Parents of slain Hoover woman, YWCA launch new program to prevent domestic violence

Parents of a Hoover woman killed by her estranged husband in December 2019 are joining with the YWCA of Central Alabama to bring a domestic violence prevention program to the Birmingham area, they announced Monday.

Megan Montgomery, a 31-year-old Ross Bridge resident, was shot to death by her estranged husband, Jason McIntosh, in Mountain Brook more than two years ago. Now, her mother and stepfather are hoping a domestic violence prevention program that started in Nashville will catch on in the Birmingham area and prevent that kind of tragedy from continuing to occur.

Montgomery’s mother, Susann Montgomery-Clark, and stepfather, Rod Clark, last year started the Megan Montgomery Domestic Violence Prevention Fund with The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham.

The goal is to prevent dating and domestic violence before it starts by partnering with like-minded nonprofits and schools.

The Clarks on Monday joined with the YWCA of Central Alabama at the Homewood Public Library to announce the launch of a program called Amend Together, which aims to end violence against women and girls by engaging and educating men and boys.

“Domestic violence is not a women’s issue. Domestic violence is a violent men’s issue, and only good men can end it,” Montgomery-Clark said.

The Amend Together program’s primary thrust is to start Amend clubs to teach boys and young men about healthy masculinity and the proper way to treat girls and women and have healthy relationships with them, said Shan Foster, a former Vanderbilt and NBA basketball player who serves as executive director of the program.

“So many men and boys are holding onto a version of manhood that is literally killing us,” Foster said Monday.

They’re buying into the idea that manhood is all about physical strength, economic ability and sexual conquests, he said. Society paints manhood in this way, and not enough people are doing anything to counter that mindset, he said. This “toxic masculinity” is learned behavior, Foster said.

The Amend Together program is designed to recruit good men to work with young men and unpack the difference between healthy and unhealthy masculinity, connect the dots between harmful jokes and violent acts, and challenge people to create a community that respects and values women and girls, he said.

Montgomery-Clark and her husband discovered the Nashville-based Amend Together program and used $5,000 from Megan’s Fund to provide seed money to launch it in Jefferson County with the YWCA of Central Alabama.

The YWCA plans to start using the program this fall at its Family Resource Center in Woodlawn but is actively seeking funding partners, sponsors and other host sites.

In Nashville, the Amend clubs are part of the schools, and the club meetings are held during the school day, not after school, Foster said. They are electives in the middle and high schools, said LaRhonda Magras, CEO of the YWCA of Central Alabama.

The clubs typically cost about $25,000 per school year to run, Magras said. However, the cost to participate depends on the scope of the program, such as the duration and the numbers served, and the YWCA will work with interested parties to provide a pricing package.

The YWCA’s role would be to train the trainers and provide technical assistance.

Nine mayors who are part of the Jefferson County Mayors Association, including Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato, attended Monday’s announcement.

Mountain Brook Mayor Stewart Welch asked Foster what the mayors could do to assist in the effort.

Foster said the Amend Together program takes a significant amount of resources, so the mayors can work to get the program fully funded in their communities. They can also work to get the program connected with school systems, he said.

In Nashville, the Amend clubs in the schools are the anchor of the programs, but Amend Together also can be offered through other groups, such as boys clubs, places of worship, sports teams and police academies, he said.

“Once this starts, it takes off like wildfire,” he said.

There were two pilot programs in Nashville schools, and the principals were so impressed they helped sell the program themselves, Foster said.

The Amend clubs now are in 23 Metro Nashville middle and high schools and in eight cities across the country.

The Amend Together program also offers training on sexual harassment and violence prevention in workplaces, he said.

It’s so important for good men in the community to get involved, Foster said. If what is being taught in the clubs isn’t reinforced by the men that boys see in the community, it’s all for naught, he said.

Hoover’s mayor said he thinks the Amend Together program is an important program because of its focus on instilling respect for women across the board and teaching people how to resolve conflicts without violence.

Monday was their first introduction to the program, and he expects the mayors from the various cities to talk further about what can be done, Brocato said. It’s also something businesses would be interested in supporting, he said.

Of course, it will be up to each school system whether they want to get involved, he said. He definitely likes the idea of getting coaches involved because coaches often like to mold and build positive character traits in their athletes, Brocato said.

Brocato said statistics shared by Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr were eye-opening. Carr on Monday said that in 2020, 53% of homicide offenders had some type of domestic violence interaction in their background.

He challenged the men in the room and community at large to work together on this issue and become a force.

Magras said domestic violence and “intimate partner” violence has to end. One in three women and one in four men experience intimate partner violence at some point in their lifetime, and one in 15 children witness it and then are twice as likely to become a victim or perpetrator, she said.

Calls to the YWCA’s 24-hour crisis line continue to rise, and the YWCA’s shelter is full, she said.

“We believe men play a significant role in ending violence against women,” Magras said. “We can do better. We must do better, and this will take all of us to prevent violence against women and girls.”

Prevention efforts do work, Magras said. “You first have to raise awareness, and then you’ll see behavior change.”

Montgomery-Clark said domestic violence numbers are going up and “enough is enough.”

Her daughter’s killer, who submitted a guilty plea to murder, was sentenced to 30 years in prison with the possibility of parole after 15 years, but “our family was sentenced to a lifetime of grief,” she said. “We are just one of too many families out there, y’all, who are facing lifetimes of grief.”

Prevention efforts will help survivors avoid life sentences of trauma that include anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, shame and chronic health problems, Montgomery-Clark said.

They can help reduce health care and mental health costs and lost productivity in the workplace, help social workers and counselors avoid burnout, reduce the danger for responding law enforcement officers, save children from trauma and save women and girls from harm and death, she said.

School foundations and schools can make big strides with an effort like this, “but it’s got to be a priority to do it,” Montgomery-Clark said.

Magras said the YWCA would like to do training in August and launch some of these clubs in September but needs funding and host sites. “We have zero funding for this program,” she said.

Anyone interested in providing funding or bringing an Amend Together program to their community can email amend@ywcabham.org.

More information about the Amend Together program can be found at amendtogether.org, and more information about Megan’s Fund can be found at cfbham.org/megans-fund.