Meredith Montgomery is the executive director of the Megan Montgomery Foundation, a local nonprofit organization focused on preventing domestic violence through healthy relationship education. In this interview, she shares some of the goals of the organization.
Q: Tell us about your organization.
A: Hey there, I'm Meredith Montgomery, the executive director of the Megan Montgomery Foundation to Prevent Domestic Violence, Inc. I am also Megan's big sister. And, our organization raises funds, and, then, we give those funds away to schools and other organizations so that they can implement healthy relationship programs at their organization.
Q: What is your role with the organization and how did you get involved?
A: My role in the organization is Executive Director, and I've been doing it for about a year. And the way that I got involved was, my parents and I are the ones who founded the organization and, also, [my parents] were basically running it and they're both retired.
And so, I was doing something else at the time and, then, it was just one of those God things and I asked my mom if they needed help with the foundation and she said, "I thought you would never ask." And, I started out part-time, but here I am a year later and I think we're doing pretty good.
Q: Who does your organization serve?
A: Our organization serves anybody and everybody, but, basically, it's anyone that's college- or high school-aged that's getting into relationships—learning, going on dates for the first time, but also teachers, faculty, law enforcement, judges; anyone and everyone that could benefit from healthy relationship education.
Q: Tell us why your mission is important.
A: Our mission is so very important because, if you ask a group of people if they've had a healthy relationship education, you probably won't have anyone raise their hand, and none of us have had it and it needs to be taught—just like algebra or science or history. And, our mission is to prevent domestic violence before it starts, and that is by educating boys and girls on the healthy and unhealthy aspects of relationships.
Q: How can people get involved/help?
A: We get asked this question a lot,and you can contact us on our website contact page.
But, you could also introduce us to anyone in the school system, a college that you know, where we could possibly go and talk to them about implementing healthy relationship education at their organization or school.
