OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Darnitha Johnson is doing her part to make the community a better place, particularly for women who have found themselves in volatile situations, based on her own life experience.
Johnson’s willingness to help and educate others came from a painful domestic violence experience she endured in her previous marriage. Her personal experience led her to found Royal Queens Empowerment Inc. and the Operation Blankets and Socks Donation Drive.
“I was in a domestic violence relationship with my ex-husband for over 10 years,” said Johnson. “I felt trapped. I felt I had to stay there with him. I had income, but he had more income than I had, so I just stayed there and endured the abuse, but when I decided to leave, it was because the abuse turned on my children. He became violent with them, so I knew it was time to leave.”
Signs and symptoms
At that time, Johnson was working for Central Florida Physical Therapy Group, she said. At first, they were her employers, but they became her godparents, as they recognized the signs of what she was going through and offered their support.
“I had bruises and everything on me, so from there, I was able to get out of that domestic violence relationship,” said Johnson.
It’s been more than two decades since she got divorced. She started Royal Queens Women’s Empowerment in 2015, because she had witnessed so many women of different races and nationalities going through the same thing she had experienced.
“They didn’t have a voice, or it felt like they didn’t have a voice,” said Johnson. “I began speaking out and having different functions, empowering functions to let them know that it’s okay to release, it’s okay to speak out, even if you have to leave with just the clothes on your back, and it’s just your children, there are ways to get out of domestic violence. If you have to go to a shelter, if you have to relocate. From there, I started advocating, it started to grow and more women started to step out and speak to me. and the more functions I had the more women would talk.”
Communication and connection
Johnson began working at the domestic violence shelter on Pine St., having lived at the facility previously.
“I used the tools and the knowledge I had cultivated while being there to speak more with these women, with the women gaining greater insight by sharing my experiences,” said Johnson.
And with more women coming to Johnson through social media, she started going around to people within the community, visiting judges, attorneys, the police department, the sheriff’s office, and began building relationships with those individuals to be able to have resources available for domestic violence victims.
Johnson is also active with Operation Blanket Socks Donation Drive, which helps not only women and families escaping domestic abuse but also the unhoused community.
“People are often judgmental when they see someone homeless or they want to know why this person is staying in a domestic violence situation, but until you’re in that situation, you won’t truly understand,” said Johnson. “I want people to get educated, start attending functions, doing more research, just don’t turn a blind eye and ignore that person. A lot of people are out there on drugs because they either had a bad childhood, or they had been hanging with the wrong crowd, or someone had slipped them some drugs or something like that, and they still need help and they still need love.”
Knowing when to leave
Many women who experience domestic violence, stay in those relationships because their partner is the breadwinner, said Johnson. In many cases their partner has isolated them from the family.
“I want the community to get more educated about it, not just turn away,” said Johnson. “A lot of people in Ocala, they don’t want to talk about domestic violence, it’s like a plague. I know when Mayor Guinn was there, he put out in the newsletter, each month about different signs of domestic violence, different signs of sexual assault. We have CASA here, but we need more functions, need more outlets for women that are scared to even go to CASA.”
Advocacy and action
Johnson has gone beyond Ocala to talk with and advocate for women who have been victims of domestic violence.
“I’ve gone to the State Capitol for the past six years, speaking to different senators and members of the House of Representatives during session,” said Johnson. “I was the first African American woman in Marion County to receive an award from the Florida Commission on the Status of Women, and that was a statewide award.”
However, for Johnson, it’s about helping others, not winning awards, and that men also experience domestic violence.
“I want to be able to help, men, women, teenagers and children, so I need the public to help, not only financially, which would be fine, but also to join in, and have an open mind, be able to help these individuals,” said Johnson. “It takes more than one person to help with domestic violence.”
The need for more functions and a secure and stable environment where women feel safe to come out and talk about what they’re experiencing is needed, said Johnson.
“We should go into schools, go into places of employment, different places where we can educate the employers and the teachers to recognize the signs of domestic violence or sexual assault, or being more mindful that there are children that go to school that are hungry and are homeless that are living in the woods,” said Johnson. “When I go out and pass out snacks, during wintertime, blankets and socks, hats and things like that, I see so many children with their families. I’m a giving person. It takes a village. I look at people as a human being. I know how it feels to be in a domestic violence situation. I know how it feels to live in a shelter, you’re homeless because you’re not living in your own home. You’re living in a shelter with a group of women. I know both of those avenues, and that’s why I’m so passionate about it.”