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LOCAL The Champion, Thursday, June 11 - 17, 2015
TIFFANY MCNARY
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Tiffany McNary, a
Brookhaven resident and
clinical assistant professor at
Georgia State University, has
served as a volunteer board
member at Odyssey Family
Counseling for two years.
“I work very hard at nur
turing these life components
and am dedicated to giving
deeply to each one,” she said,
adding that her background,
which includes a masters
degree in expressive arts
therapy and counseling and
a doctorate in counselor
education, makes her espe
cially qualified to volunteer
with Odyssey.
“The skills I have de
veloped from my graduate
training, coupled with my
14 years of clinical experi
ence, allow me to bring a
mental health perspective
and expertise to the Odyssey
board. Advocating for men
tal health services for chil
dren and families that have
been impacted by trauma
has been a core passion of
mine, and one I’ve dedicated
my entire professional career
toward. More specifically, I
have expertise in working
with children who have been
exposed to or are victims of
trauma, through incorporat
ing the expressive arts and
play into my counseling ses
sions.”
McNary said Odysseys
mission is directly aligned
with her values. “Odyssey
provides mental health ser
vices for the most in need
children in Atlanta, and
children as young as 3 years
old. My years of clinical ex
perience working with trau
matized children has shown
me that if a child’s life can be
touched and connected to,
the unhealthy trajectory his/
her life is on can be changed
to a better, healthier one. I
believe in the work that Od
yssey does and I believe that
Odysseys services are criti
cal to the lives of so many
children and families.”
During her two years on
the Odyssey board, McNary
has served on its develop
ment committee helping to
raise funds for the agency.
Last year, she served as vice
chairwoman of Odysseys
40th anniversary committee,
which organized a fund
raiser designed to increase
community awareness of the
organization in addition to
bringing in revenue for the
nonprofit.
“I take my role as a
board member very seri
ously. I understand that
the decisions we make as a
board directly impact how
Odyssey functions on many
levels. It is deeply rewarding
to watch these decisions im
pact the lives of the clients
Odyssey serves.
McNary serves on the
boards of three other metro
Atlanta nonprofits—all ded
icated to enriching the lives
of children—in addition to
volunteering at each of her
childrens schools and her
church. The most reward
ing part of volunteering, she
said, is “helping to facilitate
healthy change in the lives of
others.”
If you would like to nominate someone to be considered as a future Champion of the Week, please contact Andrew Cauthen
at andrew@dekalbchamp.com or at (404) 373-7779, ext. 117.
Men working together
to stop violence
by Carla Parker
carla@dekalbchamp.com
When it comes to addressing the issue of
domestic violence, women are often the ones
to speak out against it.
However, there is a group of men in
DeKalb County who have spoken out for
years against domestic violence and worked
to educate other men on ending male
violence against women. For more than 30
years, Men Stopping Violence (MSV) has
worked to engage men into building safer
communities for females.
MSV is a not-for-profit organization that
provides organizations, communities and
individuals with the knowledge and tools re
quired to “mobilize men to prevent violence
against women and girls,” according to its
website.
“We look to the violence against womens
movement to keep the reality of the problem
and the vision of the solution before us,” the
website states. “We believe that all forms of
oppression are interconnected. Social justice
work in the areas of race, class, gender, age
and sexual orientation are all critical to end
ing violence against women.”
The organization was established in
1982, but it originated in 1981 when Atlanta
therapists Dick Bathrick and Gus Kaufman
began Atlanta’s first program for batterers.
Kathleen Carlin, who was then executive di
rector of the Cobb County YWCA Women’s
Resource Center, hired them to teach classes.
The classes grew and MSV was estab
lished. Since then the organization has edu
cated more than 60,000 men about how to
change abusive behavior.
“That is our primary role—to educate
the community about the issue of violence
against women,” said Ulester Douglas, ex
ecutive director of MSV.
MSV has programs such as “Because
We Have Daughters,” “Tactics and Choices
for Stopping Domestic Violence,” “Commu
nity Restoration Program” and more. MSV
has trained more than 1 million people in
churches, community groups, corporations,
universities, hospitals, civic organizations,
and national associations of district attor
neys, social workers, and battered women’s
advocates.
MSV has held classes at churches,
schools and carious community locations in
DeKalb.
“We are very involved in DeKalb Coun
ty,” Douglas said. “DeKalb County govern
ment has been extremely supportive of the
work we do. We also do a class for men who
were arrested for simple battery and we have
classes for men who were sent by DeKalb
court for aggravated assault. We do a lot of
community education.”
Eighty-five percent of participants report
an increased knowledge of appropriate re
sponses to someone they know who is abus
ing his partner and an increased willingness
to intervene, according to the organization.
Douglas said the organization has plans to be
more involved in the community.
“We have a three-year strategic plan and
it does include having more of a presence
in the community, certainly DeKalb, to re
ally be out there and engage the community
even more than we are already are doing,”
he said. “This problem of violence and all its
many forms is not going to be solved by just
working with men and young men who are
violent. It has to be a community solution
because the community has got to take re
sponsibility for its role in the problem. It has
to be a community accountability approach.”
Dads and daughters participate in a bridge activity.
Men Stopping Violence (MSV) created the “Because We Have Daugh
ters” initiative in 2005 to give men an opportunity to begin providing
those safety skills.