Group Debrief

Individual Reflections

Catherine

Prior to meeting with Mr. Djingo, I did not know a lot about the laws that are currently in place to support victims of domestic abuse or about the process by which those bills are passed. I did not realize how difficult it was to pass a bill or how the public was able to be involved in this process. Although it was one of the shorter meetings that we had, it was very informative and we were able to get ideas for our final project (writing letters to members of the judiciary committee to try to get this bill passed). I found that this was one of the most difficult interviews that we had as we did not know as much about this process. I personally felt that towards the end of the interview we were running out of questions because there was only so many questions that we were able to ask about one bill. The greatest takeaway from this meeting was that there were many ways (such as writing letters or testifying in front of the judiciary committee) that we can get involved in the passing/writing of bills).

Lydia

Before this interview, we heard a lot of times about the flaws in the government and how they deal with domestic violence. Being able to talk to Mr. Djingo allowed us to see that it is not always easy for the government to make the laws that so many victims need to support themselves. Hearing the obstacles the government faces helped me learn a lot, but even more important than that was being able to hear how the public can get involved in help moving laws along and getting them passed so that we won’t complain about the laws that are not yet in place as much.

Skylar

Prior to the interview with Mr. Djingo, I had thought the bill was already passed into law; however, he informed us that it was being processed through the Senate/House of Representatives and was not yet law, which eliminated some of the questions we had been thinking of asking prior to the meeting. As the interview came to a close, it became hard to come up with more questions to ask about the specific bill, especially considering it had not yet been passed and there was no information we could have gotten regarding if the law had been effective or not. However, I think the interview was helpful in that Mr. Djingo explained how bills are passed into law and provided a lot of information regarding how many are passed per year and how crucial public advocacy is in passing bills into law. This provided a good deal of insight into how people outside of politics and the State House—including Massachusetts high schoolers!—can create change in their state. It also was interesting to learn about the politicians' side of the story, considering how our interview with Audrey provided a lot of insight into the social workers' side. Unlike Audrey, Mr. Djingo believed that policy does in fact support victims. However, I noticed from his comments that policy mostly supports victims in upper class situations, as it's harder to support victims who don't feel comfortable around the authorities or calling the authorities. Overall, I think it was hard to be prepared for this interview, but I do think that, however brief it was, it was good to learn about another perspective on policy and how it does or does not support victims of domestic abuse.