Leyna Tobey, of Augusta, and Allison Leighton, of Oakland, has been recognized for achieving the dean’s list at Merrimack College, in North Andover, Massachusetts, for the spring 2017 semester.

Are you interested in rewarding and meaningful volunteer work? Sexual Assault Crisis and Support Center has an ongoing need for volunteer advocates for our 24-hour, free, and confidential support line. Volunteer advocates are an incredibly important and crucial part of our mission to lessen the trauma-related suffering of sexual assault and promote healing by guiding those affected by sexual violence toward survival through support, advocacy, education and community collaboration.

Volunteer advocates support those impacted by sexual violence by answering hotline calls and accompanying victims/survivors to the hospital for forensic medical exams. Volunteers respond to hotline calls from the comfort of their own home for a minimum of three shifts per month and scheduling is flexible. A Sexual Assault Crisis and Support Center staff member is always available by phone to assist our volunteers.

All volunteer advocates must be at least 18 years of age, hold a valid driver’s license, pass background checks, and successfully complete 40 hours of Advocate Training. Although this is a volunteer position, stipends may be available.

The Sexual Assault Crisis and Support Center’s next free, 40-hour Volunteer Advocate Training starts on Thursday, September 28th. The training series will be held at our Winthrop Administrative Office on Thursday afternoons from 1pm-4pm.

If you are interested in making a difference in people’s lives, please consider attending the Volunteer Advocate Training to see if becoming a volunteer advocate on our support line is a good fit for you! For more information on our Volunteer Advocate Training, please contact Jenna McCarthy at 377-1010 ext. 113 or via email at jenna.mccarthy@silentnomore.org.

For more information please visit our website at www.silentnomore.org. If you or someone you know needs support about sexual violence please call 1-800-871-7741.

John H. Twomey will speak about his recent book, Retiring To, Not From — From Massachusetts Professor to Maine Farmer. The discussion will encompass many aspects of life on his farm and his comments will be accompanied by a slide presentation. John and his partner Leigh Norcott live off grid in a 19th century Maine farmhouse. They raise vegetables, fruits, chickens and brook trout, and enjoy hiking and cross-country skiing on the many trails on the farm. Indeed, their lives include many aspects of life from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. John and Leigh live quietly and very much in touch with the natural world that surrounds them. Since 1978 John has worked on maintaining and improving wildlife habitat on the farm’s 125 acres. He will discuss these efforts, focusing attention on his work in the fields, brushy areas, and woodlands.

After 37 years as a professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, John retired in 2009 and moved, with his partner Leigh Norcott, to Montville, Maine. There they live simply and deliberately on the farm that John has owned since 1978. The farm operates on solar power, completely off grid, and John and Leigh work together as they produce almost all of their own food, and all of their own firewood. An avid naturalist, John has for years worked to maintain and improve the wildlife habitat on the farm. He does so by carefully scheduling the mowing of his fields and brushy areas, by planting, transplanting, grafting, and pruning hundreds of apple trees, and by planting thousands of white and chestnut oaks. Having seen farms sold and developed in his hometowns in Connecticut and Massachusetts, John long ago set his sights on owning and nurturing an old New England farm, a traditional home place. He has accomplished that and intends to permanently protect his Montville farm.

Edit: Added time and location of presentation.