Ms. Foundation for Women - 2011 Marie C. Wilson Young Woman’s Leadership Award – Priscilla Rorie

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2011 Marie C. Wilson Young Woman’s Leadership Award – Priscilla Rorie

Priscilla Rorie
Youth Program Coordinator, Close to Home

A thirst for social justice found Priscilla Rorie young. By 13, she had become painfully aware of the violence plaguing her working-class Boston community: domestic violence, sexual violence and gang-related deaths were all commonplace. “I had seen a lot of violence going on, and I’d seen a lot of domestic violence going on, but none of it was being addressed,” Priscilla says, looking back.

Today, Priscilla, now 24, stands at the forefront of young people crafting creative solutions to ending gender-based violence. Through her work with Close to Home, in Dorchester, MA, Priscilla has inspired the young people around her to speak out and share their stories—and transformed a community in the process.

As a teenager, Priscilla first learned about Close to Home—an organization that creates opportunities for people to learn about, and put an end to, violence in their community—through her father, a community service officer for the Boston Police Department who was moved by the group’s charge and became involved himself. But the idea for “Sharing Our Stories,” the youth literary magazine launched by Priscilla and Close to Home in 2008, came during Priscilla’s senior year of college. The year before, she’d been sexually assaulted, and she wanted to take what she’d learned through her own experience to help those around her.

“I’ve always thought writing had a lot of therapeutic value,” says Priscilla, “so I wanted to create a literary magazine with the youth to get them to share their stories in a creative way.

“Almost all the youth in my program have known someone who died,” Priscilla points out. “Some of them are 14 and 15 and they’ve known people who have been shot. It’s kind of a tradition in Boston to wear a pin memorializing the person who died, and I know kids that have four or five pins now.” Close to Home’s youth have also come face-to-face with a much more hidden form of violence: child sexual abuse.

“Sexual abuse from a family member or friend is a major issue,” Priscilla adds. “That’s something that’s really, very prevalent and something that’s not talked about a lot.”

In creating the journal, Priscilla wanted to develop not just a product that could spark discussion, but also a process that could help teens heal. She succeeded phenomenally. More than 1,000 copies of the magazine were disseminated in the community; they continue to be used in trainings and in schools throughout the state. But just as important, the young people who participated in putting the journal together found their own lives changed.

“These teenagers hadn’t talked about this stuff with anybody,” Priscilla notes. “They didn’t trust their counselors, or their parents, and this was really the first time that they were able to say how they felt and not feel ashamed.

“It was a healing process for everybody,” Priscilla continues. “It was really great to be able to talk creatively about these terrible things—and in a way that was about finding solutions.”

And supporting groups to identify creative local solutions is exactly what the Ms. Foundation is about, says Aimee Thompson, executive director of Close to Home. “The Ms. Foundation has been a pioneer in supporting community-based organizations to develop local solutions to domestic and sexual violence and child sexual abuse. And I think that the impact of that we’re only beginning to see.”

This is likely just the beginning of Priscilla’s impact, too. According to Aimee, Priscilla has always had “an incredible commitment to make change in the world.” “She brings her whole self, and her whole story,” continues Aimee, “to everything she does—and she demands, by example, that we all do the same.”

The pride and respect are mutual. “I always wanted to make a difference,” says Priscilla. “Close to Home provided me with a space to be creative and to think about the prevention of violence in different ways—through art and community organizing. Aimee is an amazing person, and my colleagues at Close to Home are like my family members.”

And that Close to Home family—along with her parents and sisters—will be watching with great anticipation as Priscilla embarks on her next big adventure: becoming an elementary school teacher. “My mom was a teacher and it’s been my goal for as long as I can remember,” remarks Priscilla with real excitement. “I love kids. That look you get when they understand something you’ve just taught them—I think that’s just immeasurable.”

Immeasurable. That’s exactly the kind of word we’d use to describe Priscilla herself.