Our Collective Story Project

Help us tell our collective story as a movement of survivors.

Partners for Peace is the domestic violence resource center for Penobscot and Piscataquis counties in Maine. We support anyone affected by domestic abuse and violence in the region. Our Collective Story Project began as a way to collect and retain stories to help share the history of Partners for Peace as the third oldest domestic violence resource center in the country, founded in 1973. Initially, we compiled 50 stories to celebrate our 50 years of serving people affected by domestic violence. These stories ranged from survivor stories, artwork, news clippings, posters, and items that told stories of survival, resilience, and healing. 

As part of our 50th Anniversary in 2023, we shared some of these stories. However, the project lives on and we continue to encourage survivors to share their stories with us.

Survivor Stories

We are committed to collecting and sharing survivor stories in a way that gives the survivor autonomy and choice. We take great care in sharing these stories in a trauma-informed way and we ensure that the survivor listeners acknowledge the privilege of hearing these stories.

Individuals may share their stories in any form you choose: written, poetry, paintings, sketches, multi-media – the choice is yours, because it’s your story and your truth.

We occasionally offer survivor story-crafting workshops, including in our weekly online support group. Please call our 24/7 Helpline to learn more. 1-800-863-9909.

Story Sharing

Currently, we share stories from Our Collective Story Project at local events, in social media posts, and in mailers to our supporters. When we do so, we always share stories anonymously.

We often reach out to the story-teller to see you’d like to share your story in person at an event, and notify of you of opportunities to share your story more broadly, such as with the media or at the Statehouse.

We are in the process of developing a virtual gallery of these stories that will be showcased on our website anonymously, to allow anyone from anywhere at anytime to hear the real-life stories of people with lived experience.

 

Interested in Sharing Your Story?

If you have lived experience with domestic violence, we invite you to consider sharing your story through written format, artwork, song lyrics, or any other way you believe your story can be told. If you are sharing your story in written format and it is ready to go, you can submit it below. Otherwise, you can submit your interest in being a part of the project using the form below, and we’d be happy to help you finalize it. 

Stories will be accepted on a rolling basis and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

We aren’t able to share all stories as a part of this project, unfortunately, but we are deeply grateful for you sharing.

 

 

Safety Planning & Risk Management

We share all stories anonymously for confidentiality and safety. However, we may reach out and invite you to share your story more publicly when an opportunity arises.

If you need help with safety planning or emotional support in sharing your story, please call our 24-hour helpline at 1-800-863-9909. It’s free and confidential. 

Disclosures: 

  • Partners for Peace may choose to de-identify or change names in stories that may feature names of individuals.
  • If you believe there are risks within sharing your story, even anonymously, please call our Helpline to safety plan.
  • By submitting your story below, you give Partners for Peace permission to share your story as a part of this ongoing project. If you would like to remove your story from the project, you can email us at partnersforpeaceme@partnersforpeaceme.org.
  • Partners for Peace may choose to reformat or omit parts of your story when sharing it with the community, depending on the venue. However, we are committed to sharing your story accurately and with great care. Please ask for examples if you are interested in knowing more!

 

Story-Crafting Prompts:

If you find yourself struggling to begin your story, here are a few prompts to get you started:

  • What did/does your experience with domestic violence look like? 
  • When did you experience domestic violence?
  • What is important to you that people in the community know or understand about domestic violence? 

If you would prefer to not discuss what specifically happened, think about these prompts instead:

  • Who are you today after your experience with domestic violence?
  • How might your life look different today if you were still experiencing domestic violence?
  • How might your life look different today if you were not experiencing domestic violence? 
  • What would you tell your past self knowing what you know today? How would they react?

Our Collective Story Project Interest Form

If you have lived experience with domestic violence, we invite you to consider sharing your story through written format, artwork (which may be done in one of our story crafting workshops), song lyrics, or any other way you believe your story can be told. If you are sharing your story in written format and it is ready to go, you can submit it below. Otherwise, you can submit your interest in being a part of the project, participate in our story-crafting workshops, and work with our project coordinators to finalize your submission(s).

Your name or nickname you would like us to refer to you by when we contact you about being a part of the project. We will not publish this name unless you indicate that you would like to participate non-anonymously.
How I would like to share my story:(Required)
Please indicate the way(s) in which you would like your story to be shared.
Please indicate a fake name you would like us to include, or we don't need to include a name at all.
Provide an email address that is safe for you to communicate with
Leave blank if it's not safe to communicate with you in this way. Please call our 24-hour helpline if you need help with safety planning at 1-800-863-9909.
I'm interested in:(Required)
Please indicate all the ways that you are interested in participating
Permissions(Required)
You must select all in order to be a part of this project.
You may submit your written story here or you can wait until later. You can also get it started here and work with one of our project coordinators on editing it later.
safety concerns, questions about the project, more about how you'd like to be involved, etc.

 

Below is an example of one survivor’s story.

 

Jane’s Story

I first hatched a plan to move to Maine at 8 years old after a family camping trip to Cobscook Bay. It had all the enchanting things that I love about my home state, with the added wonder of mountains, vast forests, and people that appreciated simple living and community. In adulthood, I started to dream about a little homestead tucked away, with land enough for chickens and a garden. I never expected my eventual move here would be to flee the man I had agreed to marry, but life rarely sends you where you need to be in the way you would expect. 

Our engagement was only a month old when it started, and it would be 3 years until I left. That time was a complicated, horrific blur of unexplained injuries, bruises, and alienation. Somehow, during the abuse, I went back to college and finished my psychology degree, and took my senior year finals one week after the attempted murder. At the time it seemed like a cruel joke, but looking back I am so proud of myself. I finished my courses from my childhood bedroom, and then packed what little I managed to recover and moved 400 miles north to Penobscot County. 

At first I was a mess. I didn’t know this land, these people, or what I needed. The beautiful thing was that no one in town minded. My new coworkers became my friends. They helped me learn everything I wanted to know about the area, and encouraged me when I wanted to get a job using my degree. These northerners knew what the struggle was like, and welcomed me into the community as if I was one of their own. It took me almost a year to reach out to Partners for Peace, and when I did it was clear that they were a resource I could always turn to. I felt cared about for the first time in a long time. 

Today I am still on the road to recovery. I have a job where I regularly help other domestic violence survivors, and that has given me a beautiful opportunity to heal by helping my peers. I have not yet bought my cabin or plot of land to build on, but it is a dream I know I can achieve. Maine was always my goal, and now it has become my safety.