North Adams 'Rises' for Elizabeth Freeman Center
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Mayor Jennifer Macksey proclaimed October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month in the city on Tuesday at the start of Elizabeth Freeman Center's Rise Together walk.
The annual fundraiser and awareness event was held in six communities across the county beginning Sept. 16 in Pittsfield.
Local officials and community members marched down Main Street to First Congregational Church and back to City Hall to stand against gender-based violence.
The center's goal is to reach $150,000; as of Friday afternoon, the center has raised more than $88,000.
Macksey spoke to the crowd gathered before the walk about how domestic violence has touched many lives, including her family.
"As you know, domestic violence has touched my family and my friends, and this event just brings us all together to cherish memories. So today I honor. I don't even want to say honor. I proclaim October Domestic Violence Awareness Month, but I specifically want to shout out and remember Jillian Tatro, Jordan LaBarre, and especially my cousin Brittany LaBombard," Mayor Macksey said.
Tatro, of North Adams, was murdered in 2022 (her husband was charged); LaBarre of Pittsfield was murdered in Colorado this year (a man she knew has been charged); LaBombard of North Adams was murdered in Nebraska in 2023 (her estranged husband was charged).
The Freeman Center served 2,045 survivors and 2,183 children during fiscal 2025; 276 of those clients were in North Adams.
"Whereas domestic violence and sexual assault are not public health and safety issues we want in our community, they affect individuals and families of all backgrounds, identities and communities and whereas the trauma of domestic and sexual violence impacts not only the victims of survivors themselves, but also their families, their friends, their workplaces, their schools, their neighborhoods and the entire community," Macksey said.
State Rep. John Barrett III also spoke on how important the work the Elizabeth Freeman Center is doing.
"This is an organization like I say I'm so proud to be affiliated with in the job that you've done, because there's so many of us here that have been touched by domestic violence, sexual violence, and especially in all ages of our communities. So I think today, we are not only symbolically talking about it, but we're celebrating the work that's been done, and must continue to be done over the next several years," Barrett said.
Executive Director Divya Chaturvedi said she joined the center around the same time last year during the walks and was moved by the speeches and movement
"I joined EFC last year right before the Rise walks, right during the week of Rise walks. And then when I attended the North Adams walk, it was something else. It's a somber walk. It's a realization of what truly happens when you are facing domestic violence. And the importance of our work and what we do," she said.
She explained the many programs and preventative programs the center does. The center's website says Berkshire County has a rate of restraining orders 37 percent higher than the state average.
"We get over 3,500 hotline calls in a year, which is a huge number, and we serve over 2,000 survivors every year, and equal number of children that they bring," Chaturvedi said. "We have survivors from every town, almost every town in Berkshire County, big and small. Some of the numbers are so big for the population of that town, and that shows you the scale of the problem.
"Domestic violence can happen anywhere, anytime, to anyone. And as they say, everyone knows someone, and our numbers are reflective of that."
The center's memorial sign held the names of 18 victims of domestic violence murders in the county since 2006.
"There have been 18 murders since 2006 which seems such a huge number to me when I joined this county," she said. "We will never forget their names. We carry their names at every walk. We will remember them, and we will make sure that they are never, ever forgotten."
Tags: benefit walk, domestic violence, elizabeth freeman center,
