How domestic violence coalitions are responding to COVID-19

Bob Davis:

Patchwork is a podcast from the Office on Violence Against Women at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington. Patchwork offers a glimpse behind the scenes of the legal movement called the Violence Against Women Act or VAWA. VAWA provides federal grants to help women at local, state, and national levels. Patchwork explains how VAWA awards are made, shows what happens after funds arrive in communities, and share stories of help and hope. Patchwork brings you the voices of people on the front lines combating domestic and sexual violence. Our efforts to serve victims and hold offenders accountable create stories that knit us together and propel us forward. Welcome to Patchwork. Before we get started, we want you to know that in this episode we discuss gender-based violence. The content might not be suitable for all ages, and it might be upsetting for some listeners. If you or someone in your life is struggling with these issues, please know that there are caring and helpful people available right now to support you and help guide you to safety. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is (800) 799-7233. They can be found at thehotline.org. And the National Sexual Assault Hotline is (800) 656-HOPE or 800 656-4673. You can visit them at rainn.org, that’s R-A-I-N-N dot ORG. Deborah DeBare is the Senior Deputy Director at the National Network to End Domestic Violence. The network members include domestic violence coalitions from states and territories nationwide. Prior to this, she served as the executive director for the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, she was there for 22 years. She joins us today to talk about how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted providers on the front lines of the effort to protect women from violence. Deb, how has the pandemic changed the landscape?

Deb DeBare:

You know, one of the things that I, that I think is important to think about is that how, we, never anticipated that a pandemic like this would in a sense, give abusers another set of tools to manipulate and abuse. And what we've seen and learned from the past few months is that in addition to all of the physical, emotional, and financial abuse, that many victims experience, they've also now been subject to the manipulation of abusers with the whole healthcare dynamics and the issues and fears about their own health. So for example, what I mean by that is that, you know, we've seen cases where an abuser may notify Child Protective Services that the mother of the children has exposed the children to COVID-19 and an allegation like that, or even if, even if the abuser doesn't make that phone call, that fear or that threat of having one's children removed for failure to protect can be immobilizing for a victim. And so it's just one other set of manipulative tactics that abusers have been using to try to control their partners.

Bob Davis:

Tell me how, how long have you been in this business?

Deb DeBare:

Well, I actually started doing work in the anti-violence against women field when I was in college. So that's going back well over, well over 35 years ago. And I was a volunteer at a local battered women's shelter at the time in Rhode Island. I was a student at Brown University and that experience really, it changed my sense of wanting, what I wanted to do with my skills and my life. So I've been professionally working in the field pretty much on and off for the past 35 years, doing some work in the sexual assault field at first and the local rape crisis center and a local domestic violence program in Rhode Island here where I live now. And then I was the director of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence for over 22 years. And as you know, now I'm at the National Network working with coalitions and working with advocates from all around the country.

Bob Davis:

Tell me about the National Network. What is, what is that?

Deb DeBare:

National Network to End Domestic Violence is a national organization with the membership of all 56 state and territorial coalitions working to end to end domestic violence. And so every single state, as you know, has, you know, a number of local provider programs, shelters, or other direct service providers and each state or territory also has a coalition. And so the, one of the magical things I think about the way NNEDV is set up is that we have a good structure of getting information to the field and getting information from the field. So it's a two way flow of communication, where we need to stay in touch with what's actually happening on the front lines. And we can also share information about best practices, innovative ideas, we can help folks learn from one another and troubleshoot problems they're encountering.

Bob Davis:

This has been an extraordinary time with COVID. Tell me, tell me how this impacted people that you all help.

Deb DeBare:

Oh, my goodness. Where to begin? It's been, it's really been changing, like as for all of us, who had our lives uprooted and changed for victims of domestic violence, it's been particularly challenging because, well, as it may seem obvious, but the home where most people find peace and sanctuary and security, for victims of domestic violence, it's quite the opposite. And so the concept of a stay-at-home order is terrifying to many victims of domestic violence. So you're on a very individualized level in terms of thinking of the way we're providing services and the way the local shelters and outreach programs are providing services. We've had to really think through different of reaching people and how to do it safely and doing that at the same time, as we're all adjusting to providing services from our own homes, as you know, it's been a challenge for everyone. I think that these unique challenges though, make it particularly difficult.

Bob Davis:

How has it been, it's hard to imagine how difficult it is for someone who is in a violent home to be there and not have any relief. What have you heard from folks in the field about what those experiences have been like?

Deb DeBare:

I've always said that victims of domestic violence are incredibly resilient and it's why we often use the term survivor when we talk about the people that are being served in the community, because no matter what they're going through so many people who are experiencing domestic abuse or domestic violence have this ability to figure out ways of getting through it and to survive and to reach out for help and so just as they always have, we've found that the are very innovative ways that they've been reaching out for help. And so, you know, if a computer is not necessarily a safe way to reach out, because an abuser may be monitoring one's computer, you know, where they're, which landing pages they're going to, which websites they're seeking out, many of the local providers are using cell phone types of service, chatting, texting, passwords, you know, creating what, you know, once an advocate and a victim make contact, in whatever way they do, they may set up a secret password that just the two of them would know that the victim would tell the advocate "I can't talk right now." It could be something as simple as saying “I'm looking for more masks to protect my family.” That's something that an abuser would not necessarily get suspicious about, but that could be a code phrase that a victim and an advocate might use together to know that it's not a good time or good space to talk.

Bob Davis:

Have the advocates that you've worked with, have they felt like they'd been able to make good connections with people who need their help.

Deb DeBare:

Sure. You know, advocates are also incredibly innovative and we've known that all along too. So many of the services that used to be provided in an in-person setting have been adapted to virtual settings. So there are support groups that are going on all around the country that are being done in virtual platforms and there's individual advocacy, individual safety planning that can be provided through online platforms or through chatting. And some of the in-person services that are happening now are being done with social distancing precautions being taken into effect, of course, so that you can have that one-on-one confidential conversation even if it's behind a mask.

Bob Davis:

I've always thought of the shelter as being a key tool for the folks who are helping victims of domestic violence and now that's very difficult to have a shelter, what's happening with the shelters?

Deb DeBare:

Yeah. There's been quite a bit of change, I'd say in the past month or two, about how that's evolved as well. You know, with the more we've learned about COVID-19, the more the shelters have adapted to be able to provide the services. So, I’d say there was that say there was a lot of fear during the first few weeks of the pandemic where shelters were thinking that they going to have to shut down. And as we've learned more about how to, how to really do deep cleaning of the facilities, how to do social distancing, how to segregate families that may have been exposed with families that have tested negative or positive, you know, all the information has changed the way the shelters are set up. And so, you know, I'm really confident to say today that when victims are looking for emergency shelter, it may look different than it did three or four months ago, but there are shelters and the shelters are still providing services. There still is help out there. Many of them have been using hotels and motels and other innovative types of housing opportunities. So the concept of shelter is now turning more into a verb than a noun, if you know what I mean, but victims who need shelter are still able to get some kind of safe emergency shelter.

Bob Davis:

Seeking shelters, oftentimes a very big step for a victim. How has that played out with the pandemic?

Deb DeBare:

Yes, you know, victims always have to weigh multiple factors before they decide whether to make that call to leave the situation or not. There's so many factors that come into play in terms of their caring for their children, the responsibilities that they may have to other family members, if they're caring for someone who is sick or someone who may have COVID-19 right now. They need to take into account their risk factors to have exposure if they have any underlying conditions or if their children have underlying conditions that put them at greater risk. So in addition to all of what I would say, the regular factors are that victims have to weigh, this adds another layer of complication and hesitancy. So it's, more important than ever in some ways that that folks know that the helpline, the National Hotline is available and responding to more calls than ever. Local hotlines, statewide hotlines are still there because that's usually a first step for a victim to reach out and talk about their own personal unique situation. You can’t, there’s no blueprint to say, this is what a victim should or shouldn't do. It really depends on their own situation.

Bob Davis:

What have you heard from the folks who are working the hotlines? What are they, what are they hearing and how are they holding up right now?

Deb DeBare:

Well, it's incredibly stressful, but they're doing a great job and, you know, what we do here is that the, the contacts that they're making are increasing as the pandemic continues. So, you know, one of the things that was interesting is the first month that we started to track the data when the pandemic was spreading in March, the National Hotline noticed that the contacts with callers decreased 6% and that sort of was counter intuitive to us because we thought, well, victims of domestic violence at home are going to be at more danger because they're trapped in a sense at home. But once we realized that the hesitancy were probably because the victims were focusing more on the health and safety of their immediate selves and their immediate family, and trying to figure out how to reach out safely, it wasn't really all that surprising to see the data start to increase. The numbers of contacts and calls increased in April with a 15% increase compared to the April the prior year. So the National Hotline is comparing the data each month compared to last year to get a benchmark and anticipating when the May numbers are released, that would also be increased. So our, you know, our we're pleased in a way that the word is getting out to victims that help is available and that's, that's more important than anything that folks know the National Hotline is there 24 hours a day in case folks don't have the number it's (800) 799-7233.

Bob Davis:

Great, thank you. It must be somewhat frustrating for the folks who are on the other end of that call, knowing they don't have maybe all the resources that they usually would, you can't just say, get in the car and go somewhere necessarily.

Deb DeBare:

Right. Everything takes another layer of thinking through, in terms of the health safety and the health risks on top of domestic violence, safety, and domestic violence risks. So, you know, just taking public transportation is risky these days, depending on where you live and what the environment is. And so it's, you know, we do the best, we're doing the best we can to try to balance all the information that comes out on a daily basis and helping victims make good decisions for themselves and their families

Bob Davis:

At the national level, you have these coordination calls where you're in contact with all the different coalitions. Are you seeing any health disparities or other disparities across the country that are presenting different challenges?

Deb DeBare:

Sure. I mean, that's one of the things that I think has been really interesting about the pandemic is it's elevated the conversation about health disparities. And we've seen that for quite a while. Certain communities are disproportionately impacted and it's definitely correlated with different health disparity elements. So in communities of color or low-income communities, we're seeing that the impact is definitely disproportionate.

Bob Davis:

And then how's that playing out? How, how do you all respond to that?

Deb DeBare:

The local programs are, have always tried to do a great job with outreach and trying to engage the local communities to best meet their needs. So it really looks different on the ground when we, one of the things that I love about hearing from the local communities and the different coalitions is to hear how differently they are responding around the country. It's very different to be in a really urban high dense population area compared to a small town in Montana, for example. And yet some of the underlying themes that are the same is that there are pockets of populations that are still disproportionately impacted. And so each community develops its own strategy to try to reach them.

Bob Davis:

In this information sharing. Do they learn from each other when they talk about how they do things differently?

Deb DeBare:

Oh, absolutely. I think the best ideas come from these kinds of brainstorming sessions, where one organization will be sharing what they're doing and then another coalition or local provider will realize that they can apply that and adapt it to their own community.

Bob Davis:

Has there been anything that's been inspiring or hopeful in these conversations that you've had?

Deb DeBare:

You know, I have to say there's always, I happen to be a very optimistic person, so I, always kind of, I always take whatever I can, that's inspiring from the conversation. So even when it's really frustrating and it might sound depressing in terms of, you know, there's an overwhelming volume of an overwhelming number of clients seeking help. And the fact that the courts were closed for a while and emergency protective orders were backlogged. It wasn't clear how victims could access an emergency order. And they were worried about losing their job and not being able to support their families. All these factors escalating, I can still come away from a conversation like that with a sense of optimism, because the local programs are doing such great work to try to help address those needs. So we saw for example, in a matter of weeks, there was information sharing about how different court systems were setting up electronic systems so that the emergency protective orders could be granted without having an in-person appearance and things that would normally have taken probably three years to work out a new plan to roll out a new system happened in three weeks. In that sense, it's really quite encouraging.

Bob Davis:

Have we learned anything from this that you think will keep? Anything, has this changed the landscape at all?

Deb DeBare:

Well, my personal feeling is it's definitely changing the landscape. I think there's a real appetite to take things that we've learned from this time period in terms of being willing to try new things, to innovate and really try to meet victims needs where they're at and to take that beyond the pandemic, once we move into the next phase, next phases of things, and not simply say that we're going to go back to doing business the way we used to, because, you know, we were doing, programs were doing really good work before this, but this has shown us that we can do things in different ways and perhaps do it better and meet the needs of people who are not able to access services before.

Bob Davis:

Well, that's, that's hopeful, isn't it? I mean if there are new approaches to reach people, cause that seems like, you know, the hardest thing is to make that connection, it seems.

Deb DeBare:

Absolutely. You know, some people are really reluctant to reach out for help in an in-person setting and we're finding that there are many victims that have been going through abuse for many years and this is the first time they've reached out for help for a number of reasons, perhaps because they felt safer in a virtual type of setting or because they felt that they didn't have to essentially tell anyone else about it, it could really be done confidentially.

Bob Davis:

Has this changed awareness, do you think, and do you think people understand this problem any differently because of the pandemic?

Deb DeBare:

That’s a great question. I hope so. I think it's too early to tell. I think there still is a tremendous amount of public awareness work that needs to be done for people to really fully understand the scope and the depth of the problem, and to understand why it is so hard for so many victims to just break out of the situation. I think that some of the conversations like this, that we're having might help people understand how complex the dynamics are. So I am hopeful, you know, as always, I'm hopeful that we're seeing progress.

Bob Davis:

What can folks in the community do to, to help these kind of silent, hidden victims here?

Deb DeBare:

You know, I think there are, there are two ways to answer that. One is on a very personal individual level. If anyone knows someone who's in an abusive relationship, the most important thing to do is to reach out to them and let them know that you're supportive and that there's help available. And so as an individual, it's important to know what resources are in the community, you know, find out what your local domestic violence or sexual assault agency is called, get the phone number, have it available so that you can provide it to someone who might need it. And then on a more global level, sort of thinking about public health dynamics as well, thinking about how to really change attitudes, think about what one can do in their own community to raise awareness about domestic violence and to be part of the solution by breaking some of the stereotypes and norms that we have.

Bob Davis:

Wonderful. Thank you very much, well said. What's next? What do you think and I know you can't predict with the pandemic, but where do you, where do you see folks in the field? What do they need in the coming weeks?

Deb DeBare:

Well, I wish I had a crystal ball to really be able to predict what's coming next. I certainly don't. But what I do know for sure is that we'll never go back to doing things the way we used to. We're going to the whole, the whole country, I think has had, it's almost like a jolt of lightning to say, “we're going to do things differently and better.” We're going to keep victims at the center of our work and listen very carefully to what they need and make sure that as we move forward and, you know, as we wait until there's a vaccine available or treatments, we're going to follow public health guidelines, of course, but we're going to make sure we're innovating and that we're really doing the best we can to reach the most marginalized victims because everyone needs access to safety.

Bob Davis:

I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us. Thank you so much for the work you're doing.

Deb DeBare:

Sure. Well, thank you. And, you know, I think if anyone wants to reach out for more information or to get access to their statewide coalition, we have plenty of resources on our website, which is NNEDV.org. So in addition to the national hotline, it's always great to let folks know that we can help you connect with your local community, your statewide territory coalition.

Bob Davis:

Wonderful. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you for listening to Patchwork. Please let us know what you would like to hear on a future episode by sharing your questions with us, you can tweet us at @OVWJustice, send an email to patchwork@usdoj.gov, or give us a call at (202) 307-6026. If you like this podcast, please help us expand the conversation by sending this episode to someone you think may enjoy hearing what we shared. And if you would like to help us reach even more people, please take a minute to review this episode. Patchwork is made possible by help from everyone here at OVW, but Minh Ha and Portia Obeng work tirelessly to pull all of these pieces together here and on our website. Thanks for joining us. Thread by thread, we offer insights through Patchwork.