Finding Our Voices aims to prevent domestic abuse with statewide school tour
Faye and Tucker documented ways that Dean abused Rory in the TV show Gilmore Girls, when Finding Our Voices worked with students of the CHRHS Women's Advocacy Club last winter. That exercise has grown to a multi-faceted program that includes a survivor-informed curriculum offered to teachers in advance of the group's arrival, and students ranging in age from 15 to 21 sharing their own story of dating abuse. (Photo by Patrisha McLean)
Courtney Davis, a hairdresser in Rockport, visited her alma mater Deer Isle-Stonington High School on March 9 to share with an all-school assembly her personal story of dating abuse that started when she was 20 by being swept off her feet by a much older man. Lilly DesRoberts, 21, Zoomed in from Saco to share her story of dating abuse that started in high school and included stalking through the app Life360 and her ex's threats to kill himself and her and included his arrest for domestic violence. (Photo by Patrisha McLean)
Lucy Thompson and Michael Irish of Dexter High School discuss and document abusive dating behaviors by the characters in the Netflix drama Riverdale based on the Archie comics. The exercise is as part of the Finding Our Voices program students are calling both fun and informative that is touring middle schools and high schools across Maine. (Photo by Patrisha McLean)
Faye and Tucker documented ways that Dean abused Rory in the TV show Gilmore Girls, when Finding Our Voices worked with students of the CHRHS Women's Advocacy Club last winter. That exercise has grown to a multi-faceted program that includes a survivor-informed curriculum offered to teachers in advance of the group's arrival, and students ranging in age from 15 to 21 sharing their own story of dating abuse. (Photo by Patrisha McLean)
Courtney Davis, a hairdresser in Rockport, visited her alma mater Deer Isle-Stonington High School on March 9 to share with an all-school assembly her personal story of dating abuse that started when she was 20 by being swept off her feet by a much older man. Lilly DesRoberts, 21, Zoomed in from Saco to share her story of dating abuse that started in high school and included stalking through the app Life360 and her ex's threats to kill himself and her and included his arrest for domestic violence. (Photo by Patrisha McLean)
Lucy Thompson and Michael Irish of Dexter High School discuss and document abusive dating behaviors by the characters in the Netflix drama Riverdale based on the Archie comics. The exercise is as part of the Finding Our Voices program students are calling both fun and informative that is touring middle schools and high schools across Maine. (Photo by Patrisha McLean)Teens across Maine are learning what is love and what is not love through an impactful Finding Our Voices program workshopped by a student club at Camden Hills Regional High School. "It touched on everything including abuse to males, and as a guy I appreciated that," is one of the rave reviews from participating students.
The nonprofit's 2026 Love/not Love tour boasts 16 stops at middle and high schools from Sanford to Baileyville through April, with plans to restart the school visits in the fall.
Mary Kamradt, the nonprofit's director of operations, said that a middle school principal in Somerset County just told her their relatable messages to young teens about normalized dating behaviors that are not OK is desperately needed and "I want you to stay here for two weeks!"
According to Patrisha McLean, CEO+Founder of Finding Our Voices, a CHRHS student sparked the domestic abuse-prevention program last winter when she told her hairdresser Courtney Davis that the Women's Advocacy Club would benefit from Finding Our Voices doing an activity with them. Davis was named United Midcoast Charities Volunteer of the Month in January for her work with Finding Our Voices.
McLean and Davis worked with the after-school club and teacher advisor Lora Levenseler over two months on a project where students identify pop culture couples that seemed to have unhealthy relationships, then document the abusive behaviors on an adaptation of the Power and Control Wheel.
Since then, Finding Our Voices has added a survivor-informed and Maine standards-compliant curriculum of three class periods that teachers are invited to provide to students in advance of their visit.
Another new and important component is volunteers ranging in age from 15 to 21 traveling with Finding Our Voices and also coming in on Zoom to share their experiences of dating abuse with the student, with one reporting "It was good hearing from someone closer to our age that we can relate to more."
Finding Our Voices usually works with students in health classes, and is often invited to also make presentations to the entire school as was the case March 9 at Deer Isle-Stonington High School. McLean said at Morse High School in Bath and Dexter High School, the nonprofit took up a two-day residency.
"This was an amazing learning experience," one young beneficiary of the project commented, with other students reporting learning “how easy it is to get caught in a toxic relationship and not know it”; ““abuse can be more than hitting”; and “it can happen to anyone.”
McLean said, "It was good hearing from the principal of the last school we visited that our program is very powerful, and even better to be told, 'We look forward to inviting you back in the fall.'"
First National Bank is a sponsor of the Finding Our Voices school program.
Finding Our Voices is the Camden-based grassroots nonprofit breaking the silence of domestic abuse across Maine and providing critical resources to women survivors and their children including Get Out Stay Out funding, access to free dental care, and an online support group. More information about the Love/not Love school program is at https://findingourvoices.net/youth-outreach. For more information about Finding Our Voices visit https://findingourvoices.net
