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August 21, 2002
Los Gatos, California Since 1881 |
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Photograph by George Sakkestad
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Los Gatan Erica Draa wants to make a
difference in the lives of battered women and
their children.
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Los Gatos teen assists battered women
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Shari Kaplan
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Through an interesting turn of events, Los
Gatan Erica Draa, 17, has turned what was
initially a punishment into an opportunity to
simultaneously gain personal fulfillment and
help less fortunate people feel better about
their own lives.
After she and some friends were caught
pilfering some candy during her sophomore
year, she was required to perform community
service and became involved with Sunday
Friends, visiting children at a San Jose
homeless shelter. The Support Network for
Battered Women, a Mountain View-based
nonprofit organization that serves all of
Santa Clara County, contacted her after
learning of her work at the shelter.
Now Draa has "graduated" from the intensive
40-hour volunteer training program and is on
her way to fulfilling the organization's
mission of empowering abused women and their
children and helping them rebuild their
lives.
"You become really close to the people in the
training with you. I met people I never
normally would have met," says Draa, who was
one of only two or three teens. "A really
cool thing was that there were so many
different types of people: men, women, old
people, and people who had been battered in
the past. Hearing stories from survivors was
the most rewarding part."
"We learned that you can't ever tell somebody
what to do - you can only support them and
help them see what they should do," she says,
describing the training that helped her learn
how to work with people involved in
dysfunctional or abusive relationships.
Draa says she's always liked the idea of
working with people and children. An
extrovert, she also enjoys performing,
especially singing. A soon-to-be Los Gatos
High School senior, she is a member of the
LGHS Concert Choir and Jazz Purr choral group
and is as comfortable onstage as she is
helping others ascend it. Last summer she
worked as a junior counselor at a children's
performing arts camp in Los Angeles.
In her position as a volunteer domestic
violence counselor, Draa will again be
working with children, but under less ideal
circumstances. Although she has not yet begun
her regularly scheduled visits at the
network's shelter, she already knows that
much of her work will involve interacting
with the children of women who are fleeing
abusive relationships.
"Doing activities with the kids gives them
something to look forward to the next time we
visit," she says, adding that she'd like to
use her background as a performer to get the
kids involved in singing, dramatic skits,
puppet shows and other creative activities.
Many of the children speak Spanish as their
first language, Draa says, but as an
advanced-placement Spanish student, she
doesn't anticipate language being a barrier.
She counts herself lucky that neither she nor
her immediate family or friends have been
involved in abusive relationships. She is
concerned about all women, however, because
the network's training has taught her that
not all abusers and the abused face up to
their problems.
"It's something people don't always think
about; it's still an unspoken thing for some
people," she says. "This is something I
wanted to do, and it's something important to
do."
For more information about the Support
Network for Battered Women, call 650.940.7850
or visit www.snbw.org.
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