2021 COMBAT Funding: $100,000.00

Program Summary

Hope House's Targeted Domestic Violence Program addresses the identified need to bridge the current gap in services that has been recognized by the Independence STRIVIN' Committee. Project staff provide on-site advocacy and therapy services for residents of Hawthorne Place Apartments who are currently or have previously experienced domestic violence. 

The program will provide on-site and remote services that meet the current needs of residents as it relates to domestic violence and the trauma they have experienced. Such services include: 

• crisis intervention services such as safety planning
• assistance with filing an Order of Protection
• resource referrals and linkage
• advocacy and assistance through the various legal systems residents may need to navigate 
• on-going case management that may include weekly meetings to assist the survivor in setting and achieving goals to overcome their current barriers
• and individual, group and family therapy services. 

Based on best practice, family therapy services are only be provided to the non-offending parent and children. As a result of being able to access services on-site, Hope House anticipates survivors will have the resources and support needed to keep themselves and their families safe, cope with the trauma they have experienced and remain in stable and secure housing.

Needs

Domestic violence is a complex issue, making permanent separation from an abuser more complicated than simply walking away. Domestic violence is a pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviors that one uses against someone else in order to gain power and control over the individual. Such behaviors can include threats, isolation, physical and emotional assaults, and economic coercion. The problem of domestic violence requires a coordinated, comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to achieve long-term resolution. Both primary and secondary survivors of domestic violence need access to holistic, trauma-informed strategies that address ways to overcome the violence perpetrated against them.  

ADDRESSING CURRENT SAFETY NEEDS: As a result of regular meetings, the Independence STRIVIN' Committee has identified the need to ensure the safety and housing stability of survivors of domestic violence who are residing at the Hawthorne Place Apartment complex. Research shows that the most successful interventions need to be provided on-site and at the time they are needed to fully address survivors' current safety needs and barriers to housing stability. 

Survivors require assistance with issues such as the following;

• crisis intervention
• access to available supportive services
• an understanding of their rights and available legal remedies
• a safe place to stay
• confidence that their basic physical needs and those of their dependents will be met
• assistance with ongoing safety planning
• a stable, sustaining income
• help with identifying and accessing information and resources to address the practical problems created by domestic violence
• relief from post-separation violence
• and emotional, psychological and social support

It is important for these supports to be offered at a time and in a manner that the survivor is ready to receive them. Best practice also suggests that once the immediate needs of survivors are met through crisis services, service providers must focus on the long-term welfare of survivors.

LONG-TERM WELFARE: Focusing and ensuring the long-term welfare of survivors requires a coordinated community approach and provision of holistic services that continues to support and offer assistance with potential post-separation abuse, recovery from trauma, maintaining safe and affordable housing, and continued self-sufficiency free from abuse. In order to successfully move survivors toward self-sufficiency, programs must focus on all of the necessary domains which includes, but is not limited to, food, safe shelter, child care, child and adult education, healthcare, life skills, parenting skills, family/social relationships, transportation, legal needs, mental health, and substance use.