A Shared Success

Having shared in a most effective and exhilarating organizing effort, we would like to clarify the statement that one person “founded the city’s first battered women’s shelter” (“Crime Victim’s Center Provides Aid,” March 25). The credit for outstanding dedication and hard work belongs to Jean Trisko of the YWCA, Sue McDevitt of METRO (a United Methodist Church service agency), and a core group who started the Battered Women’s Coalition. With a stunning surge of community involvement, the coalition rapidly grew to 60 agency and individual members.

A 12-person advisory board, with many others, worked literally thousands of hours over 15 months to lobby, publicize, organize, fund a house and hire a staff.

The YWCA Battered Women’s Services, the city’s first and only full-service battered women’s shelter, sprang from a movement, a coming together of shared enthusiasm and support where no one and everyone was a star, an accomplishment whose power was collective.

MARY FRANKLIN

VERONICA ROESER

KATHY ROLLINS

LUCIA SMALHEER

ASHLEY WALKER-HOOPER