Upcoming events: Project Woman
Springfield CultureFest Shout-Out for Peace: 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26, plaza downtown Springfield
Project Woman Candlelight Vigil: 7 p.m. Oct. 8, downtown Springfield esplanade, free
Project Woman Diva Night Out: 6-9:30 p.m. Oct. 22, Bushnell Building, 14 E. Main St., Springfield, tickets $25, registration online at www.projectwomanohio.org
The executive director of Project Woman is on a mission.
Laura Baxter, its executive director since 2012, wants to broaden the reach and scope of the Springfield-based nonprofit.
The organization has served Clark, Champaign and Madison counties for decades. Project Woman, in existence since 1974, began as a rape crisis center and, Baxter said, had a difficult start.
“We recently celebrated our 40th anniversary, and I did a lot of research,” she said. “Many local women were part of the founding and came back to help, and I think that speaks volumes about this organization. It started as completely volunteer run, with women answering phones in kitchens and responding to other women who were fleeing assault and violence.”
Originally formed as a partnership with local churches by women who were looking for equality during a time of turbulence in the U.S. and locally, Baxter found during her research that there was also a serial rapist case in Springfield at the same time.
“No one was gaining solid cooperation from the victims at the time,” Baxter said. “Probably due to fear and other issues. So they turned this group of victims into volunteers, and that’s why it was called Project Woman from the beginning.”
Those original victims turned volunteers helped pull together an accurate composite sketch and catch the perpetrator of the crimes — and Project Woman was born.
The first center of its kind in Ohio, Project Woman has grown exponentially since its onset, with what Baxter calls “amazing community support” throughout its history. “The community was committed very early on,” she said. “And since this organization, like so many, is at the mercy of federal funding, it’s been wonderful to see how the community supports it in such a deep way, through both volunteers and private donors.”
Baxter has spent most of her professional career in community health, working with adults with disabilities and in mental health programs. “I have always been about mission and grass-roots efforts,” Baxter said. “This mission really spoke to me, and I love being able to make a change, not just in the lives of individuals but also in the community.”
And making a change is exactly what Baxter is doing — changing the way people look at violence and sexual assault and ensuring not only women but men continue to communicate about these important issues that affect all people, regardless of sex or socio-economic status.
“It’s not just a woman’s issue,” Baxter said. “Project Woman is part of a cause of ending sexual assault in our community for all people. And though it’s an issue for women, it’s all a real problem for people with disabilities, who are at risk for sexual violence, as well.”
Baxter said the organization is also targeting the Hispanic and Latino and LGBT communities as well and also has a strong alliance with local black churches. “The goal is to remove barriers for people,” Baxter said. “I am strongly committed to making sure that we have open access to anyone who needs support. We do outreach to men who need our services and anyone in need.”
In order to help remove those barriers, Baxter is partnering with a local mental health foundation to hold several focus groups specifically focused on men in order to discover how to reduce the barriers to accessing services.
The grass-roots efforts — working in the community with volunteers to spread the word about Project Woman and the services it offers — are what remain closest to Baxter’s heart.
“When I got to Project Woman, a lot of people were asking me what the organization was doing to end all this violence,” Baxter said. “And I found out that Springfield and Clark County is number one per capita for intimate partner violence and I wanted to know why. This is a wonderful community with a lot of support and philanthropy. So what are we doing wrong?”
Baxter began to talk about all the great programs offered by Project Woman, and she realized they weren’t about ending the violence but rather about supporting the victims of violence. So she decided to get a community group together — Partners Against Violence Everyday (PAVE) — to work on an ongoing mission to prevent violence.
“We are doing our first event at Springfield Culture Fest,” Baxter said. “It’s a ‘Shout-out for Peace.’ Because even though we may be No. 1 for violence, we want people to know that this community does not stand for violence, and we want to bring attention to the fact that our people stand for peace. I’m excited about this grass-roots movement to promote peace in the community.”
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