Using Partnership to Address Domestic Violence and Support Survivors: ISLG’s Current and Coming Work

By Alison Diéguez, Program Director

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Every year, October marks Domestic Violence Awareness Month, where communities and organizations around the country unite to end this national and local public health epidemic and to support the people it touches. For good reason: the prevalence of domestic violence (DV), which includes intimate partner violence (IPV), is staggering. In the United States, one in three women, one in four men, and one in two transgender people experience an abusive intimate relationship at least once in their lifetimes.[1] Those impacted by DV—including survivors, abusive partners, child witnesses, and community members—often face a multitude of challenges which can be exacerbated by government systems and complex trauma.

This October and every month, ISLG’s multifaceted work to reduce domestic and intimate partner violence strives to reflect the complexity and urgency of this area in close partnership with community-based organizations, survivors, and the City government. By centering the voices of survivors and serving all those impacted by violence, ISLG’s strategy brings together all stakeholders to strengthen the services and systems available to people impacted by DV/IPV as well as develop innovative policy solutions and fund critical programs that help repair the harm caused by domestic violence.

Improving Resources for Survivors of IPV/DV

Since 2017, ISLG has managed the Criminal Justice Investment Initiative’s (CJII’s) Programs to Increase Access to Services for Survivors of Crime, which funds programs that serve those impacted by crime, including survivors of IPV/DV, across many intersectional identities. These culturally specific programs raise public awareness through targeted outreach; connect survivors to available services; enhance education and training for service providers; and improve translation and sign language interpretation services for survivors who are D/deaf, hard of hearing, or non-English speaking.

Many of the survivor communities served through this initiative have faced historic and systemic barriers to resources, including criminalized survivors and trans and gender non-conforming (TGNC) survivors. Throughout the course of the initiative, ISLG supported these organizations through flexible grant management and the ongoing provision of trauma-informed training and technical assistance across programmatic, strategic, and operational subject areas.

Working with Those Who Cause Harm

Abusive Partner Intervention Programs (APIPs) use a variety of approaches in order to hold abusive partners accountable, preserve the safety of survivors, and promote behavior change. In New York City and across the country, members of the DV community have advocated for more effective approaches to abusive partner intervention programs (APIPs), including the creation of innovative and trauma-informed programs that take the experiences, needs, trauma histories, and risks presented by the abusive partner into account. Many individuals who perpetrate domestic violence have their own trauma histories, yet many traditional APIP models do not integrate trauma-informed principles into their approach. Survivors and advocates have also pushed for intervention services for abusive partners that do not involve the criminal legal system: as many as 60% of survivors do not want police involvement, yet the majority of APIPs require a criminal or family court referral.

Given this gap and the potential for tremendous innovation and impact, ISLG has led the development of several trauma-informed abusive partner intervention programs which offer group-based interventions alongside holistic wraparound and trauma-specific counseling and/or case management. 

• The Trauma Informed Abusive Partner Intervention Program, a partnership between CJII and the Urban Resource Institute, utilizes innovative approaches to working with abusive partners, serving survivors, and integrating trauma-informed care into behavioral health and social service delivery. More detail on this exciting program can be found in our June 2021 policy brief.

• ISLG is involved in the development of a new community-based, voluntary APIP program coming in the near future. Voluntary APIP programs meet the gap that survivors and providers in the field have highlighted around programming that is available for people who are not involved the criminal/family court system.

Addressing Domestic Violence in the Police Reform and Reinvention Plan

ISLG has partnered with the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender Based Violence (ENDGBV) in implementing several initiatives within the City's larger Police Reform and Reinvention Collaborative Plan. These initiatives aim to better serve survivors of DV and gender-based violence (GBV) within and beyond policing.

• Decoupling services from criminal legal involvement: In partnership with ENDGBV, ISLG is conducting a review of programs across the city to understand where survivors are required or expected to engage with the criminal legal system in order to access vital services, and how these requirements impact them. Many survivors do not want to engage in the criminal legal system after they have experienced DV/IPV. Many others who choose to engage face additional obstacles to reporting, such language barriers or fear of retaliation or harassment. Yet, survivors are often asked to show police reports, orders of protection, or other criminal legal-related documentation to access services. Through this project, ISLG is researching where this engagement is required so to identify opportunities at the city and state level to delink these systems.

• Strengthening law enforcement interactions with the community by listening to survivors of DV and gender-based violence: Survivors and advocates have reported that the law enforcement response to DV and gender-based violence can vary by precinct and borough, inconsistencies that make navigating the system challenging. To address this, ISLG is supporting NYC survivor leaders, ENGDBV, and the NYPD in partnering to create a formalized structure for survivor feedback and enhanced transparency.

• Developing customized training on domestic and gender-based violence: In partnership with NYPD and ENDGBV, ISLG is developing training modules to improve law enforcement interactions with survivors of DV and gender-based violence. These trainings will be grounded in trauma-informed principles and center survivor’s experiences and feedback.  

[1] Black, M. C., Basile, K. C., Breiding, M. J., Smith, S. G., Walters, M. L., Merrick, M. T., . . . Stevens, M. R. (2011). The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (NISVS): 2010 summary report. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.