A “Chutes & Ladders” event will be held on May 10 at 5 p.m. at the Trinity Lutheran Church in downtown Bedford, although this is not the children’s game version.

Your Safe Haven, Bedford County’s comprehensive victims of crime agency, will host this interactive event to acquaint members of the community with the issues, obstacles, and considerations domestic abuse victims often face when attempting to leave the perpetrator, according to YSH’s staff attorney Jill Swiontek and board member Lynn Ashe.

Ashe will facilitate the “Chutes & Ladders” program and Swiontek will lead the exercises that walk participants through the unique challenges victims may face as they make their plans to leave an abusive situation. “Climbing, falling, sliding, rising — just like in the children’s game of “Chutes & Ladders” — victims can often go through all these stages,” Ashe said.

The event can accommodate up to 50 community members who are interested in “putting themselves in the shoes of victims,” according to Ashe, “and going through the steps of various scenarios, and what goes through victims’ minds.”

Ashe said there are considerations such as where to go, how will the move be funded, the effect on the children, and the family pets. “Your husband gets nasty and slaps you. You have a kid and a cat, and then the husband knocks you down the stairs — where do you go? What are your options and your first steps?”

According to Swiontek, there are a wide range of “unique situations victims may find themselves in.” She said the victim may be elderly and needs a caregiver. There may be circumstances such as the victim having disabilities or physical limitations, being an immigrant, or a homosexual, requiring a complex set of perhaps cultural or religious challenges for the victim.

At the upcoming event, group exercises will be held that will take each participant through the thought processes and stages of leaving an abusive environment. Each step will help community members in attendance answer questions as victims must — where will I go? What will I do for money? Where will I stay?

Swiontek said that many people ask, “Why don’t domestic violence victims just leave? The most lethal time in the process is when a victim is leaving. If it was easy, we wouldn’t have these issues.”

The event will feature various scenarios for participants to go through, and is open to any and all community members who want to learn more about domestic violence, and all the “little twists” that each situation presents, according to Swiontek.

“Chutes & Ladders” is free to attend, and no registration is required.

For more information on Your Safe Haven and this event, call 814-623-7664. For more information on this story, contact Tyna Walker-Lay at tynawalkerlay@gmail.com

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