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Samantha Chaney

News 12 Staff

1021TheNewNormalViolenceHotline

So alone. I want to start with you when you take a look at these stats there, you know, so upsetting on a typical day, there are more than 20,000 phone calls placed to domestic violence hotlines nationwide. Yeah, I mean, you know, first of all, thank you so much for having us here. I'm so thrilled for this opportunity. And, you know, any chance that we get to continue raising awareness about domestic violence is so important. Um, and the stats are, you know, it's it's nothing short of a public health crisis really, right. Um, and the stats nationwide are also true throughout the tri state area in new york city, right? And in New york city, I think, you know, one of the stats that I like to throw out there is that the police respond to 700 domestic violence calls a day, that's one every two minutes in the city. Um, so I think that's why it's really important for us to kind of, you know, at the Mayor's office. Our goal is really to work through our providers, through providers like safe horizon to make sure that we have enough folks on the ground, enough services on the ground, Right? As Maureen mentioned, you know, around, around training around raising awareness around that direct service interaction, right? Our goal is to really make sure that that whenever survivors ready, no matter, you know, who they call, where they call, they're able to access the resources they need, Right? So whether that's the hotline, whether it's a police precinct, whether it's a, you know, a faith based orgryte, we want to make sure that everyone has the tools to to respond when when somebody comes to them for help. Yeah, let's listen, we got some sound from the Bronx Borough president, Vanessa Gibson. Let's listen to what she had to say. There were many victims that were forced to live with users. Why? Because it was a pandemic. No one wanted to go to a shelter. No one wanted to go to, you know, emergency services And and Maureen to that point. We, you know, are now in 2022. But you look at the ramifications of what happened in 2020 and people really, you know, being forced inside their homes. Enough. When the pandemic started, we actually saw a drop in our hotline calls. We run the new york city domestic violence hotline. Um, which wasn't surprising because, you know, when you think about being stuck in the home with the person who's abusing you, it's not gonna be easy for you to reach out for help. You know, and and we had to spend a lot of time letting survivors know that the hotline was still available that the police were still responding, that shelters were still open. And then as the pandemic eased, we did see an increase in calls and we are continuing to see an increase in call and those reaching out for assistance. Um, and we've had to be really creative in in um in looking at what type of services, sadly what also came with the pandemic was food insecurity um um increase in housing, um or it's just an increase in the cost of housing. And I think all of that has made it more difficult for survivors to leave if that's what they're choosing to do. Absolutely, let's listen to what keith scott had to say about that. I wouldn't say there's a surge, but I wouldn't say it's gone down either. There's a lot going on in our society, a lot of stress, live anxiety. If someone is already prone to being abusive, this might make them act out even more. You know, Salone e you know, he's really speaking to the stress, the anxiety, the pressures that people are feeling during this time, and how that exacerbates a problematic situation. Yeah, No, and that's definitely true, and I think that's something, you know, I think as we come out of the pandemic, we're really going to see more and more of the impact of that is Maureen was saying, right, because I think one of the one of the scariest things during that time is we were doing everything we could to reach folks, and we still knew that we weren't reaching everybody and we knew it was getting worse. We knew that the families are under stress and when families are under stress, that's when violence gets gets worse, right, and, you know, living on top of each other in in an apartment, new york city, it can't be, you know, it's not easy for em anybody right in the best of circumstances. So if there's domestic violence there, we can only imagine what's happening, right? So I think, you know, for us, again, one of the things that I've been thinking about a lot in our office is developing programs for people that cause harm, right? So we call them abusive partner intervention programs and we launched some actually during the pandemic that are non mandated and community based. So if someone's there thinking like, I don't know, I may be being unhealthy in my relationship. We do have resources for them to to go and really explore that and kind of try to identify, you know, what are, what are the reasons that I may be acting in a way that I don't actually want to act, right? And that's something that we've heard from survivors for many years is that, you know, they don't want to leave the relationship, they just want the abuse to stop. Right? So, I think we're looking at both sides, looking at how we support the victims and also how we intervene with the people causing harm because it's really on them to to sort of, you know, stop that abusive behavior. Absolutely Maureen. I want to I want to talk about the role that guns place in this because the presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicide by 500%. Yes. Um, and it's something that there has been um federal law for several years now, if there is a domestic violence arrest and prosecution or an order of protection in place that the guns should be removed from the home. Um, Governor hopeful just passed legislation a day or so ago that um, it's state legislation that further tightens um, and protects survivors through gun legislation. Um, I think that, you know, we we, what we see in new york city is um, not necessarily um legal gun ownership, but illegal guns. And I think that makes it that much more difficult, um, because the survivor has to think about, um, her own protection and doing that. Is she safe to come forward and say he has a gun or tell the police where the gun can be found. Um, and this is why it's really important and where we safety plan with that person, particularly when they come, we're in the family courts and if somebody's coming in to petition for an order of protection. Now, if that gun is mentioned in that order of protection, um, the police can go in and remove that even if it's an illegal gun, but it's a different type of safety for that survivor and our staff are trained in speaking with that person about how can they keep themselves safe because who's gonna be blamed when that gun is taken away? Um, the survivor, and it's important for them to think about that when they make a decision as to what steps they want to take. All right, let's listen to Terry from Parkchester right now. It's sad when people are put on this earth to love each other and they have families and unfortunately they give in to the anger. You know, when you when you listen to Terry there, I think uh Salone e that she really encapsulates its this relationship started for a positive reason. Obviously not going in that direction right now, but that it affects the entire family. No, of course. And I think that's what makes it so complicated, right? It's like you can't it's not all just all bad. If it was all bad, you wouldn't be in their relationship. It's always that there's actual genuine care and love and feelings there and also abuse and they coexist. You know, and I think again, it's like intimate partner violence. Domestic violence is is connected to all other forms of violence in our society, right? We live in expected to gun violence and community violence and all of those things. And to really get at the root causes of violence. I think we have to kind of keep going earlier and earlier and earlier and really unlearn some of the unhealthy behaviors that we've all accepted and really learn how to be healthy in relationships, right? So, at our office, one of the things we keep thinking about is how do we, you know, start, we have a relationship abuse prevention program that we started in high schools and we realized high school is too late. So we, you know, did an earlier program starting in middle school and now we're looking to go to elementary school and even even earlier. So we're really starting to teach from a very young age folks how to like navigate these, you know, situations where feelings come up where there's care and concern and conflict right? To really identify some of that stuff of like why is this making me act in the way that it is right? Because I think that's the long term work that's really going to get us out of there once we learn how to build healthy relationships. And we do know that Children are exposed to that intimate partner violence each year. It's something that they are are witnessing firsthand, which you would think Maureen has ramifications for when then they enter their own relationships. Yes. And and and if I could just add to what Salone E said, this is why. And you asked had asked earlier what can be done there? There's so much help out there for survivors. But it's really important that the first people they turn to are often their family, their friends as Solonius said, their spiritual leaders. Um how are we addressing it? What are we doing to to help? And that includes because that um that also impacts the Children in the home. If the Children in the home see that um you know, help is available or that what is happening in their home is not okay. That's something that's being taught to them. They can learn it yes through through programs um in the school and outside the school. But I think what's really important is for them to see it from there. Um models their family and their teachers um telling them that what is happening because it is going to have an impact on Children. Um later in their lives we've seen that there there's been studies that have shown that that it doesn't just impact their um mental health potentially socially. It also can impact them physically. Alright. If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, we do have all of that information for you up on news 12 dot com. You can contact the national domestic hotline calling 1 807 99 safe. You can also visit hotline. You can also text love is 2-2,

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