The Milwaukee Women’s Center is grateful to be a finalist in the Wisconsin Better Business Bureau’s Torch Award for Business Ethics and Integrity because it helps to bring the issue of domestic violence to the forefront.
“I wish the issue of family violence wasn’t so invisible,” said Carey Tradewell Monreal, president and CEO. “The community is uncomfortable with it. This award will remind all that the issue of family violence is real and that the Milwaukee Women’s Center is there to provide critical services that men, women and children need.”
MWC is Wisconsin’s largest family violence service agency and provides ongoing prevention, intervention and treatment services, including substance abuse and mental health programs, to more than 2,000 men, women and children each year. In addition, more than 13,000 individuals are served annually through the 24-hour crisis line and community education programs. Since opening its doors 25 years ago, MWC has served more than 390,000 people.
Because its clients are so vulnerable and often in the middle of a crisis, MWC views ethics and integrity as one of its highest obligations to the community it serves, Tradewell Monreal said.
“They are so wounded and need of healing,” she said. “They need to know that from the moment they walk in the door, our employees will recognize that they are so deserving of compassion, of quality services and the best counseling that we can provide.”
MWC has a number of innovative programs, designed to help not only women and children who are victims of abuse, but the men who are their abusers. These programs include a counseling program for men, a dating violence program targeting high school students and a program for older abused women.
“We’re proud of the fact that we have one of only five older abused women’s programs in the country,” Tradewell Monreal said. This program helps women who are in their 50s, 60s and 70s that may be victims of spouses or of their middle-aged sons.
MWC has 43 employees – both men and women – and 250 volunteers. Tradewell Monreal added that one indication of the quality of MWC’s services is that 12 percent of her employees are former clients. Being named a finalist for the Torch Award gives MWC’s staff some well-deserved recognition, she said.
“This award is recognition of the hard, hard work the Milwaukee Women’s Center does day after day,” Tradewell Monreal said.
-Written by, Susan Bach – Published Oct 2, 2005 Journal Sentinel Sunday edition