JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 This month\u2019s Postively JAX winner is quietly doing work for a group of women that is sometimes unseen.<\/p>\n
For years, Deborah Williams has quietly shown up for victims and survivors of domestic violence.<\/p>\n
Williams is the founder of \u201cSister Can You Hear Me,\u201d an organization she started 13 years ago after recognizing a need she couldn\u2019t ignore.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really had no intention of starting anything,\u201d Williams said. \u201cUntil one day I saw the need, and I saw a parent that looked just like me, the same way I was at one time: a single parent raising children and just trying to survive,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The name \u201cSister Can You Hear Me\u201d is meant to sound like a question.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a woman crying out for help. That\u2019s the woman that needs help. That\u2019s woman that needs someone to listen to her and to understand where she\u2019s coming from,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n
Williams said she is able to connect with many of the women she serves because she has lived through abuse herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cForty-something years ago, I was there. So, I understand what you\u2019re going through,\u201d she said. \u201cI want be in there with you. To every step that you know. I made it, you can make it too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams said she entered an abusive relationship as a teenager and once believed that violence was tied to love.<\/p>\n
When she was 17 years old, Williams said, she believed if a man didn\u2019t hit her, \u201che didn\u2019t love her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI went through that until one day I just walked past the mirror,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t see myself anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams said she left when she was 30.<\/p>\n
She said the women she encounters most often need a few basics first: safety, stability and someone who will listen.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone to listen to them, someone to understand what they\u2019re really going through \u2014 and shelter,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe have a lot of women that don\u2019t have nowhere to go. You know, the family has given up on them, and I tell people all the time: Don\u2019t give up on her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams said her organization\u2019s work extends beyond domestic violence support, including outreach that helps people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re out feeding the homeless,\u201d she said. \u201cWe talk to them and see: What started this? Why are you out here? Because a lot of times, people are not out here just to be out here. It\u2019s a reason that most people are out here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her long-term goal, she said, is to open a group home \u2014 a place to take overflow when shelters are full.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they don\u2019t have nowhere to go and they call me and say, \u2018Do you have a room?\u2019 Yes \u2014 I got you,” she said.<\/p>\n
Sister Can You Hear Me received nonprofit status two years ago, Williams said. Then a medical emergency forced her to stop \u2014 but also, she said, helped confirm her purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy pulse was at 22,\u201d she said. \u201cI was leaving. I was dying \u2014 slowly dying.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she felt at peace.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then that didn\u2019t happen,\u201d Williams said. \u201cSo I knew it was a purpose for me to be here. And the purpose is to help someone else. So I can live \u2014 they can live too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williams said her hope is not simply for survival, but for an abundant life \u2014 and for women to one day pass that goodness on to others.<\/p>\n
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