The Issue Of A Domestic Violence Advocate

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,

arrested on the grounds of questionable violence (proof should be established in the court of law). The value that directly correlates with domestic violence from a social work perspective would be the importance of human relationships, the social worker has to comprehend that cultivating a healthy and supporting relationship between family members is vital while creating a stable environment for society. It “promotes, restores, maintains, and enhances the well-being of individuals, families, social groups, organizations, and communities” ("Code of Ethics (English and Spanish) - National Association of Social Workers").

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).

The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WSCADV, n.d.) provides training for advocates of domestic violence (DV) survivors and their families. This paper reflects my experiences as I worked through the first three sections of training: the history of the DV movement; the key requirements of DV advocacy; and safety planning. The primary thread throughout the training sections is the importance of providing advocacy based on survivor-empowerment and meeting clients where they are. In this paper, I also explore my role as a mental health counselor in an interdisciplinary response team working with survivors of domestic violence.

Domestic Violence Shelter and Services, Inc. (DVSS) is a nonprofit agency located in Wilmington North Carolina. DVSS provide support services, shelter, public education, and prevention services to citizens of New Hanover County. The agency has two locations, the Open Gate located at 2901 Market Street, and a women and children’s shelter located in an undisclosed location. DVSS operates three for profit resale stores. Vintage Values stores are located at 413 South College Road #9, 5226 South College Road #10, and 609 Castle Street. All proceeds support the operation of the shelter and its programs (M. Lama, personal communication, November 8, 2013).

Domestic violence calls to the police became popular in the 1970’s and 1980’s. History indicates that these calls were considered “family matters” that should be handled by its family. Following the landmark case of “Thurman vs. The city of Torrington”, that garnered a severe financial penalty for the police for failure to respond, changes occurred. In this case, Tracy Thurman was awarded $2.3 million when she sued the city of Torrington, CT police department for their failure to arrest her abusive husband.

To work in the human services field, it is imperative that you can see and understand your own bias and personal prejudices. In my work as a Case Manager working with the homeless population, it is fairly common for me to come across women, and occasionally men, who have been victims of domestic violence. Often times when we cross paths, they are actively fleeing from it. One of my struggles as a case manager has been to support and protect these women while helping them to find self reliance and independence. Occasionally I find myself feeling frustrated by behaviors and thought processing of my clients that I perceive as being weak and subservient. For me, I believe this intolerance comes from my mother, who in her own right is a strong independent woman, but still found herself faced with domestic violence in her marriage. My mother’s story is a rare one, the abuse happened, she reported it to the police, and after a brief separation, my parents were able to work on their marriage through therapy sessions with a counselor. Because of my brief history with domestic violence and the bias I have caught myself feeling towards these

In completing this essay, an opportunity was provided to select a case study and determine whether individual, group, or both kinds of services would be most effective treatment for a client. The essay will be based on the case study of Working with Survivors of Domestic Violence: The case of Charo. The issue the client is facing will be discussed, along with my recommended intervention. The essay will conclude with identifying the best delivery method for an intervention with supporting resources to validate my decision.

“The NRCDV’s four key initiatives include Building Comprehensive Solutions to Domestic Violence, the Domestic Violence Awareness Project, the DV Evidence Project, and VAWnet.” Under the Building Comprehensive Solutions Domestic Violence section, it offers a platform that promotes guidance on challenging advocacy issues, for example, child safety supporting victims with ongoing contact with abusive partners. The mission of BCS is to promote victim-defined advocacy and responses. The second section goes over the Domestic Violence Awareness Project. “The NRCDV’s Domestic Violence Awareness Project (DVAP) supports and promotes the national, tribal, territorial, state and local advocacy networks in their ongoing education efforts through public

Advocating is about speaking up when something goes unseen. Women in Distress of Broward county, is the only nationally accredited and state certified, full service domestic violence center. The mission of the organization is to stop domestic violence abuse for any and every one through advocacy, intervention, and education. The residential advocates provide a countless of resources to their participants that are in shelter. Women in Distress is very client oriented and stresses the delivery of the highest quality care for the families to the point that they will ignore their employees well-being.

Stuart F. Delery, Former Acting Associate Attorney General, (2015) states "The month of October is observed as Domestic Violence Awareness Month around the country by advocates, law enforcement, prosecutors, survivors and many others to raise public awareness about domestic violence." According to the United States Department of Justice (2016) domestic violence is defined as "a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one partner to gain or maintain power and control over another intimate partner." Domestic violence is one criminal justice issue frequently faced by law enforcement, attorneys, and especially victims of the crime. The United States Department of Justice (2016) asserts domestic violence can be any type of action or threat of action, such as physical, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological that influences another person; this includes behaviors in a way that intimidate, manipulate, humiliate, isolate, frighten, terrorize, coerce, threaten, blame, hurt, injure, or wound someone. Regardless of age, sexual orientation, race, religion, socioeconomic background, education level, or gender, domestic violence can happen to any individual despite being in a opposite-sex or same-sex relationship and whether the intimate partners are married, cohabiting, or simply dating. Since domestic violence can occur at any time and place to anyone, initiatives taken

Domestic violence is a single act or a pattern of cruel acts in any relationship that a partner uses to get or keep power and control over another partner. The violence can be sexual, physical, economic, emotional, or psychological actions or threats of actions that impacts another person. Any actions that manipulate, intimidate, isolate, humiliate, terrorize, frighten, threaten, coerce, hurt, blame, wound, or injure someone can be domestic violence (The United States Department of Justice).

Currently in the United States, every one-in-three women and one-in-four men are abused physically by their chosen partner in their lifetime. It is estimated that twenty people per minute are physically affected by their partner; therefore, there are around ten million people every year battered by their partners (“Statistics” National Coalition Against Domestic Violence). The United States Department of Justice defines domestic violence as:

Amy Solomon is being discharged from individual therapy. The mother is currently receiving multiple therapeutic services. The mother would benefit from seeing a therapist that specializes in domestic violence. This therapist can continue to see the mother until such a therapist is identified.

I am an intern at the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic, located on the first floor of the Domestic Violence Courthouse of Chicago at 555 W Harrison St. The clinic offers free civil legal assistance to low-income victims of domestic violence. I have been interning at the clinic since August 28, 2017 for 15-20 hours a week. I originally intended to intern on Mondays and Fridays from 8:30AM-4:30 PM, but due to holidays and instances in which the clinic was closed on Fridays, I now also intern on Wednesdays from 8:30 AM-12:30 PM.