The Domestic Violence Project: An intersection of Art and Work

By Jessica Caldas, Project Coordinator, Domestic Violence and Guardian ad Litem Programs

I first began working for Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation doing six hours per week of data entry per week for the Domestic Violence Project.  When I asked to volunteer at the Safe Families Office, where the primary work of the project is done, I honestly had no idea what was in store.  I had no background in the law or with domestic violence, but I felt like I was seeing only a small piece of a large and confusing puzzle that was the Domestic Violence Project.  In order to be really effective I needed to understand the entire program. 

The walk-in Safe Families Office is a far cry from the quiet, all-to-myself office where I quietly updated a database with client information.  It is unpredictable, often hectic.  A box of tissues sits upon every surface.  I sit and talk face-to-face with client after client, hearing their stories of abuse and confusion and fear, while their children color in our children’s corner, or tug on mom’s sleeve to show the toy they just discovered.   In this office, the numbers and letters I enter into that database acquire names and faces and stories, and the weight of those stories bears down on me. 

Outside of AVLF, I am an artist.  My art helped me process and begin to make sense of the struggle of families I see each week at the Safe Families Office.   In my work I tried to express the powerlessness of our clients’ experiences, the utter lack of control.  Within the context of violent relationships, I have watched the objects we use every day become twisted into tools of fear, control, and cruelty - the major theme of my work.  I look forward to expanding this body of work to include the more wonderful side of these stories-the side that contains the hope and the recovery and the ability to heal.  Although I have been frustrated and angered by the things our clients go through, I know I will never be able to fully comprehend the journey survivors must travel and the depth and range of feelings that they must manage.

View Jessica's Artwork Below: