Doreen Jones, a domestic violence survivor, feels she has a lot in common with singer Cassandra Ventura.
“If you saw the video of Sean [Diddy] Combs abusing Cassie, that happened to me as well, in the hallway of my apartment building,” Jones said. “I was out there screaming ‘Help me, help me,’ while being dragged up and down, punched and kicked on most of my body. No one helped me.”
Jones hit her breaking point when her ex-boyfriend described in detail how he was going to take her life. “He said, I’m going to shoot you in your head, and I’m going to bury you in New Jersey, and nobody’s going to find you because you are going to be in the woods,” she recalled.
Jones knew that she had to save herself and once she got her opportunity, she left her ex-partner and never looked back. Her main refuge was the Brooklyn Family Justice Center, where city and nonprofit services are available for domestic violence survivors under one roof.
“I had support and access to resources to assist me with my journey from victim to survivor,” Jones said. “They didn’t make me feel less than. There was nobody there looking at me funny; they were very empathetic.”
The Brooklyn Family Justice Center recently celebrated 20 years of service, helping approximately 138,000 survivors of domestic and gender-based violence. The center opened its doors in 2005 under a federal grant and is now run by the city.
The center recently expanded and moved to a renovated space at 350 Jay St. on the 14th floor, which includes a lactation room for nursing mothers, a calm room for rest and reflection, and all clients have access to fresh fruits and vegetables through a communal refrigerator.
Along with its new expansion, the Kings County District Attorney’s Victim Services Unit and the Human Trafficking Unit will also share the same space as new on-site partners.
“The next chapter of our Brooklyn Family Justice Center deepens our commitment to ensuring survivors have access to the services they need to heal and seek justice,” said Saloni Sethi, Commissioner of the NYC Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, at a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new space. “With our expanded space, we can serve more Brooklynites in a safe, welcoming environment for the next 20 years, while enhancing training for providers and community-based organizations to deliver trauma-informed care.”
Jones, who is an alumna of the VOICES committee, a survivor-led advocate group, said sharing her experience is a way to encourage others to seek help.
“It’s important for me to advocate for all the women who look like me, so that if something happens, I want people to know if they say something happened, then believe them,” Jones said. “Help them while they are still able to tell you about it.”
Jones noted how many people tried to discourage her from leaving her ex-boyfriend.
“It wasn't easy doing it,” she said. “You had people saying, ‘Oh, don't do that. Don't, you know, don't snitch. Unfortunately, there's a culture of people who think that if you tell on the person you're with, if they harm you're snitching on, [but] you got to protect you.”
Jones said the center helped her find peace and the right services, and taught her about safety planning, which includes changing up your daily routine so ex-partners can’t find you easily.
“If you need to move, if you need to get another job and you want to go take maybe some courses somewhere, they connect you to everything where whatever you need to start over,” she said.
