Press Coverage
Below are select news features of A Call For Change. (Formerly 10 to 10 Helpline.)
Media Requests
A Call For Change Helpline team members are available for interviews. For more information, contact:
WBUR |February 16, 2023
Massachusetts group creates country’s first helpline for domestic abusers
Every year, about 10 million Americans experience domestic violence — that’s nearly 20 people a minute being physically or emotionally abused by an intimate partner, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
The scope of that abuse inspired Massachusetts-based social worker and domestic violence survivor JAC Patrissi to create a unique hotline: one that gives would-be or actual abusers — mostly men — a place to call when they feel out of control, or after they’ve committed an act of violence.
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Photo: Jenny Kane/AP
NBC Boston |February 10, 2023
Organization Aims to Prevent Domestic Violence by Reaching Out to Potential Abusers
As domestic violence cases dominate the headlines in Massachusetts, advocates are focused on prevention. Most of the support hotlines target survivors, but one group is specifically looking to talk to abusers.
A Call for Change, which started in western Massachusetts, is the first hotline in the nation for abusers. They put up billboards on 93 South in Braintree advertising the hotline with statements such as “Rather than harming your spouse, call us for help.”
“As soon as we put them up, our call volume increased with people saying you’re on speaker. I’m alone in my car. I saw your billboard and I think this is for me,” co-founder JAC Patrissi said.
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Photo: Shutterstock
Boston Globe |January 25, 2023
A new domestic violence prevention hotline — for abusers
Do you experience aggressive anger? Do you lash out at your partner and strike them? Does your partner fear you? Are you hurting someone you love?
There’s a free, anonymous hotline that can help.
A Call for Change, 877-898-3411, launched in Massachusetts a little over a year ago, is the nation’s first free and confidential helpline for men and women who feel driven to harm their partner.
It is just one of the measures the state is implementing to stop domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence, before it begins.
The Berkshire Eagle |December 31, 2022
A Call For Change Seeks to End IPV Where it Starts
“A year ago, a man dialed the Call for Change Helpline, a confidential line to prevent domestic violence. “I don’t want to keep harming my wife,” he told the responder. Michelle Harris listened as he described his circumstances. He was illiterate, relied on subsistence farming and did not have easy access to a nearby town.
“Harris, herself a domestic violence survivor, acknowledged that as a Black woman living in a city, she couldn’t relate to him. But she could help. By the end of the hour long call, he asked if he could call back. Harris said he could.”
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Photo: Shutterstock
Reasons to be Cheerful |November 21, 2022
A Call For Help Answered
“The caller says he just got a text message from a woman he recently started dating, accusing him of sexual assault. “Describe to me what happened,” JAC Patrissi calmly requests on the other end of the line. As the caller takes her through the events of the evening, Patrissi chimes in at crucial intervals and homes in on the occasions when the caller’s partner sent signals of discomfort and refusal that the caller chose to ignore.”
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Photo: Shutterstock
The CUT | Friday, July 22, 2022
A Domestic-Violence Helpline for Abusers
“Divorce is about separation. Arrest is about separation. Shelter is about separation. And so for people who don’t want to separate from their partners, we have offered them almost nothing.”
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Photo-Illustration: The Cut; Photos: Getty
News Nation| Friday, July 29, 2022
Domestic Violence Helpline tries to reach abusers
Most services aimed at stopping domestic violence focus on the victim, but a hotline service in Massachusetts called A Call For Change (Formerly 10 to 10 Helpline) attempts to reach the other side: People who have or think they might hurt those close to them.
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Photo: Getty
WBUR | Monday, January 3, 2022
10 to 10 Helpline: First 100 Callers
In this story on Boston public radio, Sara-Rose Brenner interviews 10 to 10 Helpline co-founder JAC Patrissi about the first 100 calls into the helpline.
Listen to the segment via YouTube
Boston 25 News | December 21, 2021
Massachusetts helpline aims to help abusers change patterns
“We are getting more calls than we thought,” said Monica Moran, a co-founder. “And it’s a higher percentage of people who are actually using harm and looking for more help.”
The Lily | October 29, 2021
These organizations want to help survivors of domestic violence — without calling the police
“We have had callers who use harm that have calls that are half an hour to an hour longer, and they are saying things like ‘I never looked at it that way,’ or ‘I’ve been this way in every relationship I’ve ever had,’” Moran said. “We are feeling hopeful, and the community has really embraced it.”
New York Times Opinion | October 1, 2021
‘I Don’t Want to Hit My Children. I Don’t Want to Hit Anybody.’
“We have to stop asking survivors to do more,” JAC Patrissi, a co-founder of 10 to 10 said. “People are worried that an intervention like this is therapy, or collusion, and often those worries are based in this presumption that accountability means carceral control.” The goal, she said, is “a community response that says we’ll walk with you in your change but you have to be accountable.”
Relationship Violence
10 to 10 team member Monica Moran was on the show to talk about our helpline as a domestic violence prevention tool. The episode also highlights a new program from Safe Passage for high school students, and it explores “Missing White Woman Syndrome” and the disparity in response to violence against people of color – including in New England. Monica’s interview starts at 20:15.
Boston 25 News | July 27, 2021
First in nation helpline for abusers launched in Massachusetts to help curb domestic abuse
“It’s not a men’s helpline. It’s a helpline for anybody who is using control and abuse. And that can be any gender, any race, anybody, really. Young, old. It’s possible anybody could be having these feelings and we’re not going to stigmatize anybody who calls. That’s our commitment,” said Monica Moran, the manager of Domestic Violence Prevention Services for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission in Springfield.
Commonwealth Magazine | May 16, 2021
First-in-the-nation hotline seeks to help abusers
“Many people have someone they love and care about who’s being abusive, and they don’t say anything because they don’t know what to say, or they don’t know how to do it safely,” Moran said. “Unfortunately, that silence is misread as support.”
93.9 The River | April 28, 2021
The 10 to 10 Helpline: 877-898-3411
10 to 10 Helpline team member Monica Moran spoke with 93.9 FM, Northampton, Massachusetts Radio (The River) host Monte Belmonte about our new resources for would-be abusers, including why these resources are so important for teens.
MassLive | April 15, 2021
Western Massachusetts hotline for domestic abusers is 1st of its kind in US
“We are creating more options for people who want to learn how to be a safe partner, and options outside the criminal justice system. We are turning to the direct source of abuse — the person who abuses — and asking them to help,” said Monica Moran, manager of domestic violence prevention projects at the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, one of the agencies overseeing the helpline.
