An Interview with Jackie King of Ramona’s Way

An Overview of our Awesome Con Partner Charity!

Interview Questions Disclaimer: Ramona’s Way is not a shelter. The organization provides holistic services to women as they work their way toward transforming themselves from victims to survivors.

1. Ms. King, thank you for sitting down for us. First, your site talks about how Ramona’s Way was originally founded by Alli-Sha Alleman because her mother suffered through being trapped in an abusive relationship and also fell into substance abuse. We were curious about if you could tell us anything more about Ms. Alleman and her current level of involvement with the organization.

Ramona’s Way was founded in 2002 by Ali-Sha Allerman. She was inspired by her mother, who had been abused and addicted to drugs for eighteen years. Ali-Sha established Ramona’s Way to help women in current situations similar to those that her mother faced in order to fill the gap between services regarding the correlation between domestic violence and substance abuse, since many organizations at the time provided treatment for these conditions but didn’t address the relationship between them. Ali-Sha is a lifelong advocate of women’s rights striving to assist women in achieving optimum wellness, financially, physically, emotionally and spiritually. In 2008, she resigned the position of Executive Director to become the Assistant Director at the University Of Maryland School Of Social Work. After leaving this position, she is currently pursuing a PhD at Morgan State University. As a board member, Ali-Sha has remained a valuable resource in providing services to abused and addicted women.

2. When did you come into the running the organization day-to-day, and what’s a typical day like for you?

Jacqueline King assumed the position of Executive Director in 2008. It’s a position which requires providing both direct and indirect services. However, it’s a position which has resulted in developmental growth in numerous areas. A typical day could include meeting with a client to assess or assist them with services, attending meetings with collaborative organizations to discuss local policy issues, participating in outreach activities, providing training to community partners, and maintaining a 24 hour hotline.

3. You seem unique as an integrative center with support groups, counseling, crisis hotline, but also with the dedicated purpose and ability to treat substance abuse. How many other area shelters or shelters period use this mutli-prong approach?

Ramona’s Way is unique in that it is one of the few organizations locally and nationally that focuses on the correlation between domestic violence and substance abuse. We meet clients where they are which could be in or out a relationship. They can be using substances or in recovery. Many shelters and transitional housing programs require that the client be in recovery for 30–90 days.

4. How large are you currently and how many volunteers do you have? How would someone get involved with your organization if they were interested?

While Ramona’s Way is a small organization, it is able to deliver services through numerous collaborations and partnerships with other victim’s service providers. The organization is strengthened by dedication of a long time volunteer, who constantly works to help deliver Ramona’s Way’s programs. Those wishing to become a volunteer can do so by contacting us at ramonasway@aol.com or (202) 257–6790.

5. What’s the most difficult aspect of working at the center? What do you wish were different?

The most difficult part of my job is not being able to meet all of the needs of women seeking services. The demand for services is too great for the resources that are available.

6. What’s the most rewarding part?

The most rewarding part of my work is bearing witness to women that have overcome addiction and domestic violence after years of being enslaved.

7. You all were awarded support by the African American Giving Circle this year, can you tell us more about that?

It was especially rewarding to receive a grant from the African American Giving Circle for the past two years. It provided African American women the opportunity to give back to women of color.

8. From a more general societal view, women who stay with their abusers are unfairly blamed for that as a “decision.” Why do you think that is?

Society blames women for staying with the abusers due to lack of education. There are numerous reasons why women stay with their abusers which include fear, lack of financial resources, isolation, children, etc. Also despite living in a domestic violence situation, many women can still love their abusers and often hold on to the hope that one day the abuser might change.

9. How do you think we, as a society, can learn not to victim-blame women who are going through these circumstances?

Society can learn how not to blame victims by placing themselves in the victims’ shoes, since it happens across all racial and soci-economic lines.

10. How can we, as a society, learn to better help domestic abuse survivors as well as substance abusers?

As the Executive Director of Ramona’s Way, I’d like to stress that domestic violence and substance abuse is an epidemic. It’s one huge problem compounded on another. Our organization is striving to use all its resources to provide assistance to deserving women seeking services.

If you’d like to support Ramona’s Way in its mission, then we have good news for you. For the next week, until June 3rd, we’ll be collecting online donations via our donation button on our site or please feel free to send donations directly to our PayPal at “fundraising@legendarywomen.org”

Additionally, we’ll be attending Awesome Con this coming weekend on Friday-Sunday and running a charity table that will be collecting donations for Ramona’s Way. In fact, some of their team will be working with us through out the weekend. So if you’re at Awesome Con, stop by and see us and give money to an amazing cause.

Finally, if you want to keep up with us, you can always find us at our Medium Profile and also keep up on all our comings and goings via our monthly newsletter!