Listen to the Women
Honoring Gloria J. Martin
Gloria Martin is
the former Executive Director of the Family Refuge Center in the Greenbrier
Valley of West Virginia. Her
narrative on women’s issues and family violence is appropriately titled
“Listen to the Women”
Gloria Martin was
born in 1942 in Anaconda, Montana. Her hometown was filled with immigrants
who worked at the copper smelter. “My
grandmother came from Croatia in 1901.
In my early life she really influenced me. She taught me to believe that this country was a great place
and that it was a place where people could come to make a new life.”
Gloria was also
influenced by the Catholic social justice philosophy that “we have an
obligation to help the poor. It is
something that has stayed with me all of my life.” Gloria’s passion for social justice led her to spend the past
21 years caring for the victims of family violence and abuse, educating the
public on the enormity of the problem and advocating for better laws and
policies to protect people and build safer and stronger families in West
Virginia.
“Some people live
by themselves, but I really believe that we were meant to be together. Our community will only be as good as the
people who are in it. Probably now in
our history more than ever – we really need to take care of one another.” Gloria Martin
Shepherd’s Center
of Greenbrier Valley
2008 Community
Service Award
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