March 15 2010 – The Retreat’s 2^nd Annual Juried Art Show has garnished both national and international attention by reaching artists who have submitted works for consideration as far as South Africa, San Paolo, Brazil, the Midwest, and the entire Eastern seaboard. The message is clear: artists from diverse backgrounds and cultures are showing they care and are coming together to try to end domestic violence. In addition to the many participants from last year’s show who again have contributed works for consideration in 2010, it is obvious that the word continues to spread near and far. To date, this event has raised over $13,000 with the potential to raise more if any artwork sells during the 13 day group show. All proceeds collected go directly to the women and children the Retreat serves. We are thrilled by the turn-out and wish to thank ALL of the artists who entered the juried show.

The juried competition was open to all artists with works in Photography, Painting, and Sculpture.  Jurors Max Fishko , Gallery Director of ArtHamptons and the San Francisco Fine Art Fair, and Christina Mossaides Strassfield , Museum Director/ Chief Curator of Guild Hall in East Hampton, will view works during the last week in March.   The participating artists in the show will have the chance to sell their work (if they wish to) and there will be a 50/50 split between the artist and the Retreat. 

The Top 25 entries, as chosen by the jurors, will be displayed in a group show opening on May 1st and running until May 13th at the Richard J. Demato Gallery in Sag Harbor.  The “Best in Show” will be announced during the opening reception on May 1^st and will receive a solo exhibition at the Richard J. Demato Gallery at a date to be determined by the artist and gallery.

  All participating artists will be notified of their status during the first week of April.  

###

Heather Fay

Community Outreach Coordinator
Heather@theretreatinc.org

www.theretreatinc.org 

www.hamptonsjuriedartshow.com

The Retreat
13 Goodfriend Drive
East Hampton, NY 11937

For more than 20 years the Retreat has been providing domestic violence services and education to families on the East End of Long Island. Programs include a residential shelter for women and children, a 24-hour domestic violence hotline, individual and group counseling, legal advocacy for all victims of domestic violence and an in-school violence prevention education program taught in our local schools.  All Services are free of charge.

Pictured from left to right: Lori Green, Chair of Suffolk County Women’s Advisory Committee, Shirley Katz and Legislator Schneiderman

On March 2, 2010, Legislator Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk) and Suffolk County Legislature honored Shirley Katz of Montauk with a proclamation for being selected by the Suffolk County Women’s Advisory Commission as the countywide “Woman of Distinction”. 

In January of each year, Suffolk County Legislators select a “Woman of Distinction” who resides their Legislative District.  The Suffolk County Women’s Advisory Commission then selects a county wide “Woman of Distinction” in February from the eighteen honorees selected in each county.  This year, Shirley Katz from the second legislative district, has been selected for this countywide distinction. 

Shirley Katz was honored last month with a lifetime achievement from the Long Island Volunteer Hall of Fame.  Her biography is replete with numerous instances of her community spanning a 70 year period. 

Shirley Katz is a professional business woman and a compassionate humanitarian who has worked with many organizations including pre-school nursery, PTA, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, library programs, soup kitchens, the American Cancer Society, environmental organizations, youth programs, cultural and artistic associations to name a few.  Upon retirement, Shirley and her husband moved to east end of Long Island where she volunteered at The Retreat in East Hampton.  Today at age 84, Shirley continues to volunteer for The Retreat and other community organizations.

In continued recognition of her outstanding service, the Suffolk County Legislature honors Shirley Katz, as the 2010 “Woman of Distinction”. 

“Both personally and on behalf of the residents of Suffolk County, I would like to express my warmest congratulations to Shirley Katz,” said Legislator Schneiderman “She is a woman truly worthy of the day’s honor and the everlasting gratitude of Suffolk County.”

NEWS RELEASE                                                                         
Contact: Christina DeLisi (631) 852-8400 ]]> http://www.theretreatinc.org/news/shirley-katz-%e2%80%9cwoman-of-distinction%e2%80%9d.htm/feed 0 http://www.theretreatinc.org/news/152.htm http://www.theretreatinc.org/news/152.htm#comments Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:47:30 +0000 retreatwebadmin http://www.theretreatinc.org/news/152.htm

Schneiderman To Issue Proclamation To ‘Woman Of Distinction’

Montauk – Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk) will honor Shirley Katz of Montauk with a proclamation for being selected by the Suffolk County Women’s Advisory Commission as the countywide “Woman of Distinction” for 2010 at the next Suffolk County Legislature’s General meeting on March 2, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. Riverhead County Center.

January of each year Suffolk County Legislators select a “Woman of Distinction” who resides in his or her respective Legislative District. By selecting a Woman of Distinction from each County Legislative District, the County is acknowledging and recognizing the contributions of all women to advance our county and our state. The Suffolk County Women’s Advisory Commission selects a county wide “Woman of Distinction” in February from the eighteen honorees selected in each county. When chosen the individual will be honored at the March meeting of the Suffolk County Legislature meeting.

Katz is a professional business woman and a compassionate humanitarian who has extended herself to assist others within her local community for over 70 years. She worked with many organizations including pre-school nursery, PTA, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, library programs, town soup kitchens, the American Cancer Society, Concerned Citizens for Montauk, Montauk Youth, the Montauk Artists’ Association, Jewish Center of the Hamptons; along with many other groups over the years.

Upon retirement, Katz and her husband moved to Montauk full time and volunteered at The Retreat in East Hampton. Following a six week program to recognize domestic violence and make appropriate referrals, Katz began to answer The Retreat’s domestic violence hotline. Katz did such a wonderful job as a volunteer at The Retreat that they offered her a paid position as an administrative assistant. Each week, on one of her days off, she volunteers to work the register at The Retreat’s thrift store at the Bridgehampton Commons.

Katz is a woman truly worthy of the day’s honor and the everlasting gratitude of Suffolk County.

View the entire article from Hamptons.com here

 My name is Jeffrey Friedman, Executive Director of the Retreat.   For over two decades, the Retreat has been the only community-based, not-for-profit agency that provides direct domestic violence services and support for victims of domestic crimes on eastern Long Island. With people losing their jobs and being foreclosed from their homes, family violence has been on the rise and domestic violence service requests at the Retreat have increased nearly 40% in the most recent 12-month period. Simultaneously as demand for our services has been accelerating at a record-breaking pace, organizationally, we have seen dramatic funding cuts from our local government, in addition to a substantial drop in private donations.

The Proposed Executive Budget for FY 10/11 is essentially a complete elimination of all state funding for domestic violence services and will have a catastrophic effect on the women and children of our community.  If enacted, Governor Patterson’s proposed budget will place thousands of Long Island’s women and children in harms way. 

The Governor’s  proposed budget contains the following critical elements: 1) Elimination of State Funds in the following areas: a. TANF – $3 million dollars in TANF  funds  previously available for non-residential services has been zeroed out. b. Child Protection/Domestic Violence Collaborations – elimination of state funding for these collaborations. 2) Significant cost shift/reduction: a. Title XX – All state funding will be eliminated leaving only federal and local dollars. This cost shift is actually an $18 million reduction for local districts.  b. General Fund – There will be no General Fund dollars being allocated to domestic violence programs and services in the State of New York. 

For the Retreat, the only community based domestic violence services organization on Eastern Long Island, these cuts would be deep and have great impact.  The following services would be drastically effected and/or eliminated due to funding cuts: A) Crisis Hotline — The 24/7 hotline provides: education, crisis intervention, and instant linkage of abused and/or threatened individuals to local and statewide resources such as shelter and emergency health services.  In 2008, the Retreat responded to 1,580 hotline calls. B) Legal Advocacy — Trained Retreat staff members accompany victims to court year-round and assist in the important process of obtaining orders of protection. Additionally, Advocates provide guidance and emotional support through stressful custody issues.  In 2008, the Advocacy program served 534 clients and provided 6,317 units of service.  [A “unit of service” is any separate, distinct instance of interaction with a client or member of the general public who benefits from our work.] C) Counseling — Individual and Group counseling is provided to adults and children year-round. Counseling sessions focus on empowerment.  Group counseling sessions combine education about abuse with mutual support to alleviate feelings of isolation.  In 2008, the Counseling program served 186 clients and provided a total 2,492 units of service.

We understand that New York has been hit hard by the economic crisis, but to decimate the state’s domestic violence budget at a time when the women and children of our community are most vulnerable is unacceptable. We cannot expect to overcome budget shortfalls on the backs of abused women and children. 

As you are aware, domestic violence is a matter of life and death for hundreds of thousands of women and children in New York. There simply is no excuse for domestic violence resources to fail to assist victims in need.  Without agencies like the Retreat, these victims have no place to turn and no safety net.  

The Retreat feels and acknowledges the impact of the nation’s economic downturn and the tough choices that are coming with it.   Our leadership team, including our Board of Directors, has recognized that, in this era, every penny counts even more. Even with the significant staffing cutbacks we implemented 2009, our staff and board continue to energetically contribute many long hours in dedication to our mission.  As just one example, a Retreat team member recently discretely assisted a battered woman at 4AM at a train station so that the woman could be escorted safely to a hospital and then to our emergency shelter.  Our team assured that she was not alone. With the funding cuts proposed, I am not sure that organizations like the Retreat can continue to survive and provide critical crisis services to abused women and children. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. said,  “ If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.” What the staff do at the Retreat is to provide hope for mothers and their children. Our staff show the people we serve that they can have a life free of violence and abuse. They show them they can be in loving nurturing relationships. 

Please keep that hope alive for our women and children.  I urge all community leaders to reexamine the state budget and restore funds to continue to help the abused women and children of our community.           

 Thank you for your time and serious consideration of this matter.

 Jeffrey Friedman

Executive Director, The Retreat

February 2, 2010 By REID J. EPSTEIN  reid.epstein@newsday.com

There will be no online domestic violence registry after Suffolk legislators Tuesday sustained County Executive Steve Levy’s veto of the bill creating one.

The bill’s sponsor, Legis. DuWayne Gregory (D-Amityville), mustered only seven of the 12 votes needed to override Levy’s veto. The bill to create the registry had passed, on a 14-3 vote, Nov. 17. Gregory blamed the evaporation of the bill’s support on political pressure from Levy’s office.

“It was unfortunate that we’re in that sort of environment where politics trumps good government policy,” Gregory said.

But Levy aide Ben Zwirn told lawmakers that nonprofit groups that aid domestic violence victims were unified in their opposition to creating the online database. Victims, Zwirn said, would be less likely to call police if they feared their attackers’ names would wind up on the Internet.

“This is about identifying children who have the same last name as somebody who has abused them,” he said. “To say that this is political is offensive.”

After what proved to be a difficult year for nonprofit organizations, The Retreat, which provides support, shelter and services for victims of domestic violence, has managed to finish the year in the black. But Richard Demato, the shelter’s president, apparently doesn’t believe in keeping the secrets of the shelter’s success. Instead, he invited representatives of local nonprofit organizations to attend a summit at his Sag Harbor art gallery to share ideas about how they can collaborate and succeed.

Mr. Demato said The Retreat began 2009 with a $400,000 deficit after losing funding from East Hampton Town and other major donors. At the event on Friday, billed as the East End Social Services Summit, he told the group of about 30 that the organization survived the year by changing its fund-raising and marketing strategies.

“We found more people who gave us less,” he said, and added that the organization marketed itself aggressively. “You have to get your name out there, your face out there. You have to do different things to get different people. We’ll do anything to bring a new group to our organization.”

Jeffrey Friedman, The Retreat’s executive director, said they wanted to host the summit because despite a successful year, he knew that certain 
challenges, like providing health care for employees and dealing with 
limited resources, would continue to affect the organization, as well as other nonprofit organizations.

“Collaboration is really the only way that community-based organizations are going to survive,” he said.

“Funding for nonprofits is being affected from all directions,” Mr. Friedman, who has worked with nonprofits for 15 years, said. “We have to get creative in terms of how to continue to meet the demand for the people we serve and how to work together and maybe work in a way that we haven’t in the past.”

Organizations from Springs to Westhampton were represented at the two-hour forum, including the East Hampton Wellness Foundation, the Ross School, Bay Street Theatre of Sag Harbor, the Southampton Animal Shelter Foundation and the Springs School’s Project MOST. Representatives spoke about their respective organizations and the specific problems they face. Before long, the tone of discussion became collaborative, with many interjecting ideas on how the organizations could work symbiotically.

Through the discussion, they shared a few common needs and areas where they could possibly combine resources to cut costs. Doreen Quaranto, outreach director of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in East Hampton, said she could use a bus to transport the elderly to mass on the weekends. Raquel Barnes of the Bridgehampton Head Start program, said the organization pays for a bus service, but can afford to bus each child only one way, either to school or home from school. Juan Castro of the East Hampton YMCA/Rec Center, said he has occasional need to charter a bus, also an opportunity for possible collaboration.

Many of the organizations present agreed collaborating would also be beneficial for writing grants and insuring employees. Mr. Demato even suggested that organizations could share employees when appropriate.

“There could possibly be a way to share therapy personnel,” he said. “Staffing is expensive with health care, so if we share people we can cut costs.”

Mr. Friedman and Mr. Demato stressed that an important part of The Retreat’s effort to remain in the black this year was marketing, and the groups brainstormed ways they could share the burden of marketing—including creating an East End Social Services Facebook page where everyone could post updates about their organizations.

They also discussed collaborative events. A representative from the East End Arts Council in Riverhead said the group would be willing to co-host events and gallery openings with organizations that could find a common theme in their mission and the art council’s exhibit.

Suffolk County Executive Assistant Jennifer Freeman , whose office receives grant applications from many Long Island nonprofits, said that nonprofit groups need to stop assuming they are competing for the same funds and instead work together for them. She said it would be beneficial for many of the smaller groups to form one, larger body for the purposes of applying for funding. She said that would help the organizations get noticed by government agencies, and it would be beneficial for each organization because they would adapt to each other’s strengths and needs when applying for grants.

“Once you get over the competitiveness, you can all work together,” she said. “The fed seems to look more favorably on that.”

Another government attendee, County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, said he tries to keep an eye on nonprofit organizations applying for grants and said that his Sag Harbor office is always open for support.

“My office is happy to help any organization apply for grants, or if there is any other way we can help we’d be happy to do that,” he said.

Edna Steck, director of Human Services for East Hampton Town, supported Ms. Freeman’s idea of creating one body and cited precedent. She said that in the past, New York State has provided funding for communities that worked together to deliver services and formed referral agreements.

The organizations also agreed that referrals were a way they could help each other.

“All of our issues impact each other,” said Mr. Friedman. He said that while The Retreat offers help only for domestic violence, with those victims it also sees cases of substance abuse as well as children who need special services.

He said that the benefits of collaboration extend beyond financial gain for each organization and that by working together, East End nonprofits would also advance toward at least one common goal.

“We need to work together to improve the quality of life for those around us,” he said.

http://www.27east.com/story_detail.cfm?id=257427&town=Sag%20Harbor&page=2

For further information please go to: http://www.theretreatinc.org/news and click on 

Testimony at Suffolk County Public Hearing or http://www.theretreatinc.org/blogs/executive-director/quotes-from-survivors-of-domestic-violence-and-current-residential-clients-at-the-retreat.htm to see quotes from our survivors.  

We need your help to sustain the County Executive’s veto.   Please reach out to the following legislators ASAP and tell them you oppose this legislation for the following reasons:

1) It will place women and children of Domestic Violence in harms way.

2) It will breach the confidentiality of families who have been victims of domestic violence.

3) It will jeopardize millions of dollars of state and federal funds to the region because it places a victims confidentiality at risk.

4) It will create more violence and conflict because of the “humiliation” and “shame” factor.

5) It will cause victims not to come forward.  

A list of our legislators and their contact information is here:

http://legis.suffolkcountyny.gov/contact/contactleg.html

Please call today.  We are counting on your support.  

 We realize that not every non-profit has this as an option, and has not been as fortunate as us in achieving this goal.   However, we can’t do this on an ongoing basis either. 

These are unique times and problems which offer all of us the challenge to find new and creative methods to achieve our mutual goals. In order for us to do so and better serve the citizens of our community, collaboration needs to occur.  We need one another now more than ever.  The Retreat cordially invites you to an East End Social Service Summit on 1/22/2010, from 5:30PM to 7:30PM, at the Richard J. Demato Gallery at #90 Main Street, Sag Harbor. Please respond quickly as space will be limited. Please RSVP to Kathy Schad of The Retreat at (631) 329-4398 or Kathy@theretreatinc.org.

 At the summit you will learn more about The Retreat’s mission and vision for the future. You will also have the opportunity to share and discuss the purpose and goals of your non-profit affiliations, and hopefully we can learn, and grow through sharing with one another. We seek a symbiotic relationship wherein we can join together and work collaboratively on activities that will help the greater good of our community. We believe working together will yield an enhanced mutual success beyond what any of us can do alone.

 I urge you to get involved and to add to the quality of life, right here in our community. Help the needy women and children that are not sharing your current lifestyle and are certainly not living the American Dream. Together we can do more.

Please choose to make a difference in our community, it will not only change their life, but I promise it will improve yours too! I know, I’ve done it. Sincerely, Richard J. Demato, Board President