Planting Seeds: Program Focuses on Educating Youth to Prevent Domestic Abuse

I was honored to be chosen by WBNS10-TV for their segment on women that progressive leaders in the community. Many thanks to them for capturing my conversation with these young boys on video and in the article below that makes me proud. Thank you WBNS-10TV

WRITTEN BY: Angela An

PUBLISHED: 07/26/16 AM EDT.

Trailblazers: Marica Phipps of Battered Not Broken

In July, 10TV asked you to nominate women whom you see as a progressive leader in our community. This week, meet the women you named as central Ohio Trailblazers who are paving the way for future generations to succeed.

If you ask Marica Phipps where her life stood eight years ago, she would describe it as “a really rough situation.”

“I was laying beaten nearly to death at the bottom of the steps. I was bloody and I had almost lost my life,” Phipps said to a Saturday crowd in Whitehall, consistently mostly of boys, some as young as 5-years-old. “I didn’t realize I had been abused until I was almost out of the relationship."

But Phipps survived. And through her non-profit Battered not Broken, she is reaching out to groups to share her story and stop the cycle of violence.

A group called The Extraordinary Gentlemen invited Phipps in hopes of molding young boys into young men who will lead by extraordinary example. The organizer says it was an honor to have her speak to the young men.

“We understand that in today’s world, a lot of general manners and simply just having respect for one another seems to be a lost form that we want to bring back,” says Brian Rogers, who also started the Extraordinary Gentlemen Jr.’s Academy.

Elijah Scerrod is one of the young men taking part in the academy. He and the others listened intently to Phipps as she described her near-death journey.

“You never thought that someone could be hurt like that,” he says. “That that could really happen, something like what you could see in a movie, but it was real.”

Isaiah Allen, another young man who attended the workshop, says Phipps is a great example for her children too. “You can tell she’s very different from them, and she’s more mature. “I think her daughters will become great women.”

Phipps is not ashamed to tell her story. Nor is she shy about sharing the startling images of her injuries.

“My approach is, I’m just honest. I don’t have any shame in taking him back or the back and forth. That’s what makes me different.”

Marica says her goal is to train the next generation if society wants to change the future.

“I just plant some seeds into people so they can grow,” Phipps says with a beaming smile. “That’s what Battered Not Broken is. It’s about reminding a person that you’re not broke, you’re writing your story. Refuse to let anyone break you and that’s what this is all about.”