newsmakers as we continue our focus on domestic violence
focus on domestic violence
awareness and the challenges
that causes. Here’s a Web site
you should know about and a
phone number that is important as well. The Houston Area
as well. The Houston Area
Women’s Center website Www Dot
H a W C Dot org. The domestic
violence hotline where you can
find help. 24 hours a day 7, 1, 3, 5, 2, 8. 21. 21 at 7, 1, 3,
3, 5, 2, 8. 21. 21 at 7, 1, 3,
5 to 8. 21. 21 on make this
information available on the
newsmakers page on click 2
Houston dot com as well.
You know, in 2020 228 Texans
were killed by their intimate
partner in this year. According
to the Glenda Going Research
Center as a part of the Safe
Communities Institute. That
Crime Stoppers of Houston. So far there have been 1465
So far there have been 1465
aggravated assaults with
weapons and 1411 aggravated
assaults involving a family
member. In other words, domestic violence related.
domestic violence related.
And the numbers continue to
climb year after year in the
White House knows all about
these eye-opening stat. She is
the president and CEO of the Houston Area Women’s Center.
Houston Area Women’s Center.
Good to see you again. October.
This month.
We focus on it, but you focus
on it every month, every day of
the year. If that’s right, the
challenge is it continues to be with us. We are always hopeful
with us. We are always hopeful
that we’re going to make this
go away. What keeps you
hopeful? Let me tell you what
the Houston Area Women’s
Center. We have been on the front lines of partnering with
front lines of partnering with
survivors for 45 years.
>> And we see them doing the
work to build their lives free from violence. Incredible
from violence. Incredible
courage in the wake of harm
and what we know is that if
people are given the support
they need emotional and behavioral health, free of
behavioral health, free of
charge, which we do housing so
that they are no longer forced
to choose between an abusive
home and homelessness
opportunities to improve their lives through education, access
lives through education, access
to childcare, that survivors
can move forward and that’s the
inspiration we know these
programs work once upon a time
in a couple years ago, we were looking at the pandemic is
looking at the pandemic is
being responsible for a lot
of the
>> domestic violence issues.
We think that that’s still in
place. So, you know, we’ve all I think
So, you know, we’ve all I think
taken a bit of a collective
sigh of relief.
>> Because we’re not so alarmed
about the prospect of getting sick, but the social disruption
sick, but the social disruption
that we’ve experienced due to
the pandemic remains. And I do
think that the escalation in
violence that we’re
experiencing is at least still in part due to the economic and
in part due to the economic and
social disruption that we
experienced from the pandemic.
>> Once upon the my last
segment, in fact, was not long ago. Their with the Houston
ago. Their with the Houston
Police Department talked about
the Houston Area Women’s Center
has been one of the places that
people need to go.
To find safe I know that one of the status all recently was
the status all recently was
that lack of space was one of
the big issues for people who
are being faced with problems
with domestic violence. Yeah.
violence. Yeah.
>> So, you know, we are really
committed in this community to
trying to provide safety
on-demand, real-time safety
to people who we know are in danger. And when we have a 24
danger. And when we have a 24
hour hotline and when you call
our hotline, we have a set of
questions that are very
indicative of how much danger you might be in people who are
you might be in people who are
in abusive dynamics. And it
doesn’t always start with
extreme violence, right?
It can be emotional abuse,
financial abuse. I’m just
really getting at the way you feel about yourself in a way
feel about yourself in a way
that allows somebody to
exercise increasing amounts
of control over you. And so we have a set of questions to help
have a set of questions to help
us kind of decipher how much
danger might you be in if
you’re in that situation,
you’re you’re may just be
focused on getting by.
>> You know, keeping the peace and make it can be easy to kind
and make it can be easy to kind
of lose track. So this set of
this tool that we use helps us
assess the lethality of the
situation and we are in the
situation in this community where when we know people are
where when we know people are
in a highly lethal situation,
we still may not have a bed.
So we’re working on at the
Houston Area Women’s Center
where we’re expanding our access to real-time safety by
access to real-time safety by
increasing the number of
emergency beds that we have.
>> But in the meantime, we
still encourage people to call
because there’s so much you can do to keep yourself safe.
do to keep yourself safe.
Safety planning is the most
important thing that we do on
our hotline with people.
We do it every day and we
safety plan with people.
>> Part of that safety plan is for people who are in a
for people who are in a
situation where they know they
need to leave that at that
point when they decide they are
planning to leave that often.
And most of the time is the
most dangerous time for that person to thank you so much for
person to thank you so much for
racing. That can, but we really
want people to call us Ashley
at that point where they’re
like, I have at it. This is not
the life I want. We want them to call or friends and family
to call or friends and family
who are seeing that dynamic.
We want them to call.
>> Because what we might think is that moment up, you know,
is that moment up, you know,
consciousness raising and, you
know, coming to one senses that
actually can be tragically the
most dangerous time. And that’s
when safety planning is so essential.
Again and again, we see that
the most likely time to be
harmed or killed is as you’re
leaving or even within the
first year after you’ve left
an abusive relationship.
So we really want to be able to
work with people to make sure
that they’re leaving carefully thoughtfully and with the
thoughtfully and with the
proper protections in place.
I went to your Web site to do
that all the time by the.
>> And I noticed more than sit
well with the resources.
More than 60 different organizations with resources on
organizations with resources on
your website for all kinds of
things that we need to know
about domestic violence.
What do you suggest someone if
they even think that there this situation is
that there this situation is
that something’s not right.
what do you suggest they do to
try to still them? So they may
not need you right now, but
where do they need to go?
>> Well, I really do encourage them to call the high because
them to call the high because
that that that’s a great place
to start we talked to people
on that hot line. It you don’t
need to just call the hotline. If you feel like you’re in
If you feel like you’re in
peril caught wind, if you’re
just not sure what’s happening
here, you know, I can access
my bank accounts. My my
partners not letting me I earn some money. I earn the money,
some money. I earn the money,
but I can’t get to my accounts
or I’m getting increasingly
concerned because my partner done. Let me a lot friends to
done. Let me a lot friends to
get, you know, withhold
resources are my partners.
You know, threatening kids.
I don’t do what he says.
There’s there’s all kinds of ways for this abuse plays out.
ways for this abuse plays out.
And that’s what we’re here for.
We’re here to provide free
counseling. We provide access
to legal services. We provide access to housing economic and
access to housing economic and
financial coaching. It is not
just a place for the most dire
situations. Most of the people that we serve are or not in our
that we serve are or not in our
shelter there in these other
programs. And then, of course,
and I’m so glad you mentioned
that we have a network of
throughout the community of other service providers that we
other service providers that we
connect people to warm
handoffs. So that people it is
going to take all of us in this
community to address the
systemic issue. But it’s good
to know. Houston Area Women’s Center is at the center of it
Center is at the center of it
all into the White House.
Thank you. Continued good luck