Photo courtesy of Susann Montgomery-Clark
The Montgomery-Clark family at their Christmas gathering before Megan’s (center) passing.
The Megan Montgomery Foundation to Prevent Domestic Violence, a nonprofit headquartered at Lee Branch, says the group surpassed $200,000 in grants given as part of its mission to stop domestic violence before it starts.
The foundation recently awarded more than $50,000 in grants to three groups, bringing its overall grant award total to more than $215,000 since it began in 2021. Grants were awarded to the New Horizons School and Disability Rights and Resources in Birmingham, which received $10,000; Samford University in Homewood, which received $7,500; and the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence in Durham, North Carolina, which was awarded $36,400.
The foundation provides grants to high schools, colleges and nonprofits for education on healthy relationships, empowering young adults to recognize and stop unhealthy behaviors that may result in domestic violence. In all, the foundation has awarded grants to more than 20 educational entities and nonprofits.
Megan Montgomery’s mother, stepfather and sister established the charitable nonprofit in the wake of the 31-year-old’s 2019 murder by her estranged husband, Jason McIntosh.
Susann Montgomery-Clark, Montgomery's mother, said the nonprofit’s work began as a way to continue Montgomery's personal commitment to stopping domestic violence and drawing inspiration from one of Montgomery's last social media posts.
“Just six weeks before she died, Megan said, ‘I want to help other women learn the warning signs and how to get out before it’s too late and to help them with the legal system. That is my new calling,’” said Montgomery-Clark, who serves in a full-time voluntary role as president of the foundation board. “Because she said that was her ‘new calling,’ that’s what our calling is. That’s why we’re doing it. And because it needs to be done.”
Too often, she said, schools offer help to students following an incident rather than teaching them to recognize behaviors that could lead to abuse.
“What we’ve learned … is that most schools provide information on where to get help after something has happened,” she said. “Our funding is going toward providing education on preventing it from happening in the first place.”
Just a few months prior to her death, Montgomery had been shot in the arm during a domestic dispute at the home in Ross Bridge she shared with McIntosh, a Hoover police officer.
Following that incident, McIntosh resigned from the Hoover Police Department. Montgomery moved in with her mother and stepfather and filed for a restraining order as well as a protection from abuse order. The judge, her mother said, granted the restraining order but denied the protection from abuse order, allowing McIntosh to continue to own a gun.
By October of 2019, Montgomery had moved into a new apartment, filed for divorce and was preparing for a new life. That also was around the time of her Instagram post explaining her new “calling.”
On Nov. 30, 2019, McIntosh tracked her down to a local bar, where she was sitting with friends, and forced her to leave with him. The next morning, a Mountain Brook police officer found her body in the parking lot of Mountain Brook High School.
McIntosh is currently serving a 30-year sentence for murder.
For more information about the Megan Montgomery Foundation, visit megansfoundation.org.
