Finding Our Voices, survivors breaking the silence, stigma and cycle of domestic abuse, has been awarded $7,500 from United Midcoast Charities. 

“It is so validating to receive this generous grant from such an important organization in only our third year as a nonprofit,” said Patrisha McLean, the group’s president and founder, in a news release. “And it is a huge boost to meeting the ever-growing demand for our sister-to-sister programs and services.” 

The UMC grant will empower Knox and Waldo County female domestic abuse victims to get out and stay out of danger, and to get and keep their children safe as well, according to FOV.

Finding Our Voices, based in Camden, has disbursed more than $50,000 in the past 18 months to women victims of domestic violence all across Maine, paying for such items as first and last month’s rent, car repairs, attorney consultations, storage unit fees, and gift certificates for clothing, gas, and food. 

The group’s trademark and ground-breaking outreach is posters and bookmarks featuring Patrisha McLean's photo portraits of 43 named survivors of domestic abuse, aged 18 to 81 and including an incarcerated woman and Governor Janet T. Mills. The Finding Our Voices exhibit featuring all the survivor photo portraits along with documentation of some of what they transcended is at the University of Maine's Hutchinson Center in Belfast, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., through October.

For more information about Finding Our Voices visit https://findingourvoices.net