In the early 1980s, two Atlanta therapists, each with a history of involvement in progressive social change work, decided to pursue working with men who batter. Independently, Dick Bathrick, M.A., and Gus Kaufman, Jr., Ph.D., had been reading about the still-new battered women’s movement and had begun to inquire locally about the advisability of conducting a program for batterers. First they approached Susan May who was then Executive Director of the Coalition for Battered Women, asking if a program for batterers would be useful to their shelter. Her response was, "Only if you don’t create more work and more pressure for battered women and their advocates. Go ahead and we’ll let you know whether it’s working for women."

Soon after they began their first batterer’s group in Atlanta, Kathleen Carlin, who was then Executive Director of the Cobb County YWCA Women’s Resource Center, hired them to run a group for court mandated batterers. The arrangement that ensued was one in which Dick and Gus would teach the batterers classes (then called "groups") under the supervision of Kathleen and another advocate, Leigh Ann Peterson.

For all four, as well as for the men in "group," this structure proved extremely challenging—indeed radical. It was unheard of for men to talk together about the ways they view and treat women; even more so for their discussions to be taped, listened to and commented on by women. The arrangement shed light on the function of male collusion and secrecy, the shift required for men to hold battered women’s reality central, and the work involved in men’s taking direction from women advocates.

Within a short time it became clear that the work would be most effective if a woman played primary leadership role in the organization. Kathleen left the shelter to become the founding executive director of Men Stopping Violence in 1982.

MSV honed its analysis and expanded its work over the ensuing years, moving always toward a sharper focus on social change but maintaining the work with batterers as both a "laboratory" for men learning the work and an entree into the community. A significant new work area was added in 1994 when MSV won one of four national cooperative agreement awards with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct research into effective community intervention to end battering.

In 1996, Kathleen was diagnosed with lung cancer, and passed away after a six-month battle with the disease. A planning committee was appointed from among board, staff, women’s advocate consultants, and the community at-large to design and recommend an organizational structure that would meet current philosophical and programmatic needs. The results of this in-depth process were a new team structure for programmatic and administrative functions; the naming of Ulester Douglas and Dick Bathrick as Co-Executive Directors; the creation of a two-woman consultancy to the organization; and a new by-law requiring that women constitute a majority on the Board of Directors.

This structure remained in place from 1998-2003, when Shelley Serdahely became the Executive Director, giving Ulester Douglas and Dick Bathrick an opportunity to move back into the programatic leadership roles at which they excelled.

Men Stopping Violence continues to evolve through a continual process of examining internal lessons and external demands. However, our vision of safety for women remains constant, and our commitment to staying in the work for the long haul is firm.

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