MASS Trainers Featured in Newsletter
John Mullaly and Pauline Bosma were featured in Center on Victimization and Safety at the Vera Institute of Justice’s July Newsletter: Changemaking through Awareness and Action.
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Passion, Purpose and Power: Changemaking through Awareness and Action
Awareness & Action, a program of Mass Advocates Standing Strong and the first of its kind in Massachusetts, is a three-hour, interactive training by people with disabilities for people with disabilities on recognizing and responding to abuses committed against adults with disabilities. It addresses five types of abuse: physical, sexual, neglect, verbal and financial - through five powerful video vignettes. Meet John Mullaly and Pauline Bosma, two of A&A’s most experienced self-advocate trainers.
“This is right down my alley,” John said. “Helping people is what I do.”
“I love training in general,” said Pauline, one of the founders of A&A and instrumental to its creation and curriculum design well over 10 year ago. “Knowing we are making changes for people coming up in the system, where they don’t have to start from the beginning” is something she’s particularly proud of.
John agrees: “It’s important to get the word out, make sure people understand it’s a serious issue and don’t push the issue away.”
The trainings, held on average 8 times a year around Massachusetts, have created real change, and have been replicated outside of their home state. Representatives from Florida recently flew to Massachusetts to learn from the A&A team on how to do similar trainings in their state. A&A also led to a MA statewide agency to create a Sexual Assault Response Unit for people with disabilities.
To replicate such a training, however, requires that the model of training by people with disabilities for people with disabilities is honored.
“People with disabilities know that it’s important, and they have the passion to do this,” John said. Pauline agreed. “It’s better to have a person with a disability do the training because we can relate to each other,” she said. “Even if we have a different disability.”
As skilled trainers, Pauline and John learn very quickly how to relate to the various learning and experiential needs of the diverse groups. John is skilled at knowing when to bring in his yoga experience and lead a breathing exercise for the room to find calm. Pauline is especially expert at reading the energy in the room and assessing how she should train. “Each audience is a little different,” she said. “We might have people with autism in the room or people who have trouble reading and we’ll approach it differently. But I can walk into a room and feel the energy.”
While the A&A team has goals for bringing the curriculum to a national level, the training does take its toll on trainers. “There are only so many times you can watch the 5 videos of people being abused,” Pauline said. “Sometimes I need to take a break from it and leave the room.”
But for now, they forge ahead and do what they can to spread the word. “I’ll do it as long as I can,” John said. “As long as people are out there and they get something from this, that’s what I’m here for.”
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