Copyright Baltimore Sun
Almost 25 years ago, Sandi Timmins began volunteering at the House of Ruth, answering desperate calls from victims of domestic violence on the group’s 24/7 hotline. But her role quickly changed after a chance encounter with the group’s executive director, who mentioned her struggles with the organization’s growth. As it turned out, that was Timmins’ specialty in her day job, as a business consultant who helped growing organizations build their infrastructure. (She also had worked previously for USA Today and, as a manager in the circulation department, The Baltimore Sun.) She shifted to helping the House of Ruth Maryland grow, eventually becoming a consultant and then executive director herself in 2009. She’s retiring on Dec. 1, but will be on “standby” as the group seeks her replacement. True to form, she leaves behind a group that’s grown from 60 to 140 staff members, and a budget that more than doubled from $14 million. Services have expanded as well — something the Baltimore Ravens tapped into in 2014 after its star running back, Ray Rice, was caught on a surveillance video knocking his then fiancée and now wife unconscious. This is a lightly edited transcript of a recent conversation with Timmins. What are some of the changes you brought about during your time at the House of Ruth? We use the phrase, ‘bringing it out of the shadows.’ Along with this raising awareness was paying attention to intervention and prevention, getting to the source of the issue. Of course, it’s important to provide services to people who have been abused, of course. And in order to really address the issue, it’s important to go to the source, which is the abuse, and what societal influences have allowed that abuse to exist. And to spot it early enough to intervene and to change behavior. Your public statements have always been very discreet, particularly after the Ravens reached out to you as it addressed the fallout from Ray Rice, and you met with him and his now wife. Why? It’s not my place to pass judgment. People were asking me if the Ravens’ response to it was appropriate. That’s not my job. My job is not to pass judgment on these things. What was your job in that situation? It was to educate the Ravens. The Ravens reached out to me, asking for that education, by the way. How did you make sure House of Ruth wasn’t used as window dressing in a case like that, where the Ravens donated money to it and entered into a partnership that included your group providing training and other services. It’s not my job to decide the motivation if I’m being asked for help in some form I’m going to provide it. We had a relationship before the Ray Rice situation, not to the extent that we did during and following it. There were several kinds of interactions and contributions and support the Ravens organization provided to us that was not so much publicized. We became part of the rookies’ training. Our director of education was invited and still is invited every year to be part of rookies’ training. What I find really impressive is when we open the floor at the end of the session to comments and questions, at least two people who are there will stand up and say, ‘This is in my household.’ And they share stories, and the peer sharing that happens is pretty impactful. It is permission to say outloud what you have experienced in your own life.
