Nonprofit coalitions from across New York stand together in an historic coalition to call on the State to invest in a 3% increase on contracts and rates for the next 5 years for the survival of the sector.

Human service nonprofits provide vital services, including after-school programs, supportive housing, homeless services, job training, substance abuse disorder/addiction and mental health services to millions of New Yorkers annually.

Human services funding at the State has been slashed by 26% since 2008, resulting in rates lower than in 1980. The State continues to expect nonprofits to do more with less, but the sector cannot continue to provide quality services to communities without fair funding.

View the PDF here.

THE NATIONAL DEAF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE launched a new logo (pictured) and announced new services on its website including a live chat feature making it “more accessible by offering various options for survivors, friends and family members” to reach them.

The Deaf Hotline has advocates available for crisis intervention, education, information and referrals for Deaf, DeafBlind, DeafDisabled Callers.

Barrier Free Living’s (BFL) Secret Garden domestic violence program welcomed staff and supporters to the grand opening of its new healing space this May.

A historical timeline was unveiled (photo above) mapping the program’s decades of providing services to survivors of domestic violence with disabilities.

“This is a great new home where we can focus on our comprehensive services. We welcome all agency staff to attend our regular workshops and trainings, or to just stop by through the year and find some quiet time,” says Jules, Secret Garden Program Director.

Photos: Top (left to right) Former Secret Garden Program Director Georgette Delinois with BFL Director of Communications Scott Hess. Below (left to right) Accounting team members Vicky Wang, Sol Coriat with BFL Chief Operating Officer LeShan Gaulman. 

Cynthia Amodeo, Chief Program Officer at Barrier Free Living and Jules Perkel, Program Director at Barrier Free Living’s Secret Garden, will co-present this presentation at this year’s conference. 

According to the Office on Women’s Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, research suggests that women with disabilities are more likely to suffer domestic violence and sexual assault than women without disabilities, and women with disabilities report abuse that lasts longer and is more intense.

This workshop (presented twice, see below) will explore how interpersonal violence affects individuals with disabilities and the barriers they face to seeking services and safety. Attendees will explore reasons people with disabilities stay in an abusive relationship and how the trauma of abuse affects their decision to leave.

• 4/09/2019 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
• 04/11/2019  8:00 am – 9:30 am

The goal of the Conference on Crimes Against Women is to provide practical instruction, using current information, the newest ideas and most successful intervention strategies, to those professionals responsible for combating the many and varied forms of crimes against women.  April 8-11, 2019 – Sheraton Hotel, Dallas, Texas

April was recognized as Financial Literacy Month in the U.S. and there were a roster of events shining a spotlight on the importance of economic and financial education.

Barrier Free Living’s programs (Secret Garden, Freedom House, BFL Apartments) offer a variety of financial literacy workshops and educational forums throughout the year for our tenants, residents and participants who are survivors of domestic violence with disabilities.

Our Freedom House domestic violence shelter works with The Shine Foundation, which holds regular financial literacy workshops for residents through the year (view a virtual tour of Freedom House here.)

The agency also launched a Financial Literacy Scholarship workshop in 2018 (funded by the Assurant Foundation) where tenants of our Barrier Free Living Apartment programs were able to pursue education and career scholarship funds after completing an 8-week intensive course (read more here).

This month’s special contributor Tina Tran (photo at bottom) shares her insights around domestic violence and debt below. Tina is the managing bankruptcy attorney at Upsolve. Upsolve is a legal aid non-profit that helps low income individuals and families file for bankruptcy free of cost.

Debt and domestic violence frequently go hand in hand. In an abusive or violent relationship, victims are coerced into incurring debt on the abuser’s behalf. Victims are put at risk for having credit card accounts opened in their name, and for being tricked into signing loan documents without their knowledge or consent.

What is Financial Abuse?

One common characteristic of a financially abusive partner is their desire to control the finances in a relationship. This is evidenced by the power they exert in efforts to coerce the other to quit their job, forcing them to make purchases without their consent, or deciding when and how the other can access ATM cards, credit cards, checkbooks, etc.

What are The Long-Term Effects?

A major consequence of this abusive behavior is a ruined credit rating. Low credit scores create barriers to obtaining housing, employment, and future credit. Domestic violence victims and survivors are so financially burdened that they are unable to become financially self-sufficient even after leaving an abusive relationship.

Many victims and survivors of domestic violence find themselves plagued with thousands of involuntary debts that they are unable to pay back. Few landlords will rent to a person with a low credit score. Similarly, employers now pull credit reports as part of the hiring process in addition to doing a background and criminal records check.

The ability to obtain future credit, purchase a home, or take out a loan becomes significantly more difficult with a low credit score. Bad credit not only prevents victims and survivors of domestic violence from being financially self-sufficient, but it also compromises their individual safety and the safety of their children.

It’s not difficult to understand why victims of domestic violence would return to an abusive relationship after an unsuccessful attempt to leave. Without the ability to obtain housing or employment, victims often feel that they are left with no other choice. Not to mention, they risk being sued by debt collectors who can garnish their wages once they DO find gainful employment.

Is There a Better Option?

Fortunately, there is. The United States Bankruptcy Code offers a way out for people struggling with overwhelming debt. Filing for bankruptcy continues to be stigmatized because of the misconception that petitioners and debtors are simply scam artists misusing the legal system. It’s not true.

While bankruptcy petitioners and debtors report having feelings of guilt and shame, the vast majority of people who file for bankruptcy do so in order to get a fresh start, or to free themselves of the financial burdens created by involuntary or coercive debt. Filing for bankruptcy is often the best option for people who have fallen on hard times due to illness, loss of employment, or divorce.

What are The Upsides to Filing for Bankruptcy?

 There are many benefits to filing for bankruptcy. One of the major benefits to filing for bankruptcy is the immediate relief you receive from all debt collection efforts, including the end of creditor calls and collection agency mail. All efforts to collect a debt from you stops as soon as you file for bankruptcy.

A second major benefit to bankruptcy is the wiping out of most types of debt. Debts that can be erased are debts from credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, lawsuits, and utility bills. Debts that cannot be erased are debts stemming from student loans, certain tax obligations, government penalties, child support and alimony payments.

Filing for bankruptcy can also improve your credit score if it’s already low. At the completion of your bankruptcy case, you will receive a discharge order erasing the debts that you owe. You’ll be given a chance to rebuild your credit once you receive your discharge order. One quick an easy way to do so is to obtain a secured credit card and to stick to your budget.

How Much Will It Cost Me?

There are a few different options you have when filing for bankruptcy. You can either file with a private attorney, a legal aid organization, or on your own. On average, private attorneys charge $2000 for their services. Legal aid organizations may also be able to fully represent you without requiring that you pay attorney fees. However, many legal aid organizations are only able to take on a limited number of cases due to the volume of requests they receive asking for help.

Filing on your own, or “pro se,” can be very intimidating and stressful. Thankfully, Upsolve exists. Upsolve is a non-profit organization that will help guide you through the process of filing bankruptcy on your own at no cost to you. If you have access to a computer or a phone, and a printer, filing for bankruptcy with the help of Upsolve’s guidance can be the most cost-effective way to file without sacrificing quality.

Miss Flo, one of the original tenants of Barrier Free Living Apartments in the Bronx, was an active part of the community from the start. She  was a founding member of the garden club, and was a regular attendee of Occupational Therapy groups and workshops.

In 2017, however, two strokes that came only ten days apart, landed her in the hospital.

“I was very close to death,” says Flo.

Flo recovered and returned home to BFL Apartments, hoping to pick up where she left off. But there was one big thing missing: a motorized scooter.

“I knew the scooter would give me freedom and mobility. I couldn’t move independently in the manual chair,” says Flo. “I am so thankful for my (Barrier Free Living apartments) social worker Claudine (in photo above). It was her determination and her stern voice (advocating) that got the insurance to finally approve the scooter.”

Flo is back in the garden this May, and happy to be doing things like grocery shopping again.

“There are so many things I am happy to do for myself.”

Read about Miss Flo and the garden club here. 

“I was in the hospital for a multiple sclerosis flare up. I had a week before I had to go home. My living situation was toxic. Mental and psychological abuse,” says Denise. “I was scared and my blood pressure was going up. An occupational therapist asked me about my blood pressure and she ended up telling me she had been an intern at (Barrier Free Living’s) Freedom House domestic violence shelter.”

( View a virtual tour film of Freedom House here.)

The therapist connected Denise to Freedom House, where she found safety and began to see her life choices going forward.

“It was awesome. Freedom House was the best experience to get me where I am today. I was being abused and didn’t know it. My social worker brought to my attention that when someone controls your money or your thoughts, that is abuse.”

During her stay at Freedom House, Denise attended domestic violence support groups and began to explore her options.

“I found my sanity, my emotional well-being and my self-esteem. I started caring for myself,” she says. “When I got to Freedom House I was a scared little mouse. When I left I was a lion.”

Denise attended the Shine Foundation’s financial empowerment workshops at Freedom House and learned about restoring good credit and creating a budget. Working with the Freedom House team, she was able to find her own apartment, and today is pursuing a Master’s degree in counseling.

Contributor Sara Eldridge, LMSW, is the Assisstant Director of Social Services at Barrier Free Living’s Freedom House domestic violence shelter. Sara is a licensed social worker who received a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in 2015. Sara has been a social worker at Freedom House since 2015, where she provides individual and group counseling to adults, children and adolescents. Prior to Freedom House she worked with youth in alternatives to detention and incarceration programs, student veterans and crime victims.

February 14 is Valentine’s Day.

First celebrated in Rome, Italy in the 14th century Valentine’s Day has become known in Western culture as a day to honor romance, sometimes in the form of grand gestures and expensive meals and gifts.

We are typically bombarded with messaging related to the joys of love and romance, in advertising and on social media for weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day.

The reality for some survivors of domestic violence, however, is that there can be many “so-called” romantic behaviors that are actually forms of abuse. When pop culture and society treat stalking and controlling behaviors as acceptable, even praiseworthy, expressions of love, victims of domestic and sexual violence may not realize that they are being abused, which can make it even harder to leave abusive relationships.

Teens are especially vulnerable to pop culture messages that purport to teach them what their first relationships should look like. The resulting confusion between abuse and love contributes to the high rates of teen dating violence, with one in three teens experiencing emotional, sexual and/or physical abuse from a partner.

In films like Twilight, Say Anything and Love, Actually, characters that show up at their love interest’s home, without their consent and/or despite previous rejection, are viewed as sweet and devoted. In the music video for Maroon 5’s Animals, the lead singer is portrayed stalking his love interest – and real-life wife – by watching her through her apartment window and taking secret photographs of her. Recently, the rapper Cardi B’s estranged husband interrupted one of her performances to ask her to reunite, which garnered praise from observers on social media.

Abusers may engage in these grand gestures in order to convince survivors that they have really changed, but in reality they are trying to coerce survivors into resuming an abusive relationship.

Stalking “is a series of actions that make you feel afraid or in danger” (Stalking Resource Center), such as repeatedly calling or texting, showing up wherever the victim is, giving unwanted gifts and finding out information via online searches or by contacting friends and family. Survivors who are the target of stalking report feeling fear and paranoia. They limit their activities, avoid seeing friends and family, and may even quit or lose their job because of the stalking.

Survivors with disabilities often have less recourse when they are being stalked – for example, they may have to continue going to the same provider even though the abuser keeps showing up there because they can’t get services somewhere else, or someone with low or no vision may not realize they are being followed.

Similarly, many abusers engage in controlling, manipulative or intimidating behaviors, such as telling their victims what to wear and who they can talk to and insulting or demeaning their victims.

Again, pop culture often romanticizes these behaviors, such as when the lead male character in The Notebook threatens to kill himself if his love interest doesn’t go out with him. On Gossip Girl a character repeatedly insults and humiliates his love interest and, when she tells him she is engaged to someone else, violently punches a window, causing her to be injured by flying glass. In both these examples, the couples end up together and the abuser’s behavior is seen as demonstrative of their passion and deep dedication to the person they love.

In reality, these types of behaviors serve to control victims so they acquiesce to the abusers’ wishes out of fear of further harm. They may eventually come to believe the insulting or cruel things abusers say about them.

Survivors with disabilities face specific manipulations based on their disability, such as being called crazy because of their mental health needs, told they are useless or incompetent because they use assistive devices, or made to feel guilty for inconveniencing the abuser who has sacrificed so much to take care of them and their disability.

Both Secret Garden and Freedom House* shelter provide individual and group DV counseling to help abuse survivors understand that controlling, manipulative, and stalking behaviors are not romantic and are signs of an unhealthy and abusive relationship.

Many people will celebrate Valentine’s Day by watching a romantic movie or listening to a love song, but hopefully with a better understanding that abusive behaviors are not romantic or sweet but are scary, inappropriate and potentially dangerous.

Freedom House is holding an empowering “Family Love” Celebration on Feb. 13th for residents of the shelter.

V-Day is a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls that occurs in February.

Learn more about V-Day here. 

V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money, and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sex slavery.

Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual benefit performances of The Vagina Monologues and A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities. Each year, thousands of V-Day benefit events take place produced by volunteer activists in the U.S. and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls.

Training program for women and teen girls with disabilities in NYC to advance skills in preparation for civic engagement

RespectAbility is on the front lines of advancing the empowerment of women and girls with disabilities. We are passionate about bringing intersectionality into our work, and into the nonprofit sector at-large.

We are excited to announce a new effort to raise the voices, lives and experiences of New York City’s almost 500,000 women and girls with disabilities and empower them to have a better future.

Did you know that:

• In the NYC metropolitan area, women with a disability earn on average nearly $9,000 less than women without disabilities, and $16,000 per year less than men without a disability.
• A stunning 44 percent of New York women with disabilities live below the poverty line. In raw numbers, 111,236 women living in New York City ages 21-64 with a disability have an income below the poverty level.
• In New York, only 29 percent of African American women with disabilities are employed, while only 24 percent of Latina women with disabilities have jobs.

To change these outcomes, New York women and girls with disabilities need opportunities to make their voices heard, impact their communities and change the City for the better. Thanks to the generous support of the New York Women’s Foundation (NYWF), RespectAbility is launching a Training Program for women and girls with disabilities in New York City. Our goal is to advance skills in preparation for civic engagement.

RespectAbility is working to enable NYC’s women and girls with disabilities to have access to education, training and jobs, just like anyone else. RespectAbility is doing this by recruiting and training individuals with disabilities to share their knowledge, skills and contacts with NYC funders and service providers that need to include and serve women with disabilities.

WE ARE ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FROM NYC WOMEN AND GIRLS WITH DISABILITIES TO PARTICIPATE IN OUR TRAINING PROGRAM. Click here to go to application. 

Important Details for Applicants

• Excellent communication and organizational skills are strongly preferred, and applicants should exhibit leadership skills to complete their own projects.
• Commit to participate in one NYC training session.
• There is no tuition cost to participate.
• The trainings take place in the NYC area.
• Your application must explain why this training is of interest to you and why you believe you have the skills, focus and independent drive to make a positive difference in NYC.

This opportunity is for women, girls and gender-fluid applicants who have a visible or invisible disability. Invisible disabilities include, but are not limited to, mental health conditions, chronic pain, TBIs, and learning and attention disabilities.

Accommodations will be provided upon request.

LEARN MORE HERE.