‘God’s given me a lot’: Minister wants domestic abuse victims to thrive

Anderson’s Pathways to Wholeness nonprofit provides rehabilitative services to help formerly incarcerated women who have been domestic abuse victims.

Anderson is attuned to their specific challenges and leads her organization with a caring hand. Her unwavering concern for the needs of others led the Orangeburg County Community of Character initiative to honor Anderson for her compassion.

The licensed minister attends Trinity United Methodist Church, where she works with Women United in Faith. The outreach ministry assists needy families in the community as part of its work.

“I’m the type person who gives because they see a need. You can’t meet every need, you can’t help everyone, but you give back because God’s given me a lot. So it’s just an opportunity to give back,” Anderson said.

Her nonprofit not only offers women a safe place to stay, but helps them find employment and access to a plethora of health and social service resources.

“Women are hurting, and since I was called into the ministry, I had a ministry toward women. I give back, I help and it helps me,” she said.

Anderson candidly shares her own experiences.

“I was a victim of domestic abuse. It began on our wedding day and continued for seven years. I was too ashamed to tell anyone. … A neighbor of mine was also being abused, and we both had young children.

“My husband didn’t allow me to work. I was pretty much isolated from family and friends. My self-esteem had dropped. I was in a very bad place. I finally got the courage with the help of my family to leave,” she said.

Her neighbor shot her own husband after he began attacking their pregnant teen daughter, Anderson said. Her neighbor ended up incarcerated.

“She asked me, ‘Why didn’t I leave when you left? What do I do now?’ I didn’t answer because I wasn’t equipped. I didn’t know how to respond, but that has never left me. I always thought, ‘How can I help women who were in the same predicament that I was in?’ I thought about a transitional home,” Anderson said.

She eventually moved to South Carolina from Maryland and made her vision a reality.

“I found out that in this area there were shelters for women who were being abused, but there was no transitional home strictly for women. There were shelters that also served as transitional homes for men and women, but nothing here strictly for women. So I saw a need and wanted to step in,” she said.

Anderson continued, “We started out with women who had been incarcerated, and who had not been involved with substance abuse. So we started off with a narrow margin so we could learn. This is something new for me. You have a heart and a passion for it, but there’s still some skill sets that have to be developed. So we’re starting off with that, and then we’ll expand as we get better and more equipped with what we’re doing.”

Women are welcome to stay in the program until they find employment, or, for example, while they’re matriculating toward their educational degree.

“When they first come in, they have two weeks where they’re just getting oriented to the community, getting their ID. … We help them get set up with social services, mental health services, services through SC Works. Everyone has to get a job, and then if they’re needing skills, we plug in what we have,” Anderson said.

Women are also helped with setting up bank accounts.

“I also have been trained to work with behavioral modification. … We let them know that they are valid and heard because abused women are silenced not only by their abuser, but also by the community at large. Women are afraid to come forward because they don’t believe they’ll be heard, number one, or, number two, believed. So we try to help them speak up for themselves,” she said.

“We have the capacity for four women. It’s a small transitional home. We try to make it a home and not an institution,” Anderson said.

Paths to Wholeness is run by a 12-member board.

“We’ll try to get the board up to 15. We started out with five women. … It’s a really good, very supportive board from different disciplines of life. So they bring a lot of knowledge, too,” she said.

Anderson’s goal is to lead the nonprofit with compassion.

“It is to make sure that it is sustainable and that those who come in have a compassion to help. It’s important how we treat women, how we speak to them, how we model that appropriate social behavior for them. Prosocial behavior is an issue that definitely has to be modeled,” she said.

She learned compassion from her parents and a pastor, who also helped the needy.

“I remember my mom and dad opening up their home for women and children. They would stay there because they were being abused. They would counsel them. Our home was a transitional home when we grew up, but we didn’t understand that then. That went on for about four or five years. They were helping people to get established,” Anderson said.

Anderson continued, “I had a pastor who had a heart for those who were underserved. Although we had it at church, we did a lot of street ministry, helping people who were addicts. She developed an addiction ministry, just different ministries to help out in the community. So I’ve been around people with compassion all of my life.”