaf grapevine is very powerful and it’s very easy to find people no matter where they may be. So our focus is more on helping the woman stay in her community and helping her find support that will protect her and support her there. I think that’s the biggest difference between hearing and Deaf victims.
Coos Bay, OR
What would you say is the biggest challenge you face in your work?
Thank you.
Marilyn Smith
It’s difficult to pick just ONE challenge. Let me pick two. One is dealing with hearing people who do not want to recognize Deaf people as a cultural minority. We have a language of our own that is recognized by linguists – and with that a rich culture. There are too many people who want to “fix” us by forcing values of the hearing community on us. This includes refusing to recognize American Sign Language; the mass marketing of cochlear implants on deaf babies/children in order to make them more “normal”; making claims that Deaf people are too “isolated” from the hearing world and so on.
The second challenge is in making the needs of Deaf victims and therefore Deaf people more visible so we can get our share of resources readily available to others. People are still amazed to hear how many of us there really are.
Boston MA
Im curious about how your board membership is structured - in terms of deaf, hard of hearing, DeafBlind, and hearing members and is your board actively involved in fundraising? (If so, how do you balance the need for fundraisers vs. community representation on the board?)
Marilyn Smith
The board is a community board and they are fund-raisers as well. We’ve fine-tuned our screening for board members over the years. After first asking them about their attitude about domestic violence and sexual assault, the first question we’ll ask them is are they willing to do fund-raising. And if there’s any hesitation at all, that’s it, bye-bye. This board is a fund-raising board. And you also have to be fluent in sign language to be on the board. The other requirement is that the majority of the board members must be Deaf.
If we need legal help or someone like a CPA, we call them and meet with them separately, but they’re not required to be on our board. We try to really keep this board community oriented. There’s an assumption that community boards can’t do fund-raising and I totally disagree with that. This board has pledged and raised the sum of $275,000 for our capital campaign and there’s only 10 people on the board, all from the community.
Sacramento, CA
Could you expand on the cultural rules that the criminal justice system, social service agencies, and others should know?
Marilyn Smith
Before I discuss cultural rules let’s say that the interpreters that are used must be fluent. The interpreters can make or break a case easily. The criminal justice system and the social service people need to know the difference between a “signer,” someone who calls themselves an interpreter, and someone who’s a qualified interpreter. In my experience when Deaf victims tell their stories they basically tell the story from A to Z. That’s what we do, we talk in narrative. As an example, a policeman will say, well, tell me what happened. What the officer means is the specifics. He’s not prepared to listen to a 30-minute answer. Some victims who are not as educated as others may not understand the legal definition of rape. I’ve known some victims who did not know that incest was a crime, for example. So I think that hearing providers need at least a basic orientation to Deafness and to the Deaf community. Putting in an interpreter is not always the answer. Understanding where the person grew up, what type of schooling they had, understanding their support system, all of those things are vital.
washington, dc
Have you had any successes in the arena of legislative and policy change? What have been the biggest challenges in dealing with policy change at state and local levels?
Marilyn Smith
Probably the most important policy change since ADWAS was established was the establishment of a 24-hour interpreter emergency system in King County, which means that if there’s a 911 call from a Deaf victim the interpreter will be called to the scene. That’s probably our biggest accomplishment so far. And in order to have that happen we sued the police department here in the city of Seattle. That was a major, major accomplishment.
Sacramento, CA
Has the Internet, or computer technology in general, helped/hurt Deaf people seeking help. Has it brought together/kept apart hearing and Deaf people?
Marilyn Smith
Well, there are two ways of looking at that. In terms of work that doesn’t need to be done over the telephone email has been a Godsend. I think it’s actually brought the two worlds closer together in that sense because there’s no third party involved, like interpreters, et cetera. Email is fantastic. In the Deaf community, and the hearing community in general, we don’t get together as much. I think for our community to thrive and grow we need physical togetherness, too. America’s obsession with technology is not always a good thing.
Charlottesville
How would you describe your leadership style?
Marilyn Smith
I don’t do anything that I don’t respect in other leaders. That’s my number one rule. But as for my leadership style, I’m a strong believer in mentoring and modeling. I realize that I am a leader, but I don’t have an attitude of, hey, look, I’m the leader. I have so much hope and faith in young people, young Deaf people, and I’m always looking out for someone to come and work with me. A lot of decisions that we make are done on consensus. It’s definitely not a power trip for me. I guess basically I just believe in a lot of mentoring and modeling, and I’m always aware of how much influence I have on the people around me. I have an attitude of I want to be able to take care of people so that they can take care of me when I’m on my way down.
Seattle, WA
Since ADWAS has been in existence for some time now, have you seen an increase in community leadership amongst deaf women? Has it had an empowering effect on Deaf women in general outside of their own personal lives?
Marilyn Smith
I think so, definitely. Because of ADWAS created job opportunities for women. Plus in the other cities that we’ve trained and through the anti-violence movement they’re given the opportunity to lead now. That’s an opportunity that wasn’t there before. So yes, I’ve definitely seen a growth. We have a coalition among those 15 cities and, if you think about it, we’re talking about a lot of women there, plus the people they’ve hired within their agencies, their volunteers. What started out as one has now become hundreds. Of course, not all will be leaders, but there sure are a lot.
Austin, TX
Where do you see yourself and ADWAS going from here over the next few years?
Marilyn Smith
Well, we’re in the middle of a capital campaign to build the first transitional program for Deaf victims in the U.S. That’s our job for the next 2 to 3 years. That’s something we’ve been working on for a long time. Our offices will also move into that new building as well as the services that we provide. After that, I’d like to be able to share that model, the transitional housing model, with the other cities that we’ve trained so they can start thinking about something like that for themselves. We’d like to go back to doing national training and see even more cities create their own ADWAS model.
Seattle
What is it that you love about your work?
Marilyn Smith
Being with Deaf women all day, number one. Secondly, having the opportunity to create something that was never tried before and seeing women who come for services grow, seeing the community attitude transformed over the years. I’ve been there almost 18 years and I haven’t burned out yet. That says a lot.
Leadership for a Changing World
Unfortunately we have time for just one more question.
Marilyn, how do you sustain yourself and your staff while working on such a difficult and emotional social issue?
Marilyn Smith
I already mentioned most of my staff and I are Deaf – and we do understand what it is like to be oppressed on a daily basis. I’m not saying we are more at ease working with victims of violence but I am sure our experiences have helped us and continue to help us put things into perspective. We learned early on to prioritize our battles as Deaf individuals and it is no different for our work at ADWAS.
We take great care of each other; there’s time for laughter and play here – as well as time and space for tears. We try to balance working with victims in a complex and oftentimes very inaccessible criminal justice system with projects that are geared towards social change – such as our Positive Parenting Program where we teach families about violence before it can begin. I have strict rules about accumulating comp time and taking it within two weeks of earning it. This helps staff manage their workload and not work 50 plus hours a week. And we have lives outside of ADWAS!
Leadership for a Changing World
Thanks again for joining us for today's discussion. For more information about Marilyn Smith and ADWAS:
Marilyn Smith
Executive Director
Abused Deaf Women's Advocacy Services
4738 11th Avenue NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Phone: 206-726-0093
Fax: 206-726-0017
Email: hilsmjs@aol.com
Web: www.ADWAS.org
Please join us for future Leadership Talks.
Marilyn Smith
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