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For this service learning assignment I chose to do volunteer work at Safe Harbor. The Safe Harbor is located in Richmond, Virginia. I decide to volunteer here because I wanted a different experience. I’ve done walks for cancer, volunteered at homeless shelters, donated clothes and money. This time around I wanted a different experience and in Richmond you see commercials and ads for this place a lot. Safe Harbor is here to support those who are experiencing or have experienced domestic and/or sexual violence. Safe Harbor offers comprehensive services for survivors of sexual and/or intimate partner violence including: 24 hour helpline, children/youth services, community education and training, counseling, court advocacy, emergency shelter, and hospital accompaniment. Our team collaborates with survivors to provide support, education and referral information to help survivors meet their goals. (About Safe Harbor, 2011)

They really made me feel needed and welcome, just in the small amount of time that I volunteered their, my heart wrenched for the girls there. I felt helpless to do more for them. Perhaps it is me that is weak. I suppose to some degree we are all weak. But the women I encountered there had the confidence of a child just beginning to walk: determined, but shaky. I couldn't watch the inner conflict and pain these women endure on a daily basis. I have gained a respect and admiration for those who can.

Domestic abuse in the United States is a large-scale and complex social and health problem. The family is perhaps the most violent group, with the home being the most violent American institution or setting today. Sadly enough, the majority of people who are murdered are not likely killed by a stranger during a hold-up or similar crime but are killed by someone they know. In one out of every six marriages, the wife is physically

abused. Every fifteen seconds a women is battered in the United States. Daily, four American women lose their lives to their...