Advocacy Practice In Domestic Violence

Method – Women seek assistance and encouragement from frontline professionals, teachers, health professionals, social workers and police officers that protect adults from the abuses

In addition to my personal challenges my personal strengths interfer. A personal strength I have is talking , I love sharing my opinion. Another personal strength I have is giving good advice because I love helping people solve their problem or help make their lives easier. Lastly another personal strength I have is just listening because I am a good person to vent to because I don’t judge. Therefore I always spread positivity and lean a hand.

Working with victims of domestic violence can be an extremely rewarding and fulfilling endeavor. One of the most crucial aspects for a paralegal working with victim of domestic violence is adequately engaging in the task of educating oneself to understand the commonalities of such victims and the ordeals that they have been through. Such clients are drastically different from other individuals who have suffered other physical and violent crimes. Understanding the background of someone who has lived through domestic violence is absolutely central to being able to provide adequate and sensitive legal care. Most victims of domestic violence are women (95%) though domestic violence can have an impact on ever age, class, race, ethnic, cultural or religious group (purplerainfoundation, 2012). "In the United States, nearly one in three adult women experience at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood (American Psychological Association, Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family 1996 Report)" (purplerainfoundation, 2012). These women are often terrified of their partner's temper, apologize when they are abused and often in the most extremely controlling and isolated environment where the abusive partner will control who the partner sees and where the partner goes outside of the home, jealous of outside relationships (purplerainfoundation, 2012). In these abusive relationships the women are hit,

Stakeholders are individuals or groups that partake, or assert, possession, privileges, or benefits in a, organization and its accomplishments, previously currently, and in the upcoming (Barrett, 2001). These requested privileges or benefits are the result of communications with, or activities reserved by the organization, and they must be lawful or ethical, separate or combined Stakeholders with comparable benefits, entitlements, or privileges can be categorized as fitting into the similar collection: personnel, investors, and clients (Barrett, 2001). The better the impact these groups have on client’s lives and the extra community assets with which they are assigned, and it becomes vital that they are responsible (Barrett, 2001).

There are two common ways that social workers intervene with domestic violence cases. One way is through women’s shelters. These are places meant specifically for women and their children who have abusive husbands or boyfriends. In lots of cases, the abusive partner has control over the family's finances, which makes it further difficult

I actually enjoy doing this research project. It improve my knowledge about domestic violence and intimate partner violence. This activism project research is good way to learn about lots of beneficial staffs that are happening in a family nowadays in our community. Something that I am confused about is, there are some ways to stop domestic violence then why it is still exists in our community? In relationships, women tolerate everything just because of what other will think about them if they leave their families and walk away.

An agency in Stuart, Florida that helps women in cases of domestic abuse is called SafeSpace Shelter Program. This agency offers victims of domestic violence and their dependents a safe housing to escape the violence in their home. While in this program residents can attend individual and group advocacy, develop individualized safety and action plans which assists them in staying safe and setting and achieving personal goals. Initial steps that this agency takes with victims are to bring them to a secure and confidential shelter. They assess their immediate needs and help to meet these needs; this is called the acute phase. SafeSpace advocates then work with the victims to obtain employment, childcare, legal services and safe housing.

We are a shelter program that offers safe housing and support for survivors (and their children) of Domestic Violence and or Sexual Assault. It is our goal of the shelter program to help survivors of domestic violence become independent and able to take care of themselves. With this goal in mind, our program provides counseling services, domestic violence and sexual assault information, legal advocacy and crisis intervention. We also provide referrals and information about legal, medical, housing and other social services issues.

The typical frame is, unfortunately, a disservice to male victims wherein they play a role in abusing women like the case for ‘Women in Distress’. Broward County’s institute encompass many centers which, “allowed for the agency to double its emergency shelter and outreach

Victims of domestic violence rely on the support of different social agencies either directly or indirectly to provide support to individuals. The National Domestic Violence Hotline operates 24- hours a day, receiving calls throughout the United States from individuals affected by domestic violence. The trained counselors provide assistance through counseling, referrals and connecting individuals with information to include shelter services (Fernanders-Alcantara, 2017). A program such as the U.S. Department of Justice, Violence Against Women Office (OVW) provides indirect support to domestic violence. The OVW was created to administer federal grants along with assisting communities in designing and implementing programs to end domestic violence

In America there are strategies to create comfortable meeting environments. According to Mariska Hargitay, in her organization they, “deliver mission through three program areas: healing, education and advocacy.” Through these programs they help women to open up about how they feel, so they can try to heal, and reclaim their lives not as a first response to trauma, but as a next response to address the ways trauma continues to live on in the mind, body and spirit long after the immediate crisis has passed. Throughout these meetings they also provided Snacks and there is also a monthly food give-away for participants. When necessary, local transportation is provided. According to Susan Schechter “shelters offered the supportive framework through which thousands of women turned “personal” problems into political ones, relieved themselves of self-blame and called attention to the sexism that left millions of women victimized” (Schechter 2). Having an open shelter environment means having a place where people are comfortable to talk and not afraid to express themselves. Most of the people in there are just like the other abused women and are there to support them and let them know that they are not alone. They can see how they feel. Even if women are afraid, being there helps them to open up and talk to most of the people who are in there. A lot of times women who are victims think

The shelter provides temporary emergency shelter for women and children fleeing abusive situations. The women can come to the shelter by themselves or can be referred by an agency or law

There are a plethora of psychosocial and mental health concerns for women’s shelters populations. These identified general areas of occupational impairment include: daily life activities, work performance, home management, parenting, and leisure participation; cognitive functioning including decision-making, judgment, problem-solving, and following directions; money management, task initiation, self-confidence, coping skills, stress management, and interpersonal relationships (AOTA, 2011) as well as the effects of traumatic experiences on mental health and independent living skills (Davis & Kutter, 1998).

“The second most pressing problem facing IPV victims is the combination of a large gap in legal resources and inadequate responses on the part of the criminal justice system” (Danis, Lewis, Trapp, Reid, & Fisher, 1998, p. 386). According to this information, there clearly is a breakdown in communication on behalf of all professionals involved in assisting battered women.

Other strengths include equity, and justice followed by optimism, and future-mindedness. My weakness include maintaining a realistic workload, each client’s circumstances vary and as a consequence so does the responsive action.