For 35 years I have been a provider for the Sacramento Courts helping offenders learn not only that inappropriate anger is wrong and ruins lives, but also how to effectively address many of the issues that lead to inappropriate anger.  I taught at the college level for 14 years, was a Child Custody Recommending Counselor for 13 years and am a CEPA Approved Continuing Education provider on the subject of inappropriate anger.

We are a “Batterers Accountability and Advocacy Re-education Program”. Man Alive Sacramento Inc, (MSI), is a Certified Batterers Treatment Provider,(BTP), in Sacramento providing services to approximately 210 men and women in the public and incarcerated classes. Participants in the program learn to recognize their violent behaviors and the process by which they choose to do violence. We then learn and practice accountability for our actions, awareness of the impact our violence has, and become advocates, (take action), for ourselves and others to end that violence. We learn to recognize the gender-specific training that supports us to believe we are superior to others and that a man’s or woman’s value depends on how he or she controls their intimate partner, their environment, and themselves.

Who conducts the program?

           
Classes are facilitated by program graduates who have continued with training that meets or exceeds California Penal Code section 1203.097, for Batterers Treatment Programs. Daniel Thomas completed the program in 2007, and has since worked continuously as a volunteer or staff member with the Sacramento programs in the public sector and in the Sacramento County Jail and Rio Consumes Correctional Center in Elk Grove. The facilitators of MSI each have 400 to over 2000+ hours of training and classroom experience in working with men to stop their violence, and each has maintained relationships free of verbal and physical violence with current or former partners, children, or other family members. They also maintain 16+ hours of continuing education from various sources to remain in compliance with local penal codes set forth by Sacramento County Probation.

How did “ManAlive” get started?

     
The ManAlive program was originally developed in the late 1970’s by Bay Area men who realized their behavior had an impact (caused loss, damage, or destruction) on their partners, children, families, communities, and themselves. They sought the help of a victim’s group—Marin Abused Women’s Services (MAWS) of San Rafael, CA—to recognize what violence was and what damage it caused. Based on what they learned from MAWS and other resources, the program was then written by Hamish Sinclair, director of manalive in San Francisco. Resolve to Stop the Violence project (RSVP) continues to offer man alive in the San Francisco Jail facilities.  

What is “ManAlive’s” philosophy on violence and how men can stop?

ManAlive is based in the philosophy that violence toward people we are also intimate with is not natural or inevitable, but is the result of a formal and informal system of training. That system—which we call the “Old Male Role Belief System” which results in a distorted image of male identity and behavior.  The vast majority of men who do violence are not stupid, insane, or evil; they are well-trained in what we call the “Old Male Role Belief System”:

• “Old” – because the system of patriarchy has existed for over 8,000 years,
• “Male” – because the system rigidly defines male identity, which in turn defines female identity,
• “Role” – because that identity is inauthentic, upheld only by dramatically pretending to be what the man or woman is not. We are also taught an inauthentic identity for women, and that he must enforce both his Male Role and her Female Role, or he fails as a man,
• “Belief” – because the man is taught to believe that adherence to the Role makes him superior to those men that do not, and also to women. In fact, the better a woman fulfills her Role under this system, the more inferior she is, and
• “System” – because this belief is ubiquitous; surrounding men 24/7/52 in their families, their social circles, advertisements, media, literature, music, sports, mythologies, religions, traditions, and more. Even men who never had a male parent in the home learn this system because very little alternative modeling is available. This belief also re-enforces that women are inferior instead of equals in the relationship.
• MSI’s classes are set up as “peer group processes” style to create a safe and trusting environment where the participants can be honest with themselves and others in the group. The participants practice empathetic listening skills while holding each other accountable for the violence in their lives.
•  The participants also are encouraged to get up in front of the class and teach what they are learning. This re-enforces the material in them and the group will often learn more from one of their peers than from an authority figure or a facilitator.