'Helping people to be safe.' Director of Independence House looks back after 25 years

Lysetta Hurge-Putnam is looking back these days, remembering when she arrived at Independence House.

It was 25 years ago.

She was the newly hired executive director for the Hyannis agency that helps victims of domestic violence.

“I feel very grateful to be doing this on the Cape because of the community that is so generous,” Hurge-Putnam said in a recent interview.

Independence House has grown considerably since it was started as a private nonprofit by local women in 1979, first as a 24-hour hotline with just a table and a phone where it received calls from domestic violence victims. The hotline has continued and in 1981 victim services were added with a rape crisis center, providing crisis intervention and specialized assistance to victims of sexual assault, ages 12 and up.

When Hurge-Putnam arrived in 1999, Independence House had 12 staff members.

Now, the organization has 49 staff members and serves from 7,000 to 10,000 Cape residents every year. The agency has four offices: the main office on Bassett Lane in Hyannis that is open every weekday, offices in Orleans and Falmouth that are open every weekday and one in Provincetown that is open once a week. Anyone who needs help doesn’t need an appointment at any of the offices, but the organization encourages people to call the police first.

“Our whole mission is about helping people to be safe,” Hurge-Putnam said. “There are lots of remedies now. There’s a lot that we can do.”

Independence House has an 11-member board of directors.

“It’s such a pleasure to work with one of the strongest people I know," Board Chair Leda Phillips said of Hurge-Putnam. "She is the heart and soul of Independence House. She has great, open communication with staff and the board. She steers us toward a future with promise and continued growth.”

A journey to advocacy

Hurge-Putnam's journey to advocacy began early. She earned her master’s degree in social work from State University of New York-Buffalo.

She started working in a domestic abuse shelter in her junior year in college, then was hired by a child and family services agency in Buffalo. She did a lot of work in the court system, with special needs adoptions, and became a specialist in incest survivor cases.

Independence House: Domestic violence prevention center in Hyannis to build with federal grant

In 1999, after 19 years of working in Buffalo, she was ready to move on and applied for the executive director’s job at Independence House.

Hurge-Putnam was among 72 applicants.

“It was the right time in my professional life. It was good timing,” she said. She and her husband, Dan Putnam, also a social worker, wanted to move to the Cape where he had family. Their daughter, Nina, attended Nauset Regional High School and is now at Northeast Ohio Medical University.

'No doubt there is domestic violence'

When she arrived at Independence House, Hurge-Putnam said it was a "challenging time." There were some concerns with the organization, she said.

“I thought Independence House was a gem for the county. I was completely convinced how great the work is,” she said.

There is no doubt there is domestic violence and sexual violence on Cape Cod, she said. Several homicides related to domestic violence occurred before she came, and there have been some since.

“People need other support,” she said. “The family is impacted.”

Independence House helps in several ways, such as getting a protective order or bringing children in for counseling, she said. There is a food pantry at the Hyannis office. There is a shelter, separate from the offices, where victims can live for up to 24 months. The agency also helps with transitional housing by funding first and last month's rent.

Hurge-Putnam's presence has been felt

Several police departments on the Cape now have civilian domestic violence advocates. Those advocates follow up with the victims and can refer them to Independence House or other services they may need.

“We have always been nontraditional,” Hurge-Putnam said, in terms of staffing and the range of services. Most staff members who do case management and advocacy must have bachelor’s or master’s degrees in social work. All staff members go through 52 hours of training for every job regardless of their academic degree.

Independence House also has volunteers with different backgrounds, including survivors of domestic violence who bring an understanding to the issue, Hurge-Putnam said.

“We’re not a therapy organization. We are an advocacy and resource center,” she said. If someone needs long-term therapy, staff members make referrals. “Different clients need different things,” she said.

The agency now has a staff attorney, who represents clients at no charge, and advocates available in all district and probate courts on the Cape.

Independence House recently received $10,000 from a $97,000 sex trafficking grant to the Cape and Islands District Attorney’s office, to provide counselors for sex trafficking victims at police departments and hospitals.

The agency also is appointed to work with victims of sexual violence at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility in Bourne.

A new counseling and resource center planned

With its expanding services, Independence House will soon be building a new counseling and resource center providing more specialized services next to the Hyannis office with the help of a $3.4 million appropriation from Congress.

The funding had the support of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, and U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Massachusetts.

New challenges of online stalking, social media and other issues are emerging that Hurge-Putnam said she never could have imagined when she arrived in 1999.

Her main wish, she said is that she wants all the people on the Cape "to know we’re here.”

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: 25 years later, Cape domestic violence services leader sees remedies