New Freeman director steps right into the job

By Linda CarmanPrint Story | Email Story
Deborah Hammer-Phillips
PITTSFIELD — Before taking the helm as executive director of the Elizabeth Freeman Center last month, Deborah Hammer-Phillips practiced public interest law and administered human services programs, experiences that provide a strong foundation for her new endeavor. “This is just the place for me,” Hammer-Phillips said in a Tuesday interview in the organization’s offices at 146 First St. “It’s definitely pulling everything together.” Hammer-Phillips is enthusiastic about the organization’s mission – helping victims of domestic abuse and sexual assault – and about the dedication of its staff and board of directors. “As an administrator I see my role as supporting the staff by bringing in funding for staff to provide services,” she said. “It’s important to make the staff’s jobs as easy as possible, because our clients are the most important people.” Hammer-Phillips is acquainted with Berkshire County human services organizations as well, from spending nine years with Berkshire Training and Employment Program in both Pittsfield and North Adams, the last two as operations director. “It’s definitely not a new thing for me,” she said. Elizabeth Shaker, chairman of the center’s board of directors, said Hammer-Phillips has the type of expertise to move the agency forward. “She’s a real dynamo, and that’s what we need. We’re so enthusiastic about Deborah. We found a perfect fit,” Shaker said. “She’s personable but has the ability to make the hard decisions. We’re very hopeful she’s going to do terrific things for the agency.” Hammer-Phillips grew up in Brooklyn, where she absorbed advocacy and activism on a daily basis, setting the stage for her career in human services. “I came from a family where helping people was important. My grandmother was always an activist,” she said. Her grandmother, Jean Hammer, formed a hospital workers’ union, and was the only woman in her business school graduating class. Hammer-Phillips remembers her constantly on the telephone trying to get help for people in need. Hammer-Phillips changed her name when she got her law license, taking her mother’s maiden name Hammer, which would otherwise have been lost. But clearly she took more than her grandmother’s name. “When she advocated for someone, she was like a bulldog,” she said, acknowledging that she shares her grandmother’s trait. In addition to her human services background, Hammer-Phillips managed businesses and did accounting as she worked her way through school at Western New England College, from which she graduated summa cum laude in psychology. At the urging of her late husband, shortly before he died, she entered Western New England’s law school, from which she graduated in May 2001. Before returning to Berkshire County and the Freeman Center, she worked for the Northampton-based Center for Public Representation, where she advocated for mostly mentally retarded or mentally ill clients regarding Social Security income and disability claims. When funding for her position ran out, she applied for the Elizabeth Freeman post “on a whim,” she said, not thinking she had a chance of being hired. Her interview was, she added, “The most interesting and informative” of her career. “It’s a great organization,” she said. “The staff is incredibly dedicated to providing service to people who have been abused, and that dedication is inspirational.” In addition to multiple meetings with staff, Hammer-Phillips is meeting with the Brien Center for Mental Health, the Berkshire County Kids’ Place, and Berkshire County Sheriff Carmen C. Massimiano “to see what the needs are, to try to figure out where the gaps are.” The Elizabeth Freeman Center collaborates closely with the organizations. The center operates an array of programs to provide counseling, advocacy, and emotional, educational, vocational and economic support services. It operates three residences: a battered women’s shelter providing 12 weeks of safety for women and their children, a safe house offering a short term stay for women and children awaiting space in a shelter or the service of a restraining order and the Freeman House, a collaboration with The Brien Center to offer rehabilitation to women who have substance abuse issues and are victims of domestic violence who may live there with their children. Work is under way to convert a house on First Street into transitional housing, which already has a waiting list. Programs include a 24-hour hotline, walk-in services, individual counseling and support groups, and help extending from the hospital, the courts, and shelters, to follow-up support. A primary emphasis is on education and prevention. Hammer-Phillips sees the biggest challenge confronting the center as meeting the needs of the community, and that means collaboration with all the players. “We also want to improve how we deal with the whole problem of abuse,” she said. “That means not just the victim but the abuser and all the family, so families or individuals can get on with their lives, abusers will stop abusing and victims become healed.” Hammer-Phillips also wants to bring the organization’s communications up to speed by improving its technological capabilities. At present, on call is exclusively by telephone or walk-in, but Hammer-Phillips noted that teenagers, in particular, tend to communicate by computer or instant messaging. At present, there are 62 staff members, some of those part-time at residences, plus what she called “a huge group of volunteers who staff the hotline and a wonderful group of supporters.” “People in this community are wonderful,” she said. “It’s difficult to raise money, but we get unbelievable support from all our towns, from the United Way, and from the city of Pittsfield.” Hammer-Phillips praised her predecessor, Marcia Savage, calling her a wonderful lady who had great vision and inner strength. “She left a great legacy,” Hammer-Phillips said. Both women will be honored at a dinner June 30 at Zucchini’s. Details may be obtained by calling the Elizabeth Freeman Center. Under Savage’s tenure, the center expanded its sites, in response to requests, from Pittsfield and one day a week in Great Barrington and North Adams to Pittsfield, Lee, full-time in North Adams, and part time in Great Barrington, Adams, and Williamstown. A longtime college administrator, Savage had come to Berkshire County to retire, but instead, found herself fully engaged. “I’d cared about women’s equity issues all my professional life, and someone spoke to me about an agency that needed a little help, and they convinced me to stay a couple of years,” Savage said Monday from her Sheffield home. That couple of years stretched into more than nine. Now she is exploring ways she can help with the organization’s work, probably as a volunteer. “You don’t work on a project like that and leave,” said Savage. “You take your passion with you. I need to think about ways I can be helpful.” Savage said her greatest satisfaction is the level of education the center has been able to accomplish. “We’ve alerted people, businesses, schools and police departments what abuse is all about, what it looks like, and why they should care about it,” Savage said. “We’re trying to do some very good prevention. The great success would be that the community doesn’t need us any more.” “The other thing we’ve accomplished, and that will go on, is to pay much more attention to domestic violence’s effect on children,” said Savage. “We’ve worked with day care centers. We have to break the cycle.” The Elizabeth Freeman Center, formed by a merger of Women’s Services Center and the Rape Crisis Center, is named for Elizabeth Freeman, who sued for, and won, her freedom from slavery in a landmark court case in 1780 that led to the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts.
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Friends of Great Barrington Libraries Holiday Book Sale

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Friends of Great Barrington Libraries invite the community to shop their annual Holiday Good-as-New Book Sale, happening now through the end of the year at the Mason Library, 231 Main Street. 
 
With hundreds of curated gently used books to choose from—fiction, nonfiction, children's favorites, gift-quality selections, cookbooks, and more—it's the perfect local stop for holiday gifting.
 
This year's sale is an addition to the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce's Holiday Stroll on this Saturday, Dec. 13, 3–8 PM. Visitors can swing by the Mason Library for early parking, browse the sale until 3:00 PM, then meet Pete the Cat on the front lawn before heading downtown for the Stroll's shopping, music, and festive eats.
 
Can't make the Holiday Stroll? The book sale is open during regular Mason Library hours throughout December.
 
Proceeds support free library programming and events for all ages.
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