UNTIL JUSTICE FOR [GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE] SURVIVORS…JUST IS.
YWCA Greater Cleveland is excited to be a part of the Until Justice…Just Is campaign. Join us as we cover a different topic each month to explore some of many areas in which true justice is needed, and what we can do to achieve equity in our community and our country until justice…just is.
This month, we believe that support and justice for gender-based violence survivors is support and justice for all. Join us in reading and learning about how to ensure true support and justice until justice for survivors of gender-based violence…just is.
WE ADVOCATE FOR: ELIMINATING THE CAUSES & EFFECTS OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
The Problem
Although 1 in 3 women and 1 in 10 men will experience gender-based violence in their lifetime, there continues to be a widespread misconception that it is rare or exceptional. This harmful misconception avoids addressing root causes of gender-based violence.
Possible causes of gender-based violence include:
- Acceptance of harmful gender roles that allow men control over women and link masculinity to dominance.
- Acceptance of violence to resolve conflict, large or small.
- Centering of voices and needs of white women, encouraging common misconceptions about who survivor of gender-based violence might be.
- For example, voices of Black trans women typically excluded from policy & practice changes, despite being at highest risk of experiencing intimate partner violence.
- Unjust legal practices that criminalize survivors of gender-based violence and reflect society’s perception of survivors.
- Lack of economic resources makes women particularly vulnerable to violence and increases difficulty in escaping a violent situation.
- Underrepresentation of women (especially women of color and trans women of color) in political spaces means women have fewer opportunities to affect policy change and shape discussion in this area.
Effects of gender-based violence can be felt by the individual, family, community, and society as a whole:
- Negative physical & mental health effects.
- Negative educational, career, and financial effects; potential lost wages, decreased productivity, withholding of resources, and/or allowing for limited attendance.
- Social and emotional struggles, educational struggles, mental and behavioral health struggles in children who witness gender-based violence.
- Increased likelihood of experiencing homelessness.
- Long term mental and health consequences caused by Adverse Childhood Experiences related to children who witness gender-based violence.
- Social exclusion and isolation of survivors.
The Solution
- Challenge and redress societal norms that accept and cause gender-based violence.
- Political focus on protection and support survivors and inclusion of women, especially women of color and members of LGBTQ+ community, in policy and practices changes.
- Addressing mental and physical health effects of survivors and witnesses of gender-based violence in a trauma-informed manner, especially child witnesses.
- Educational and workplace standards that support survivors of gender-based violence instead of encouraging their exclusion.
Where We Stand
YWCA Greater Cleveland believes that all people have the right to health and safety. Proper recognition and address of the causes and effects of gender-based violence is integral to ensuring this right.
Our 2020-2025 Strategic Plan emphasizes our goal to ensure the health and safety and economic security of women and girls of color, which includes a need for supportive services to discourage violent situations and support survivors.
As we stand in solidarity with the fight to end gender-based violence, YWCA Greater Cleveland’s programming continues to function in response to community needs:
- Supportive services at Norma Herr Women’s Center, Cogswell Hall, and Independence Place facilities and the Early Learning Center.
- Addressing specific experiences of women of color in programming like the 21-Day Challenge and Go LIVE for Equity.
- Events to empower women creating change in the community, such as Women of Achievement Awards ceremony.
WE ADVOCATE FOR: PHYSICAL & MENTAL HEALTH OF SURVIVORS OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
The Problem
- Gender-based violence has serious short and long term consequences on physical and mental health, as well as on the personal and social well-being of survivors.
- Health consequences include immediate injuries, untimed or unwanted pregnancy and/or problems with pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, chronic conditions.
- Mental health consequences include PTSD, depression, anxiety, substance misuse, isolation.
- Survivors of gender-based violence may face stigma from their community and family, or be encouraged to avoid reporting instances of violence, making support inaccessible.
- LGBTQ+ survivors of gender-based violence may already be facing stigma & exclusion, adding another barrier to reporting and support.
- Systemic racism creates many barriers for people of color to access health services, creating additional obstacles (See Until Health Justice Just Is).
The Solution
- Safe, affordable, and accessible physical and mental healthcare for survivors of gender-based violence.
- Safe and accessible means for reporting and escaping instances of violence for survivors who choose to do so, including continued supportive services for survivors.
- Centering of voices and needs of survivors of color and LGBTQ+ survivors to ensure those facing most obstacles to physical and mental healthcare after instances of gender-based violence are well served and supported.
Where We Stand
YWCA Greater Cleveland believes that all people have the right to physical and mental healthcare. This becomes especially crucial to survivors who may face a range of negative health outcomes due to violence.
Our 2020-2025 Strategic Plan emphasizes our goal to urgently ensure the health and safety of women and girls of color, which includes the immediate need for survivors of gender-based violence to have access to safe and supportive physical and mental healthcare services.
As we stand in solidarity with the fight to end gender-based violence, YWCA Greater Cleveland’s programming continues to function in response to community needs:
- Independence Place & NIA connect residents with quality healthcare.
- Supportive services at Norma Herr Women’s Center and Cogswell Hall work to ensure accessible healthcare to all guests.
WE ADVOCATE FOR: EDUCATION AROUND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
The Problem
Lack of information around gender-based violence may:
- Help perpetuate the cycle of abuse and keep available resources away from survivors.
- Leave survivors feeling they have no legal rights or supportive services available to them, discouraging them from leaving an abusive situation.
- Contribute to misconceptions about survivors and perpetrators of abuse, leaving instances of gender-based violence to continue and supportive services to fail to meet actual needs of survivors.
- Especially true for people of color and members of LGBTQ+ community when mainstream activism in this area centers the voices and needs of cisgender white women.
- Contribute to misconceptions about what is or is not considered abuse, allowing perpetrators and survivors alike to rationalize different forms of abuse.
- Allows schools, an integral part of childhood socialization, to be an institution that encourages harmful societal norms contributing to future violence.
Types of Gender-Based Violence
There are many types of gender-based violence. This is not meant to be a fully comprehensive list:
- Physical Violence– any act attempting to cause or resulting in pain and/or physical injury to a partner, includes denying medical care.
- Verbal Violence– regular use of words meant to hurt a partner; may include name-calling, humiliation, verbal threats, and sexualization.
- Psychological Violence– causing fear by intimidation, threatening physical harm to self, partner, or children, forced isolation or confinement,
- Sexual Violence– forcing partner to take part in any sex act without consent
- Harassment– any form of verbal or physical conduct with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person, including stalking.
- Financial Abuse– making a person financially dependent by controlling finances, withholding access to money, forbidding employment, taking out loans in partner’s name, and more.
Other types of violence include: human trafficking, sexual cyberbullying, dating abuse, intimate partner violence, state violence, cultural violence such as female genital mutilation, reproductive coercion, LGBTQ+ violence, and many more.
The Solution
- Widespread education, starting at an appropriate age, around the reality of gender-based violence, types of violence, consent, resources for survivors, and legislation in this area, centering the experiences of people of color.
- Empowers youth to challenge harmful gender norms and recognize, address, and prevent forms of gender-based violence.
- Continued low barrier access to education surrounding gender-based violence, especially in legal rights and legislation in this area.
- Low barrier access to supportive services for survivors of gender-based violence.
- Inclusion of people of color in creating educational material and policy and practice changes in this area to ensure they express the reality and meet the needs of all people.
Where We Stand
YWCA Greater Cleveland believes that knowledge around gender-based violence is integral to the health and safety of all people. Our 2020-2025 Strategic Plan highlights our goals of true health and safety and economic empowerment of all women and girls. Education around gender-based violence and low barrier access to supportive services for survivors are mandatory to achieve these goals.
As we stand in solidarity with the fight to end gender-based violence, YWCA Greater Cleveland’s programming continues to function in response to community needs:
- Supportive services at Norma Herr Women’s Center, Cogswell Hall, and Independence Place facilities and the Early Learning Center.
- Addressing specific experiences of women of color in programming like the 21-Day Challenge and Go LIVE for Equity.
- Events to empower women creating change in the community, such as Women of Achievement Awards ceremony.
WE ADVOCATE FOR: ELIMINATION OF ABUSE TO PRISON PIPELINE
The Problem
- Instead of proper physical and mental health support, survivors of gender-based violence are referred to the criminal and juvenile justice systems at such high rates that gender-based violence is a primary indicator for involvement in the criminal and juvenile justice system.
- Once incarcerated, resources to address trauma and support healing are nearly nonexistent. Instead, re-traumatization and further abuse is common, making incorporation back into society even more difficult and recidivism an extreme obstacle.
- Systemic racism causes women and girls of color to be more likely to be criminalized instead of supported and experience instances of gender-based violence at a higher rate, making the abuse-to-prison pipeline especially perilous for these survivors.
The Solution
- Legislation to protect the mental and physical health and safety of survivors of gender-based violence and decrease risk of unjust criminalization.
- Increased funding and access to programs that center mental and behavioral health through a trauma-informed care model to support survivors and limit referrals to law enforcement.
- Center voices and opinions of survivors of color in policy and practice changes, to ensure protection addresses the needs of those most impacted.
Where We Stand
YWCA Greater Cleveland believes that all people have a right to health and safety, which includes survivors of gender-based violence. This right can never be realized with the presence of an abuse-to-prison pipeline.
We stand in solidarity with those working to eliminate the abuse-to-prison pipeline as we continue to support the needs of our community:
- Facilities such as Norma Herr Women’s Center, Cogswell Hall, and Independence Place provide safe and supportive housing options.
- Programming, such as the 21-Day Challenge, centers and uplifts voices and needs of women and girls of color.
WE ADVOCATE FOR: LEGISLATION TO SUPPORT SURVIVORS OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
The Problem
Leaving a violent situation is dependent on comprehensive legislation to support and protect all survivors, free of barriers such as harmful gender or racial stereotypes.
Two acts that protect survivors and families must be reauthorized and expanded in 2021 to ensure continued support:
- The Violence Against Women Act was originally passed in 1994 and has since made a tremendous impact in changing culture and norms, reducing domestic & sexual violence, and improving critical victim services.
- The Family Violence Prevention & Services Act originally passed in 1984 and has since served over 1.3 million domestic violence victims and their children during one of the most vulnerable points in their lives.
Both of these provide critical funding that survivors rely on for domestic violence services, such as transitional housing, emergency shelter, transportation, child care, and medical & legal counseling.
Without reauthorization these lifesaving programs will be eliminated, leaving survivors of violence without federal resources to ensure their safety and future.
The Solution
Contact your Senator and urge them to take action to reauthorize both the Violence Against Women and Family Violence Prevention & Services Acts.
Both of these include increased funding for current programs in addition to new investments for prevention and marginalized survivors. Survivors and families cannot wait for Congress to reauthorize this critical legislation
OHIO SENATORS:
Senator Sherrod Brown
Senator Rob Portman
Where We Stand
YWCA Greater Cleveland fully supports the reauthorization of VAWA and FVPSA. We believe legislation like these acts are critical to ensuring the safety of families and individual survivors of violence.
YWCA Greater Cleveland stands in solidarity with those working to ensure the reauthorization of these acts in Congress as we work to address need in our community:
Supportive services at facilities such as Norma Herr Women’s Center, Cogswell Hall, Early Learning Center, and Independence Place function under a trauma informed care model to ensure families and survivors of trauma are supported to the fullest extent.
HOW ARE MEANINGFUL CHANGES MADE IN OUR COMMUNITY?
- Challenge and redress societal norms that accept and cause gender-based violence.
- Safe, accessible, and affordable mental and physical health care and supportive services for survivors and witnesses of gender-based violence based on a trauma-informed care model.
- Centering of voices and needs of survivors of color in and LGBTQ+ survivors in policy and practice changes to ensure all survivors are well served and supported.
- Widespread education, starting at an appropriate age, around the reality of gender-based violence, types of violence, consent, resources for survivors, and legislation in this area, centering the experiences of people of color.
- Legislation to protect the mental and physical health and safety of survivors of gender-based violence, decrease risk of unjust criminalization, and set educational and workplace standards that support survivors of gender-based violence instead of encouraging their exclusion.
- Contact your Senator and urge them to take action to reauthorize both the Violence Against Women and Family Violence Prevention & Services Acts.