Women's Health

As Pandemic Grinds On, Domestic Violence Shelters Grapple With Budget Gaps And Growing Needs

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Katherine Verano is wrestling with an 830% increase in costs compared with last year for hoteling victims of domestic violence during the coronavirus pandemic. After a quiet period during the first months of the pandemic, when much of the state was locked down, domestic violence shelters started running at about 150% capacity during the summer months. When providers ran out of room for social distancing, clients had to be placed in hotels and fed. It’s been a complex time, said Verano, the executive director of Safe Futures, a New London-based nonprofit dedicated to providing counseling, services and shelter to victims of domestic violence in 21 southeastern towns. Safe Futures’ budget for hoteling clients has increased steadily this year.

When Staying Home Isn’t Safe, Domestic Violence Advocates Provide Online Services To Protect Victims

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For most of last week, representatives from the Connecticut Judicial Branch and the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence (CCADV) went back and forth, trying to figure out how to protect state residents who are at risk of domestic violence during the pandemic. For some residents, the state’s current motto of “Stay Safe, Stay Home” is sadly ironic. Unemployment claims—though low compared to those of other states—are rising, schools are closed, and sales of firearms and ammunition are up. Early on, domestic violence advocates expressed concern that incidents of violence would increase the longer people are forced to spend time together in close quarters. Meanwhile, the Judicial Branch began closing courthouses around the state to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and those closures made applying for restraining orders difficult.

On March 20, Gov. Ned Lamont issued an executive order (No.

Women's Health

To-Do List For Governor’s Council On Women Is Long

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Last month, newly elected Gov. Ned Lamont created the Council on Women and Girls, modeled after a similar council started under President Obama, which has been allowed to lie fallow under President Trump. The council will be chaired by Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz, and will include state agency commissioners, as well as the state’s constitutional officers and a handful of legislators. The council’s charge is to plan legislation and policies that work to end gender discrimination. Though Connecticut can be a wonderful place for women, the challenges are marked. • A Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut study says that in the eastern part of the state, women between the ages of 18 and 34 have a higher poverty rate—18 percent—than any other group in the area.

Women's Health

Violence Against Women Act Needs A Permanent Funding Solution

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Much has been made of the #MeToo movement—and rightfully so—but an important discussion central to the movement has been sidelined. Again. This time, the safety of women has been subsumed in a strange debate about security at our country’s southern border. Amid unpaid furloughs, federal employees who are working without pay, and shuttered federal departments sits the expired Violence Against Women Act, also known as VAWA. VAWA funding supports a variety of initiatives in Connecticut, said Liza Andrews, Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence director of public policy and communications.

Working Families Win Some, Lose Some In 2018 Legislative Session

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While the Trump administration seeks to dismantle any and all things Obamacare, Connecticut legislators, in the waning days of this year’s legislative session, passed a bill that protects important health benefits that are part of the 2010 reform package. Legislators also passed a law that seeks to reduce the times police officers arrest both the victim and the aggressor on domestic violence calls, or so-called “dual arrests.” And they, in an attempt to close the gender wage gap, passed a bill that prevents potential employers from asking job applicants about salary history. About that last one, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said, “This inequity is perpetuated by the practice of asking for salary history during the hiring process, which can disproportionately ensure that women who were underpaid at their first job continue to be underpaid throughout their careers, creating a cycle of poverty and causing real harm to families.”

But let’s give an honest grade for what happened—and what didn’t happen—in the session that ended at midnight May 9. Connecticut legislators’ effort was a solid C for what they could do for families—or, if we’re feeling generous, maybe a C+. Too many pieces of legislations that could have made a big difference in a small state were left on the table, died in committee, or never got traction.

Women's Health

Intimate Partner Violence Remains Pervasive; Efforts Seek To Break The Cycle

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West Hartford resident Adrienne Doughty recalls the summer night in the family camper when her then-husband hurled an object at her that whipped past head before shattering a window. The sound of broken glass brought a neighbor running. That started the 62-year-old on a long path of healing from what she describes as primarily emotional abuse from her former husband whom, ironically, Doughty thought would protect her after she’d been the victim of date rape and sexual assault by a supervisor. “In those days, you couldn’t say anything,” she said. Doughty found her voice at a workshop on intimate partner violence (IPV) offered by Susan Omilian, an attorney-turned-advocate of IPV victims after her 19-year-old niece was killed by her boyfriend. “Susan’s workshop was pivotal.

Women's Health

Securing Housing And Privacy Is Complicated In Domestic Violence Cases

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Building a new emergency housing system that would accommodate the privacy needs of victims of domestic violence in Connecticut has been complicated, frustrating work. When a person who is homeless is seeking to be housed, their name, age, and other details are entered into something called the Homeless Management Information System, or HMIS. This data is then used to direct people toward appropriate housing, and it’s a big part of why Connecticut is on track to ending chronic homelessness—the most pernicious kind—by the end of the year. But the Violence Against Women Act, which was signed into law in 1994, contains some strict confidentiality restrictions to protect victims of domestic violence. When a woman—and it’s usually a woman—escapes domestic violence, her first concern is safety.

Women's Health

Why Goodell Should Stay

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Here’s a suggestion for Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the National Football League. Stay. Of late, the NFL has been roiled by the bad behavior of some of its members, including the violence former Baltimore Ravens Ray Rice inflicted upon his then-fiancée-now-wife, Janay Palmer. Video from security cameras show Rice punching Palmer and knocking her out cold in an Atlantic City casino elevator in February, and then dragging the unconscious Palmer from the elevator. Once both videos were made public, Goodell, who’d earlier handed Rice a lame two-game suspension, had to act more forcibly.

Women's Health

103 Times: Women’s Pleas For Help Went Unmet

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On any given day, 350 advocates work to help victims of domestic violence in Connecticut. But because of shrinking funds, Connecticut has 10 less domestic violence workers this year, and most of those lost jobs were in direct services – the critical part of programs designed to meet the needs of a domestic violence victim who’s worked up the guts to call a hotline number. Those lost positions have contributed to some ugly statistics. On Sept. 17, 2013, according to the annual National Census of Domestic Violence Services, 103 requests for help went unmet because of a lack of staff, or lack of funding – which often is the same thing.