Our Story

Patricia Jane Russell was the maternal grandmother of our Founder and Executive Director. More often referred to as “Pat” by family, she was a Registered Nurse and mother of 8 children in Daytona Beach, FL. Her life was tragically lost as a result of domestic violence on June 15, 1964, when she was thirty-eight years old. Her husband (and father of her 8 children) was tried for murder in the first degree and, after a hung jury, was later acquitted despite the medical examiner and his 8-year-old daughter (who saw the event) testifying in a court of law with evidence against him. The fury over this violence is compounded by society’s complicity towards it during her life and the justice system’s failure in it after her death. That passion drives the mission of this Collective. The trauma from years of abuse echoed through generations of Pat’s family, but so did healing. All 8 of her children found health, and her grandchildren have built lives which Pat arguably could never have imagined.

Unfortunately, Pat’s story is not unique just to her. Millions of domestic violence reports are filed each year (with many more that go un-reported) and nearly 13,000 deaths are attributed to intimate partner violence each year in the United States.[1] The PJR Collective hopes to not only vindicate her, but everyone who has lived in the trappings of abuse—not just by helping victims but also perpetrators, who were likely once victims of domestic violence themselves. Helping perpetrators is a notion that is cumbersome to many. But, we believe having a holistic approach is not only good, but necessary, as we aim to upend the systems that trap victims and condone perpetrators—with the ultimate goal being to end domestic violence.

We have named this non-profit in Patricia Jane’s honor, that any modicum of the healing that has been left in her wake, be found in society too. May her memory be a blessing and may a culture of healing be our collective legacy.

[1] “Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence Facts”, Emory University School of Medicine, https://med.emory.edu/departments/psychiatry/nia/resources/domestic_violence.html