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 Economic Justice for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence

October 11, 2022
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Financial abuse is a common strategy used by those who abuse to gain power and control. The first panelist will discuss how intimate partner violence intersects with economic justice. In the second panelist's presentation, intimate partner violence shelter approaches and housing policies will be addressed. The final panelist will discuss the impact of COVID-19 on economic security and survivors’ experiences of economic hardship.

Learning Objectives:

Have an understanding of the intersection of intimate partner violence and economic justice.
	Recognize tactics of financial abuse.
	To further an understanding of the interconnection between intimate partner violence and homelessness.
	Review intimate partner violence shelter approaches and broader housing policies.
	Identify opportunities and challenges presented by different models.
	Review the past literature on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the economic security of survivors of intimate partner violence.
	Report on survivors’ experiences of economic hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic and associations between economic hardship, sociodemographic characteristics, experiences of intimate partner violence, and protective factors.
  
  
          Transcript
Continuing Education: Hello, everyone! Thank you for joining us. Our Webinar will start momentarily at two. Pm:

Continuing Education: Hi. Welcome, everyone! That is two o'clock. We're going to go ahead and get started. We're excited to have you join us today. Um, for economic justice, for survivors of intimate partner violence. So just a few things before we get started. So some housekeeping things. If you're having difficulty listening or hearing um, please try to check your settings. Um, If not, th it still continues. Please jump off and on um log back down and log, back off and on,

Continuing Education: if you need technical assistance throughout Um,

Continuing Education: this presentation, please feel free to private message continuing education, and we'll try to help you out as much as we can. Um, if you have any questions, please use the Q. And a feature today. Um, we want to to answer all of any and all of your questions. So please um put your questions in the Q. And a box, and any recordings and slides will be posted in a few weeks on our website.

Continuing Education: So if you purchase continuing education credits um in your account the way you access your Webinar, you'll be able to access your evaluation and your certificate if you purchased, cease for today.

Continuing Education: We also want to acknowledge a few um

Continuing Education: uh programs around the nation. First Reckless school of social work, The violence against Women's Research, Consortium and University of Maryland, School of Social work and office of continuing professional education, as well as the National Institute of Justice. In I. A. This virtual brown back is supported and pardoned for a word number

Continuing Education: two thousand and sixteen in you. Cx. K. Zero, one one oforted by the National Institute of Justice,

Continuing Education: a disclaimer. The opinions and points of views express in this presentation are those of the presenters, and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the Us. Department of Justice,

Continuing Education: and for today's the moderator. We have Dr. Rachel, both Frog, assistant professor at University, of Texas, at Arlington School of Social Work.

Continuing Education: She is um her research focuses on community-based survivor centered services for survivors of intimate partner, violence and sexual violence. She previously worked in economic education and advocacy with survivors at redevelopment opportunities for women Ink and St. Louis

Continuing Education: She also holds an Msw. And Ph. D. From Washington University, in St. Louis, and has been working in the field of gender-based violence, intervention, and prevention for seventeen years. So, Dr. Vonstra,

Continuing Education: please.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Thank you very much, and welcome everyone to this. Webinar focused on economic justice for survivors of intimate partner violence presented by the Nij. The violence against Women's Research Consortium, which is a collaborative of the center on for Research on ending violence at Ruckers and the University of Maryland school of social work.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): The focus of the consortium is to identify gaps in research and practice in the areas of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, stocking and team dating violence and to implement research and evaluation projects to fill gaps in our current knowledge. In this field

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): the final goal is to disseminate research to a wide range of audiences, and is the reason that we are together this afternoon to talk about economic justice for survivors. This Webinar is one of several being hosted during domestic violence, awareness, month,

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): and aims to share important information, to promote economic justice and security for survivors of intimate partner, violence, their families and their communities. Some of the objectives of our Webinar today are to promote an understanding of the intersection of Ipv and economic justice

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): to further an understanding of the interconnection between intimate partner, violence and homelessness, and to report on survivors experiences of economic hardship during the Covid nineteen pandemic.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): To this end I'm. Very happy to welcome our first presenter, Kim Penteco

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Kim Penteco is the Economic Justice director at the National Network to end domestic violence, or N. E. Dv. She has been working with and on behalf of survivors of sexual and domestic violence since nineteen ninety. She spent over seven years working for a local domestic violence program in Kansas,

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): and another seven years at the Kansas Coalition against sexual and domestic violence. She's also work for the Stop Technical Assistance Project in Washington, Dc. Him works to ensure and enhance survivor access to economic justice and long term safety. Thank you for being with us, Kim.

Kim Pentico: Thanks so much for that great introduction. I appreciate it, and thanks so much for everybody who took time out on their day to join, for today I really do appreciate that. So

Kim Pentico: Um. So I work for the national network. We are a network of the fifty-six Us. And State domestic balance territories across the country There is one federally recognized domestic violence coalition in every State territory, and so we represent them. Um. We both work on public policy level with members of Congress as well as do training and technical assistance, which is the side that I work on.

Kim Pentico: Um. And so I I think I suspect that as many of you are practitioners and are working in the field on some level. There's not going to be any um huge. Aha! Moments for you today, but I think that maybe just um confirming some things you suspected, and also connecting some dots, as I, as I think the day will go on. So.

Kim Pentico: Um! I don't want to assume that You don't already know all these things, but you. We know that one in three uh women in particular will experience some sort of domestic violence, or Ipv. And their adult lives First, we know, as as you all know, much higher rate of um ipv uh for women who are living in poverty anywhere from eight to thirty-three percent recent or current violence, and additionally a much higher prevalence of um, also childhood physical and sexual violence.

Kim Pentico: So and I'm sure again, this is my thing. That's um. The news to you all is that? Why is that? Well, we know that having limited financial resources is a big risk factor to domestic violence, which makes sense. Viewer resources equals fewer good choices for getting and or staying safe, which

Kim Pentico: completely make sense. You know, if I consider myself pretty middle income. Um! And if my home becomes unsafe to me tonight because of people who are living in it. Um! I have the ability to get into a gas. That car I can uh travel across town. I can reserve a hotel room for several days. Um! That I feel fairly safe in, and um, or I can tap into my family resources. I can go to my mother's house and um, as you all know, oftentimes um socioeconomic status

Kim Pentico: travels through generations, and it's passed on generationally. And so, statistically speaking, she's also middle uh middle or upper income, and um I could tap into her resources to to increase and improve my safety

Kim Pentico: versus if I'm. Living in poverty, leaving looks very different. I may be getting into an unreliable vehicle, or or relying on public transportation. Um! I may be having to get a hotel room that doesn't feel particularly safe. Um, or doubling up with friends or family members who, statistically speaking, are in a similar socioeconomic status as myself,

Kim Pentico: so that would probably look at doubling up on a couch with my kids uh in a living room, or um even sleeping in my car for a couple of nights with my kids and um. So then, when my partner

Kim Pentico: calls me and begs me to come home and tells me how sorry they are. That negotiation looks very different

Kim Pentico: if I am trying to stay safe in my car and stay warm, and I know. I've got to send my kids to school tomorrow with no lunch money, and they had not showered. And what does that look like? So that negotiation looks different. Um! And I'm not able to navigate and negotiate my safety in the same way when finances are a piece of that that negotiation,

Kim Pentico: and we also know the users able to gain more control to the increased vulnerability that poverty causes. Um, if my part, if my harm doer knows that I've got the baby with me, and I'm running out of diapers then that my my harm to her is able to say, I've got. I bought diapers. Just come get the diapers I can. I'll give you the diapers. I'm. I'm so sorry about all of this. I still make it up. You guys want to do right by my family, and all those things that negotiation and my lack of access to my own resources increases my vulnerability

Kim Pentico: To that I harm you, or has to myself

Kim Pentico: and my kits. We also know that the abuse is likely to last longer, and resolve more severe injuries for those who are living in poverty, which again makes sense. If I'm not able to navigate financially my way out of the the situation, then I have to stay there longer, and I'm likely to have more severe injuries due to the domestic violence.

Kim Pentico: So a again, as you all know. Um, this does not mean that those living in poverty are more violent, and it certainly does not mean that those living with plenty of financial resources are not experiencing, or at risk of experiencing abuse. We simply know that poverty is an additional risk factor to my safety when domestic violence is a part of that.

Kim Pentico: So when we talk about what is financial abuse, it's not domestic violence and financial abuse. Financial abuse is actually a a form of uh domestic violence. As you know, what's at the center of domestic violence is power and control. It is a pattern, of course, of behavior used to gain and maintain power and control within that relationship. It is one of many very effective tactics to keep survivors tied into those relationships and to keep them trapped in those relationships just as long as

Kim Pentico: just along the same lines as intimidation and coercion and use of kids. Financial abuse and economic abuse is one of those many tactics um that holds that power of control into place. And when we see um some of those tactics not working um as well as I have in the past, then that's when we see physical sexual violence employed to kind of hold it all together.

Kim Pentico: Um! And we know that, like many of the other tactics, but particularly with financial abuse, it often traps the survivor in that relationship, for many of the reasons we just talked about. And we know that survivors report um as much as ninety-nine percent survivors report experiencing some form of financial abuse.

Kim Pentico: So we also know that the tactics themselves, the users tactics themselves can also plummet um survivors into poverty. Um, which makes sense. If I'm always tapping into my financial resources to get and stay safe.

Kim Pentico: Uh I may started out middle income, but if I'm losing jobs because my user shows up, or I um am having to get medical help or hire an attorney um, or or just miss work all the time. Then I may now be a lower system economic system when it started. So the the domestic violence itself can actually plummet me into living in poverty.

Kim Pentico: So let's look at some of the tactics we hear survivors report to us. Um! The in there there's not. This is not comprehensive by any means, but harassing it workplace, so that I lose my job potentially. So calling all the time showing up, maybe they're my childcare provider, and they drank My, my, my hob, do a drank all night, so I can't. I can't feel good about leaving my kids home alone with them, or they sabotage my way to work um by disabling the car or taking my bus venture so I can't get there easily.

Kim Pentico: Um! So So I end up, maybe even losing my job um identity theft, or even ruining credits. So um saying, they're gonna pay bills that they don't pay or taking out lines of credit that I don't know about under my name, so that I'm not able to get a new smartphone. I'm not able to rent a new apartment or those kinds of things.

Kim Pentico: Um, causing an eviction is a huge piece of that. Um! There is a There is a place where uh landlords often will tap into to see if you've been evicted from places, and if

Kim Pentico: um I've had to call law enforcement multiple times, or there's been damage done to a a property unit. Um! I may not be able to get a new apartment on my own, so I really, truly, literally am trapped, and we also hear from survivors that um they're harm, do, or forces them to commit to legal activity, commit it, commit crimes. Um. Again, also decreasing their ability to possibly get a job housing and or in some cases um post secondary education funding. If they have a felony conviction

Kim Pentico: continuing to further trap that survivor in that relationship. But we hear from survivor all the time. I knew if I got him high for the night, he'd leave me alone, and so if she gets caught doing that oftentimes, and that just uh, uh exacerbate that I highly recommend anybody has a chance to read um. Beth Ritchie's a book called Compelled to Crime. It's a fantastic Look at how so many female prisoners

Kim Pentico: um are there in due in large part due to domestic violence or um intimate partner. Violence as well as sabotaging success at getting more education or looking professional for work or interviews, so keeping somebody up all night blackening their eyes, so they don't show up to to work in those kinds of things.

Kim Pentico: Um really are very effective at keeping survivors trapped in those relationships.

Kim Pentico: Um, But it's important to note that ten again. Again. Probably things that you all very well know is that leading does not necessarily equal. Safety is is counterintuitive, right? You know you're You're being heard at home. We leave home. Leave that person that that that your harm doer. Um. But what we know that this is oftentimes an impossible situation for survivors leaving is one of the most dangerous times for survivors. They're um risk it dying at the hands of their harm do, or increases by seven times when they make an active independence like attempting

Kim Pentico: to leave like getting a job uh trying to go to school telling a neighbor those kinds of things, because that power and control, when they make an active independence that's challenging that power and control. So that's why the physical and sexual violence being employed to try to keep it all together. And so it's a really dangerous time for survivors. Um, I think it's two out. I think it's two out of at least half of every ho domestic homicides um comm committed. You can find that there is some sort of history of a Protection order filed, or some sort of E

Kim Pentico: Protection Act taken so so it's often a very dangerous time for survivors, and we also know that it's not already again living in poverty, that it may actually result in living in poverty. And we also often hear from survivors that

Kim Pentico: um when they're when they're harm, doer is close to them. They feel like they can navigate their safety better, which is doesn't make a lot of sense, but it But there's a fire breathing dragon in the room. The safest place to be sometimes is as close to that dragon as possible, and we hear survivors tell us all the time is I didn't know his next move when he wasn't here. Lisa could judge his move. At least I could judge my safety potentially when when they were close by. So it's just something to think about um. And yet so we know this. We know this intuitively, and and we know it

Kim Pentico: also by the practices that we do and the people that we see. Um, How does economic, Justin, financial environment measure up in the work that we're doing on a daily basis, either as practitioners as advocates as folks in law enforcement. Um.

Kim Pentico: Why isn't it a bigger part of the work that we're doing. If we know that ninety nine percent of all survivors are experiencing some form of financial use, why is that not where all of our energy is at It's just getting access to flexible funding,

Kim Pentico: and we, finding out that people don't always have the information skills they need to be successful in this area, whether that be the survivors themselves, but also the advocates that are helping on the front line, Don't often feel like they have the information they need, and and then in turn, then services are not truly reflected of that need. Services tend to be really focused on on things beyond the financial piece of it. Um! That are not necessarily connected to the finances, which is really what survivors have been telling us for years Is I just need access to cash.

Kim Pentico: I just need access to housing, and they're not able to get that. And so they're very trapped in those relationships.

Kim Pentico: Um! So we also know that um advocates often don't feel confident in their own skills and abilities, and talking about money and finances they themselves are struggling financially. I hate to tell you, but we're some of the poorest paid people out there right? Um, Because this is how we value things right. And so you have advocates struggling to make their own car payments and struggling to make their own rep payments. And so they don't feel qualified to talk about budgeting and those kinds of things with survivors. Um! So they're struggling themselves, and then they're They're just simply overworked and underpaid

Kim Pentico: as well, so that finding the time is a huge challenge. So We're working really hard on the economic justice team to incorporate economic justice into everyday advocacy work. We're encouraging folks to put in your screening. When folks come into services. We're We're making it just a core part of the work that they do. We're so excited to see lots of um funding resources really address this. Now it's in ovw it's in the fips. It's in voca. It's in the Cdc. Is doing work on this, so

Kim Pentico: I think folks are starting to Po finally pay attention. That money. I think we used to think the access to money resources was this nice icing on the cake. But we're really finding that it's actually a quarter of safety. Um! I can't afford to not be beaten at times, and so I have to have access to funds to get safe.

Kim Pentico: So it also just creating an environment where you can have on this conversation and dialogue about money. Um, and then really helping folks celebrate successes that they're having at the local program level. Um, we're doing this through um What we're trying to what we're trying to do is anyways innovative programming. And Grant making by supporting both um ideas and non-traditional match savings programs. Um, we're supporting um education and job training through compassionate assistance, meaning if somebody needs to have their car fix. We just pay to have a car fix

Kim Pentico: just low and no barrier access to cash, and we just trust survivors, and we trust them as human beings to do what they need to do to to get and keep their their kids in the family safe.

Kim Pentico: We're helping folks um do credit, repair um and do micro loans um, and a big piece of the work that we do is in our with our partnership with the off the State foundation and the moving head through financial literacy curriculum, which I just briefly tap onto just in case anybody's interested in it's free. It's available to anybody who wants to access it. It's a very traditional and lots of ways. Um five part um module curriculum, you know. We talk about budgeting credit and loans long term planning. But what sets it apart is module, one which is all about safety planning within the content

Kim Pentico: it's of domestic violence. So go ahead three minutes. Sorry. Thanks. So how to do. You know how to take pictures of documents, and what kind of documents you can start paying attention to where you store them how you start creating a go fund, those kinds of things. And then those things are woven throughout the rest of the curriculum.

Kim Pentico: Well, what we've learned in doing this is that we've learned that everybody has a learning curve uh, including the advocates. Um, we're not born knowing this, we're not always tied, and for many, many, many of us. It comes with um a lot of baggage, a lot of emotional baggage Talking about money is hard. It's hard for all of us.

Kim Pentico: Um! And then we tied into then all of the messages that survivors are given from their batter about their skills and abilities that come, you know around money and finances it is fraught.

Kim Pentico: And so we have learned that we have to go slow with survivors. We can't talk about budgeting on the first visit we have to establish trust and credibility with survivors. Um! And recognize that talking about money is hard, and it's just filled with lots of lots of triggers for all of us, from families of origin to relationships to all of those things.

Kim Pentico: So we're working, we're trying to do really thoughtful programming. We're we're focusing um our funds on this very reduction funds, just getting people access to cash, trusting people, valuing people and their needs. Um really focusing on making participation accessible, providing food, childcare transportation incentives. It's okay to get a twenty dollar gift card. Every time somebody shows up, It's okay,

Kim Pentico: And we don't have to try how they use it. We can just give it to them. And It's Okay,

Kim Pentico: Um. And we're constrained celebrating successes. Um, And really focusing a lot on credit building. Um! We were really fortunate, um couple of years ago to get some seed money. We've been able to get some continuation funds, but we have an independence project. This is available for any survivor of domestic rounds can apply. Um! They have to have me with a Dv advocate at least three times, and the Db. Advocate has to confirm that just because we've told our funders the funds are going to support survivors of domestic violence. And that's how we're confirming that,

Kim Pentico: but they are eligible for a hundred dollar No fee, no is just credit-building loan They pay back the loan dollars a month for ten months. Every month she makes a payment. We report it to three credit euros, and on average we see credit scores, increase by thirty-five and forty points, and by the end of the ten month period. Um! These loans are fully backed, meaning that if for some reason um, the borrowers, unable to complete their loan, we pay it off out of our guarantor fund. We just close it down. We don't um, we don't put it into default status.

Kim Pentico: We just pay it off out of our guarantor fund and and close it. So. Um! We are looking to expand this. We eventually would like to be able to do um Some use car loans for survivors, you know. It's a huge need in in rural areas, and it's a huge um direct connection with safety access to transportation.

Kim Pentico: Um, And so that's one of the things we're working towards. So if anybody, um, you know, has a big trust fund they'd like to figure out how to spend. Please reach out to me. I'd be happy to help you figure that out. Um, but that's sort of sums it up for me. That's uh that's um who I am. If you have any questions, I just also want to note that I think we all have a reason why we do this. This is my reason why

Kim Pentico: these are my kiddos. There are. My goodness, I'm going to get.

Kim Pentico: This is Mckenna and Maddox. This is when they were three and five. Um! This is when we went to to um. Well, Disney world the first time this is them now. Ish uh this is the day we dropped Mckenna off at the freshman year of college. That's her little brother holding her. This is why I do. This work is um.

Kim Pentico: I can't guarantee their safety,

Kim Pentico: even though I do this work.

Kim Pentico: And so I'm talking to you all because you're part of my safety net for them, whether you know it or not. So, for whatever reason they need help

Kim Pentico: and they reach out to you. I want you to remember that they're my kids. They're my Mackenna, and they're my mathematics, and if, for whatever reason they couldn't come to me, they're coming to you and everybody we serve is somebody Else's M. Kinematics, and so on behalf of all the Mckenna Maddics moms out there. Thanks for the work you do, and I'd be happy to take any questions you have.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Thank you so much for sharing

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): um and for for that charge to all of us. I think we're going to have questions at the end, and I will make sure that those get passed on to you in the Q. A. Um, and I'm very excited to to now invite our next presenter

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): uh Andrea Heling is a professor at the Edward J. Blobstein School of Public Public Planning, planning, and public policy at Rutgers University. Dr. Headlings Research interests focus on how public programs and policies can support economic well being and financial stability. Among vulnerable populations, including families living in poverty and survivors of intimate partner. Violence in two thousand and nineteen, Andrea was selected as one of only five.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): It's the only self sufficiency and Stability Research Network scholars and awarded a five year Grant by the Us. Department of health and human services, administration for children and families.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Before getting her. Phd. Andrea worked as a program administrator at a domestic violence agency focusing on advocacy and development issues a strong believer in the public impact of applied policy research. Andrea regularly connects for research projects with her teaching and mentoring and her service to the greater community. Welcome, Andrea,

Andrea Hetling: I should unmute myself. Um, thank you so much for that introduction. And now I need to also figure out how to share my screen um share. Let us see,

Andrea Hetling: and everyone see that it

Andrea Hetling: getting a not thank you. Uh, and I have it on my other screen. I want to see if I can over here, and you'll let me know if for some reason um,

Andrea Hetling: it disappears. Um

Andrea Hetling: again. My name is Andrew Hatling. I always feel the need when I enter into these spaces to say just a little bit more about sort of the work that I'm presenting before I go into this. So I want to acknowledge, um that

Andrea Hetling: my presentation draws heavily on my experiences, not only as an academic, but as a um staff member at a local Tv agency in New York City. Um. And my presentation and everything that I say draws on collaborative applied projects. I very rarely work by my lump. Some in my really nice office. Um, I enjoy very much Um. Collaborating with others. I think that um

Andrea Hetling: the

Andrea Hetling: research benefits from multiple voices at the table multiple perspectives. I went, and they give a very big Thank you to my colleague and friend, Um Hillary botein Um, who's at uh Brew College in New York of it collaborated with me on the Home Safe Home book. Um, and also to the Um Development Corporation right here in New Brunswick. Um. But we're only seeing a sliver of your screen.

Andrea Hetling: Oh, by thank you. Um,

Andrea Hetling: hmm.

Andrea Hetling: I'm wondering. Why

Andrea Hetling: does that change anything?

Andrea Hetling: No, I know It's gonna change it. Does that change it?

Andrea Hetling: Yes, we are now able to see it. Okay, great. So now you all have to excuse me, because now it's like my cameras on this screen, and my slides are on that screen. So I'm going to be doing a little bit best. Um, but I think we can manage um.

Andrea Hetling: Thank you for letting me know.

Andrea Hetling: So I'm gonna um move on and get my mouth to the right spot, and we can still see my presentation. Um, I'm starting um with a little bit of um Victoria's story. Um, this was um someone that Hillary and I had interviewed. She was um living in the Bronx in New York. Um. And was discussing.

Andrea Hetling: She was currently residing in a um housing program. Um, But this was describing sort of her challenges before um entering into the program. So Victoria explains that I was in a domestic violence shelter, hoping I would get the place she had applied for a ton of um different apartment buildings. Um low income housing residences. Um! But it was taking so long I was getting frustrated. I was depressed. I was about to give up. It was very tough, terrible. I was moving from

Andrea Hetling: borough to borough. It was hard for me to keep a job, and any time I have to move to a new place. I have to adapt to the new place. I have to get a babysitter and change my child's school every three months. Um! Victoria was sort of getting shoveled through the homeless um shelter system in New York because she had used up sort of her allotted time and a few different Tv shelters,

Andrea Hetling: we know, and it's wonderful to follow Kim's presentation because she kind of gave us a lot of the necessary background in terms of experiences with poverty. Um. Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness, particularly among women and children. There are multiple um

Andrea Hetling: surveys and research projects that indicate that the leading cause of homelessness among women and children. Um! On top of that, the Us. Has an affordable housing crisis for everyone. Um! Low income families often spend um above fifty percent of their household income on

rent and housing costs.

Andrea Hetling: Um,

Andrea Hetling: again. Following Kim was great um, because many of the challenges that she described

Andrea Hetling: really directly to the challenges in navigating the housing market. Um, applying for rental unit necessitates documents,

Andrea Hetling: credit, history, um her point on evictions. Um. They're also on top of that various rules and regulations. Once you become a attendant um

Andrea Hetling: keeping the piece Um, If a user were to come in in situations of stocking and um. The police were called. Oftentimes it's the tenant um that's blamed for those actions, regardless of whether or not that individual was at fall. So

Andrea Hetling: experiences of Ipv. Histories of intimate partner. My lens um cause additional barriers to navigating what is already in

Andrea Hetling: inadequate and inaccessible um housing market, particularly in the larger cities across the Us. Um. On top of all of this experiences of poverty, experiences of intimate partner, violence, experiences of homelessness,

Andrea Hetling: our traumatic traumatic experiences um oftentimes that are interrelated, and can occur over long periods of time. Um! So all of these circumstances make

Andrea Hetling: the challenge of housing particularly difficult for survivors. At the same time. It's

Andrea Hetling: particularly important. Um, finding a long term home is everyone's goal right. We all need a safe place to be um to be with our family.

Andrea Hetling: The diagram. Here is something Hillary and I put together after speaking with um both advocates and survivors. Um, In our attempt to kind of describe

Andrea Hetling: the multiple pathways. A survivor may need to um navigate in order to find that long term home. Um. Sometimes, if one is luckily lucky enough your original home can become that we'll talk a little bit about sort of efforts to ensure that survivors can remain in the home that they have, and that is the of user that leaves um. But oftentimes

Andrea Hetling: one is faced with moving to an emergency shelter from there, particularly for low-income survivors

Andrea Hetling: finding an affordable decent rental unit in just three months time when you're also dealing with a number of other. Um

Andrea Hetling: legal emotional child related um other things, and getting your life back together, oftentimes one will end up in in transitional housing or another emergency shelter, whereas Kim described um, perhaps timing out and moving in with friends or couch serving or living in one's car. And all of these arrows. Um! Sort of reflective of these multiple moves that someone like Victoria was describing in

Andrea Hetling: and trying to manage um at the very end. We'd like to see someone in a safe, affordable decent home. Um! But getting there can be complicated,

Andrea Hetling: It doesn't help the there's a mismatch oftentimes between policy and and the reality that families are facing um. Emergency shelters are critical, and a great success of the early Dv movement. But they're often also very time limited. Um funding constraints make them that so limited to thirty or ninety days, and even with um transitional or tier two uh, most of those have

Andrea Hetling: pretty strict funding um

Andrea Hetling: constraints, and thus time limits as well.

Andrea Hetling: We know, however, the impact of trauma can be much more long lasting. Um, and when you add in um struggles with poverty and access to resources. Um,

Andrea Hetling: it it's it's hard for me to imagine my almost adult children getting their lives together in three months, and they surely have um many more privileges and access to um resources than other survivors. Can

Andrea Hetling: We've all I already mentioned that there is also a um

Andrea Hetling: crisis of affordable housing in the Us. Um. And landlords thus can be very demanding. Um! When you have a number of people applying for your unit. You don't need to accept the first one or the one that you feel might present some risks. Um! Someone with a history of eviction. Um, or a criminal background. History,

Andrea Hetling: on top of this, in terms of income, supports um publish cash assistance. Um often has also has time limits and barriers, since many of those programs were not designed with the survivors needs and minds.

Andrea Hetling: So in some of my work I've also turned to advocates for um for insights, and and we'll get to hopefully a a more uply thing conversation about possible solutions. Um! So this was one of the advocates that we spoke with Um, who was really frustrated. People are still leaving shelters and large numbers without having safe housing, and then, you know, they tend to cycle through the system again.

Andrea Hetling: When people left the system a lot of them were going to unstable living situations. So they were doubling up, tripling up with relatives with people that they were acquainted with. A few people went directly into the general homeless system, and a number of people went back to the Batterer. So it wasn't a great outcome, and if you spend a lot of money on shelter you would like to see, you know, at the end of the day people were, in fact, in a better situation, and that the kids were protected, and that there was at least a chance for it for improved life outcome.

Andrea Hetling: So once again sort of

Andrea Hetling: very difficult choice that survivors can be faced with. Well do I sort of

Andrea Hetling: navigate the difficulties of living in poverty Um, with a difficult housing market and very little public safety supports um.

Andrea Hetling: Or do I go back to to my of user

Andrea Hetling: So now some of the better happy conversation. Um! There are a lot of emerging approaches um, and various

Andrea Hetling: um progress that's being made um through across the country and in various um agencies and advocacy groups. Um and I kind of characterize them in two different places. Um, one as adapting and expanding

Andrea Hetling: existing sort of housing models. Um, whether those are a scattered site, like housing first philosophy, helping people find departments and giving them the support they need, or more of a permanent supportive housing on site. Um. But

Andrea Hetling: traditional housing models, but adapting those and expanding them to the needs of Ipv survivors. Um! And then there is another group of solutions where

Andrea Hetling: sort of think of them as innovations in place. Um working with house public housing authorities. Um, that you know. There's a long waiting list to get a public housing unit if someone needed to evacuate for their safety, maybe they shouldn't then go on the end of the list. Maybe they should be able to move to a different unit or transfer in some other way. Um. So working within the existing sort of system, educating landlords

Andrea Hetling: um on sort of understanding

Andrea Hetling: the needs of survivors. And what's kind of um reasonable rules and regulations and ones that maybe mismatched or have um ill consequences three minutes.

Andrea Hetling: Thank you. Um.

Andrea Hetling: So some of my work has focused um more on the permanent support of housing side of it. And um! Looking at these models that allow um residents not just survivors permanent support of housing is kind of a a movement across various um groups um and helps. It

Andrea Hetling: operates on the assumption that individuals can have a make better life choices handle things a lot easier if they have a stable home to go to. Um.

Andrea Hetling: Those on um.

Andrea Hetling: It was originally sort of put together more for um individuals who were in need of certain medications, and it's a little easier to have access to all of those things If you have a stable home. Um, and

Andrea Hetling: the model is supported by a number of studies that shows um not just success of families, but actual cost savings. Um. So if we're able to support people in a safe stable home. Um! That's actually a full lot. Um more efficient than emergency room stays and interactions um with police police. Perhaps if you're sleeping in your car or emergency shelter cost.

Yes,

Andrea Hetling: there's a lot of balance, though, and kind of coming up with models. Um, whether services are on site or offsite. Um! How accessible and how appropriate are those services, If they're off site, how do we balance independence and case management? Um sort of allowing flexibility and and survivor choice, but also making sure that we're there to support them. Um! And then a lot of buildings have struggled with kind of providing tenant support and

Andrea Hetling: teaching individuals the importance of paying rent on time, and how to do all of this, but also then with building management and enforcing rules. So there's

Andrea Hetling: some competing priorities there. Um! And a lot of unanswered questions that hopefully some of you can answer for me today. Um, a lot of Federal funding ties, permanent supportive housing to some kind of disability. There are obviously many disadvantages in defining Ipv as a disability. Um, And how do we kind of navigate that space. Um funders also want to know. What are you know? How are people doing? What are those appropriate outcomes?

Andrea Hetling: Um centering trauma informed practices even when we partner with outside organizations. Um, and addressing diverse and um sort of place specific needs across the Us. Um has also been a topic of conversation.

Andrea Hetling: I also hate the word permanent. Um! None of us have a permanent home. I have a really nice home. I hoping to be there for a while, but I I'm not sure. I'll be there when I'm eighty like permanent. Seems

Andrea Hetling: too much um transitional doesn't really work either. I use the term long term. I think I'm kind of alone in that. But i'd like to push others. I think semantics matter um and um in terms of our research, and leaving with some um

Andrea Hetling: fun or or more uplifting votes the residents that we've been able to interview

Andrea Hetling: really appreciate the kind of dual support of a safe home. Um! That also offers um trauma informed services and supports, and um we see um a lot of success in their stories. And

Andrea Hetling: um, I thought my last pages references not very exciting. I will stop my screen. Um, and thank you so much.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Thank you. Um for for sharing and for those uh words from survivors that you ended with

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): um those those positive affirmations of of the work that's being done in the community.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Our final presenter is Dr. Laura Johnson. She's an assistant professor at the School of Social work at Temple University, and holds A. Ph. D. And Ms. W. In Social work from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Prior to joining Temple. She worked at the center on violence against women and children at the Rucker School of Social work for over eight years, where she served on their senior leadership team and conducted research and evaluation related to the prevention and intervention of violence against women.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): The goal of Dr. Johnson's research is to support the mental and physical health of survivors, of interpersonal violence to the development and adaptation of measures and interventions. She is particularly interested in the association between survivors, economic security and their safety,

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): as well as the economic empowerment of survivors. Welcome, Dr. Dawson.

Laura Johnson: Thank you for that introduction. I'm going to share my screen.

Laura Johnson: Does it look normal? Is it? Okay, Yes.

Laura Johnson: So the name of my presentation is covid-related financial hardship among survivors of intimate partner violence. And so I'm going to be focusing on one particular study today. Um,

Laura Johnson: I would like to thank the Ruckers violence against Women Research Consortium and the National Institute of Justice for supporting the project, and I'd also like to thank everyone for being here today and for the survivors who participated in this study,

Laura Johnson: so fortunately we have a great deal of background that has already been covered. So I'm primarily going to set the stage in terms of why I chose to focus on Covid nineteen and financial hardship.

Laura Johnson: You'll see in this study that I focus primarily on women identifying survivors. And I want to acknowledge that you know, research with male and not binary survivors is also a critical area. My area in particular, is interested in the intersections between

Laura Johnson: women identifying experiences of hardship, and how they intersect with other sort of broader

Laura Johnson: inequalities that um women identifying individuals experience.

Laura Johnson: And so the Covid nineteen pandemic represents a unique time in our modern history that will have long term impacts for everyone, particularly survivors of intimate partner Violence, Even prior to Covid research, is documented that women have you been uniquely impacted by crises and natural disasters,

Laura Johnson: and this has been found to be true with Covid as well.

Laura Johnson: In general, women bear the larger burden of unpaid emotional labor within the home, such as things like um

Laura Johnson: caregiving responsibilities and historically face greater lifetime wage penalties for these types of things, and they tend to make the majority make up the majority of the caregiver workforce uh in jobs like healthcare or domestic focus.

Laura Johnson: Women are also more vulnerable to the psychological impacts of pandemic. Some research suggests, and they experience increased incidences of that partner violence during this time.

Laura Johnson: And so for this reason it may take women longer to recover from the Covid nineteen pandemic

Laura Johnson: immediately after the Covid pandemic started, and since then researchers have produced a great deal of scholarship, documenting increase incidences and frequency and severity of Ipv and increased financial hardship. And so some of this is not new or surprising. However,

Laura Johnson: in this study I chose to look at some very specific forms of the economic experiences that women identifying survivors experience during Covid, and some risk and protective factors with the long term goal of exploring mechanism. So it's associated with economic empowerment and resilience.

Laura Johnson: And so, as part of this study, the data was collected to include a range of economic hardships, both Covid, specific and non covid, specific, and as well as a range of protective factors. As I mentioned.

Laura Johnson: So this is all particularly new, uh, specifically, to look at the Covid related financial hardships, that and some economic protective factors.

Laura Johnson: So the data from this value is collected using the call tricks research panel service, which basically uh allows a researcher to contract with qualtrics. Um.

Laura Johnson: And they administer a survey to a targeted pool of survey respondents based on their existing panels. So The data was collected in July two thousand and twenty-two, and as part of

Laura Johnson: as part of some of the questions that survivors experience at uh, survivors received. Uh it asked about their experiences with the Covid pandemic, beginning approximately March thirteenth, two thousand and twenty, which was the date in which it was declared a national emergency

Laura Johnson: to participate in the study. Individuals has to be women identifying in age, eighteen or over,

Laura Johnson: and they had to have screened positive for Ipv. And so the screen are used was called E. Hits, which has one physical and one sexual abuse. Item: three psychological abuse items, and I also added to economic abuse and one stocking item to round it out a little bit more.

Laura Johnson: So I worked with Paul Trick to designate quotas for income level, and to some degree raise ethnicity, although the income quotas were stricter um, And so the survey began with informed consent took approximately twenty-five minutes to complete and survivors received approximately twenty dollars. Um!

Laura Johnson: I engaged in a range of uh safety strategies to try to protect the survivors and implementing the survey online which I took out of this presentation, because I was running a close on time, I think, when I was up preparing it. But, uh, I can I'd be happy to share those for those who are interested.

Laura Johnson: So the three research questions guiding this presentation today are: To what extent did survivors in the sample X period

Laura Johnson: experience Covid-related financial hardships did survivors experiences with Covid related financial hardships step by income, and what economic factors were most associated with survivors, experiences with covid related financial hardship

Laura Johnson: so

Laura Johnson: the Covid related financial hardship measure was an index of ten items that I created, based on what was previously documented in the literature and what was anecdotally known about survivors experiences. Um. During Covid

Laura Johnson: for intimate partner violence. I measured economic abuse, physical and psychological abuse uh through the national intimate partner and sexual Violence survey,

Laura Johnson: and uh, to limit the amount of questions that I ask survivors around violence for their own safety. I use the sexual violence item from the E. Get screening tool as to not ask again.

Laura Johnson: And so for financial well-being. I looked at perceived instrumental support like social capital uh social um economic self-efficiency, economic self-sufficiency and financial knowledge.

Laura Johnson: So for the analytics strategy. Um,

Laura Johnson: I did a power analysis which so it shows that the sam sample size was adequate, and there wasn't too much missing this across the data. It was only seven, and so list wise. Deletion was used for the analysis.

Laura Johnson: Descriptive statistics were presented on our sample demographics, Ipv experiences and Covid financial hardship. I also look at group differences by income bracket, and then I use hierarchical linear regressions

Laura Johnson: to look at associations between economic factors and covid-related financial hardship.

Laura Johnson: And the nice thing about this this regression strategy is allowed it allows us to look at the predictive power of these kind of series of items, as I add on it,

Laura Johnson: so in terms of sample characteristics just generally, uh the average age was about forty-three years old, approximately seventy. Two percent of the sample identified as white and ten percent identified as Hispanic or the

Laura Johnson: the majority were in a relationship and identified as straight. Forty percent had a high school degree or lower um

Laura Johnson: because of the income quotas, approximately one-third had incomes less than thirty thousand. A third had a income between thirty and just under sixty thousand, and about a third had sixty thousand or more. For this analysis I broke it up into four categories, so that I could look at it a little bit more incrementally.

Laura Johnson: Thirty-seven percent of the sample was employed full time. Fifty percent were fifteen percent for employed part time

Laura Johnson: and thirty-three experience. Thirty-three percent experienced employment status changes due to Covid and that doesn't include things like planned retirement

Laura Johnson: in terms of their ipv experiences and covid hardship. Um! The ipv scales range from one to five

Laura Johnson: uh with one, being never a five, being quite often so. The mean there kind of gives you a sense of where they landed. Um.

Laura Johnson: This was a a community based sample which partly explains why it's a little bit lower. Um!

Laura Johnson: But the highest level experience with psychological abuse, followed by economic abuse, sexual abuse, and then physical abuse.

Laura Johnson: Thirty two percent of the sample reported economic abuse related financial debt.

Laura Johnson: During Covid ipv stayed the same for seventy percent of the sample. Twenty-two percent experienced an increase in eight percent in report and increase decrease. Sorry, and on average participants report reported experiencing about three Covid related financial hardships

Laura Johnson: in terms of the group, differences by sample characteristics generally. Um

Laura Johnson: in terms of sample demographics. The only significant differences across groups for education, full time, employment and being in a relationship. And you'll see throughout the slides that sells with less than ten people in them are um

Laura Johnson: suppressed, using just a dash

Laura Johnson: in terms of Ipv experiences. There were more group differences. Um. So you'll see that there is statistically significant group differences for three of the four types of intimate partner violence, psychological, physical, and economic

Laura Johnson: overall, across all three survivors, with less than thirty thousand dollars, or between thirty thousand and five hundred and fifty-nine, nine hundred and ninety-nine had higher means. Uh for Ipv experiences.

Laura Johnson: The majority of participants that indicated that Ipv had stayed, the same, however, a higher percentage of those less than sixty thousand noted increased frequency.

Laura Johnson: So the higher income brackets also had smaller numbers of participants like

Laura Johnson: this slide presents the ten Covid related financial hardships that I had asked uh survivors about in the survey.

Laura Johnson: Some notable ones that I wanted to highlight are um with regard to the question. Did you take money you put into savings out for um? Sorry, did you take? Did you have to take out money you put into savings for other purposes out to meet your basic financial needs and fifty-seven of the sample said, Yes, to that

Laura Johnson: did you borrow money from a friend or family member to meet basic financial needs, to which forty-seven percent said, Yes. Did you need to apply for public assistance to meet your basic financial needs? Forty-six percent said yes.

Laura Johnson: In addition, thirty-four percent indicated that they incurred significant credit card debt and sixteen percent reported that their partners stole their stimulus checks

Laura Johnson: notably only three of these differed by significant level I mean significantly differ by an income level, and those three were being evicted for not paying rent or mortgage, borrowing money from family or friends to meet basic financial needs and applying for public assistance.

Laura Johnson: So for the regression model Um, this first slide presents. The model was ran altogether to control for these various things, but I'm. Presenting each block at a time to show the different variables. So

Laura Johnson: in terms of demographics, uh the only significant uh demographic, characteristic associated with Covid, related financial hardship with age. And so, as age increased, Covid related financial hardships have, like a small decrease, um, and you can see. So overall this.

Laura Johnson: This explains a very small amount of the variance in Covid related financial hardships, only six percent. So this does not capture what's going on in terms of um these hardships,

Laura Johnson: and the next in the next block I added intimate partner. Violence related factors. These included um abuse experiences as well as economic abuse, related financial debt, and the increase in in internment or violence.

Laura Johnson: And so economic abuse is the only statistically significant form of Ipv,

Laura Johnson: and there was a positive relationship.

Laura Johnson: Economic,

Laura Johnson: economic abuse, Related financial debt was also positively, positively associated with covid-related financial hardship and increased ipv frequency was positively associated as well.

Laura Johnson: In block number three, I added Um financial. Well, being indicators, I think most notably here. Income was not statistically significantly related to financial hardship.

Laura Johnson: Uh, However, survivors who reported changes in employment status did have increases

Laura Johnson: in addition. Uh we had economic self-efficacy and economic self sufficiency emerge as factors that were associated with decreased, Covid financial hardship which represent potentially an opportunity for um.

Laura Johnson: You know, future intervention, um, or areas to strengthen. And so this one sort of strange financial knowledge was associated with an increase in Covid related financial hardship. But I think that's the nature of the questions that were asked to some degree.

Laura Johnson: Doing things like selling off assets require some degree of financial knowledge. As it is. Um, so that would kind of be my assessment of that.

Laura Johnson: So overall um some key takeaways. Actually, I'm going to skip that and go to the implications, since that's more important. So in terms of research like I said, this is um very preliminary data from what I gathered

Laura Johnson: uh in the future. I'm look interested in looking at sort of a broader range of economic and uh kind of more regular resilience factors that could be associated or protective of um

Laura Johnson: heart and material hardship. And Covid related hardship.

Laura Johnson: Um,

Laura Johnson: and you know the need to continue to look to survivors to better understand the long term impacts of Covid and what they need. As the world move forward in this sort of semi post pandemic period. Um. In terms of practice we need, uh to continue with the increased availability of

Laura Johnson: economic interventions for survivors, and I know that A lot of this is limited, limited by funding and staffing issues, but there are some um more uh accessible and not costly resources that I just wanted to make note of, including

Laura Johnson: um bundle In's model for economic advocacy which integrates economic and consumer issues into Ipv services. The all State foundation is moving ahead. Curriculum which you mentioned, as well as the Independence project by the national network to end domestic violence, and the link to those are going to be on the slides when they become available,

Laura Johnson: and to continue to evaluate these interventions

Laura Johnson: and and notably economic empowerment interventions are important. But we also need, as Kim noted um services that provide tangible resources to really help fill these needs during these really difficult times, particularly when social capital might already be strained in their networks

Laura Johnson: and in terms of policy. Um, In continuing to do this work, you know, there's definitely a need for the continued movement towards funding availability, which fortunately, I think there's a rising recognition in this area of these associations.

Laura Johnson: In addition, in financial institutions like banks, can increase awareness and strength in their responses to Ipv. While this is less common in the United States. In the Uk and Australia they have begun bolstering their responses, including by training frontline staff on signs of Ipv detecting patterns of the use and taking action in some cases,

Laura Johnson: and that creates an area of opportunity that can be explored further.

Laura Johnson: Also, really interestingly, in August, a Federal Consumer Protection Agency affirmed a credit law implemented in main, which is passed in two thousand and nineteen, which prohibits um

Laura Johnson: appearing on survivor credit reports, and this was just bolstered by the Consumer Financial Protection Board Bureau, which noted that States do have the authority to pass legislation. Um, protecting consumers. And So this sort of represents an innovative State policy that has the potential to um support survivors

Continuing Education: time.

Laura Johnson: There are limitations to this study. They are on the slide

Laura Johnson: and thank you. Everyone for being here today, and like, I said, there are some resources on the last slide. Um, but they'll be available uh after the uh, when the Powerpoint slides become available,

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): which I believe will be on the Consortium website shortly is that I I think that's that's what I heard. So that's where folks can go uh to look for. Those slides will be updated the way that you access this webinar you'll be able to access slides there as well, once they're available.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): There you go. Thank you,

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): and thank you to all of our presenters this afternoon. Um! And to all of you who have participated in this Webinar by by attending and um giving it your thought and attention. Uh, It's been a fabulous panel, underscoring the necessity of considering economic justice and our work with survivors.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Um! So we're gonna continue our conversation.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Um! And to that end I'm going to share questions that are uh put in the question and answer box. If any of you attending have questions, you would like our panelists to speak to um. This is a chance to to get their perspective in their perspectives.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Uh, and I'm going to start with a question for Kim um, which uh speaks to, I think, something that that you mentioned um, and and spoke to powerfully in your presentation about the fact that advocates are also um

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): deeply underpaid, and that economic justice is an

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Uh. So this participant says: As an advocate. I am also a victim of domestic violence, and I'm striving to get back on my feet. At this time I found no resources for financial means and a history of abuse have interfered with funding even through the pandemic. Uh, what is a suggestion that you have to reach out and to be a help

Kim Pentico: still did not. Still, you think we'd be better at this by now? Um!

Kim Pentico: I as far as like the first thing I would suggest to anybody who's in a relationship where they're not safe is to just start scrolling away funds as quickly as possible and as as safely as possible, and that's going to look different for everybody. Um, just like any type of safety planning. It's unique to that individual and the individual circumstances. Um both to the survivor and to the harm doer um. And so I start with that as far as um actual resources. Once you're trying to achieve safety Um, so creating that go fund. But then,

Kim Pentico: and also create your own bank account. I would look at Ha! Pull your credit port, know what your current report is, how do some things immediately to help improve your credit score and report? Um! There are some things you can do like we reducing your risks, um limiting the uh available credit that you have can also actually help improve your credit score. So there's some things you can do short term that it it a short term meeting like six months that can be done to improve your credit score, so that you have more options also for seeking

safety potentially as well as even broadening in some ways

Kim Pentico: your employment opportunities, because some employers also require um a good credit score um, as well as even you know utilities and things like that, so those would be some things i'd recommend. Um, Unfortunately, there's not a lot of just cash available. That's what we're hearing from survivors over and over again. They just need access to cash.

Kim Pentico: Um! There's an amazing organization called free from they are. They're like who I want to be when I grow up um organization, and they do have some, and it fluctuates from time to time, being on the access they have to funds. But they have a direct assistance program for survivors. So you can go to free from Dot Org free from Dot Org and Um. They have a direct assistance program

Kim Pentico: that people can apply to um, so that would be an option that I would suggest. Um. And then there's also some. There are some like wisp, so wider opportunities Uh for women. Uh: yeah, We know women in independence programs, and that whisp

Kim Pentico: Inc. Dot Org is a scholarship program that's available to survivors and their children. It used to be Sunshine Lady Foundation, started by Warren Buffett's sister. Um, so that's a scholarship opportunity that's available for both um undergraduate and put and Master's level assistance as well

Kim Pentico: did that touch on any of it.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): We also have a question in the chat here for States. Wishing to consider the new method of protecting the credit. Scores of survivors of Ipv is their sample legislation available. I guess I'm confused by the new method of protecting credit scores. I don't know what that means. I think this might be a question for Dr. Johnson. There we go.

Laura Johnson: So the the legislation that was referenced is in um main I can see if I can drop

Laura Johnson: the policy in the chat. Um I. The one thing that I would say about it is like I said it started in twenty, nineteen. It has largely been hung up in um litigation since that time,

Laura Johnson: and so it's only very recently that they kind of been able to move to a point where um it seems to be supported.

Laura Johnson: Um! So I think to in some ways what happens to it. Um, moving forward is sort of yet to be seen. However, I would say that the legislation that they have been able to put forth so far would be a good model for that, and I will see if I can find it to drop in.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Thank you. We also have a question in our Q. A. Um that I think would be for any of you. Um! But but asking you to speak to what kinds of protective factors Um, you see, for with survivors in terms of uh economic stability resources or well being

Kim Pentico: well, I think I'll. I'll take the first go with this and then um hand it off. But I think what's challenging about this is what exactly what we tell people to think about when it comes to a healthy financial relationship is the exact opposite of what we tell survivors to do to get and stay safe.

Kim Pentico: So you know, in a healthy relationship you share everything. You talk about everything you don't hide money. You don't spend money secretively, and that's exactly the opposite of what we tell survivors, and so um that can be kind of a challenge. Um, you know if you, if you are

Kim Pentico: um able to talk openly about that home is not safe, and you go to couples therapy, and your partner tells the therapist that you hiding money? Well, for good reason, right? And so I think those are some of the challenges sometimes. Um to to just keep an eye out for um. The other thing I would just say to the helpers out there is to be willing to be part of that plan can be really helpful, I think, when I used to do direct services we didn't.

Kim Pentico: We never wanted to touch anybody's money. We never want to keep anybody's money, and you know, like if money went missing, then they sue us with our high power attorneys which never obviously happen. And so I think the advocates and and programs need to rethink how they help survivors um and manage and maintain a go fund. And um. So being really creative about that, the other thing I say is Um!

Kim Pentico: We're just starting to get better about this. But looking at how things like pen, pack, paypal, and then more are being used by survivors, particularly in the gig and fintech economy. Um, that if they're able to have any side hustle or extra income um storing that in their paypal account there's been more accounts or um those kind of cash apps and stashing them there. It's all needed. Um. Many of those um companies also allow for their own credit card to debit cards.

Kim Pentico: So, just being really creative about how to manage that. And um being nimble in our advocacy,

Andrea Hetling: I can add one other small point sort of from a housing perspective. Um, in navigating sort of the housing market and rental space. Um,

Andrea Hetling: women are more likely to be evicted than men. Um, This is a sort of an eviction stat that's across. And more recent qualitative research indicates that this is because men are more comfortable asking for exceptions. Uh, when a woman gets an inviction notice sort of okay.

Andrea Hetling: Um, I'm. I'm the audit man. I'll sort of push back a little bit more as the landlord for an extra month. Ask for other things. So um, it's a It's a very small sort of piece of advice, but I think it's a really important um

Andrea Hetling: sort of skill. Um, particularly survivors, is is the ability to ask, and um whether it's at your place of employment, or through with your landlord or through others. It doesn't necessarily even need to contain any kind of reasoning. Just

Andrea Hetling: can I? I get an extra day? Um! Can I have that extra month? Uh, and

Andrea Hetling: sometimes the answer is, Yes, um, even without a reason.

Kim Pentico: I just also remind people, just when talking about the connection between the housing and the and protection piece as well, just to remind folks that. Um, we've had survivors report that they were able to be tracked through their credit score and report. And so just reminding um survivors that when they're applying for new housing, or even a a loan, or opening a line of credit Um! And if it shows up on their credit score. If they're harmed, do, or knows enough about them, either poses them, or has employment a place where they could

Kim Pentico: it legitimately uh pull their credit report. It will show where they're heading, and we've had survivors track down, using credit reports solely.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Thank you all for sharing that we don't have any other questions in the Q. A. Right now.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): But I would ask um, and we have some people timing, and to say thank you um, since I know there are a lot of advocates on the call, and we've mentioned that. Um, What is happening in terms of economic justice for advocates, too.

Kim Pentico: We're working on it. Um, we actually um got some interest um around just looking at how to um. I actually run a domestic balance and um Economic Justice Advisor Council, and we're taking on Advocate fair pay um this round. Um it'll just be a piece of paper. It's not, you know, legislative by aiming, but we're working on it. We certainly know it's an issue. We continue to put it out for funders to try to um get a real real handle on this actually just pulled some statistics

Kim Pentico: um last week, saying on average at the domestic violence. Advocates make about thirty-five thousand dollars a year.

Kim Pentico: Um! And and we know many advocates are also survivors, so it's certainly something. I think we're um paying attention to It's something that I continue to talk about. Um, and we're working on. It is what I can tell you.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Thank you.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Um. We have some questions now coming in about all the technical assistance that's being provided. Um! Is there a way to ask this suppressed personal information in the credit report?

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): What was the question? Is there a way to ask to suppress your personal information on your credit report.

Kim Pentico: No,

Kim Pentico: yeah,

Kim Pentico: you can't. I mean you you. You're supposed to have to give permission for, like, If an employer wants to pull your credit score. You have to get the permission, and they should only have access to certain things. But if I'm posing if I'm posing as my partner, Then I'm going to see everything that I see right. And so there's no way to to suppress that. Necessarily, if you're like. If there's you're not extending, requesting an extension of line of credit. And you are employer, or insurance, or things like that. There's only certain things that they should be able to see

Kim Pentico: um, and that would not be one of them where they're headed to, and things like that just like leans and bankruptcy, and those kinds of things. Um, so no,

unfortunately.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Oh, an additional comments. Um Following up in the housing discussion. Landlords also prey on women, tenants, and particularly on survivors. Women don't advocate for themselves as much, but they also get evicted for turning down. Landlord advances in this context. So thinking about

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): um, So the the additional risks that that survivors face when advocating for themselves, particularly for non English speaking and and not end up. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Um. And someone asking, Are there any examples of economic justice or cash assistance approaches

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): that specifically target young people or college students,

Kim Pentico: I I mean, I'm not aware of any. I mean, I I'll say foundation did a little bit for college age. Um folks with the sorority they worked with. I don't know how broadly it's been put out there, or it's been updated anytime recently. Um.

Kim Pentico: So I'm not aware of any that I can feel comfortable leaning on putting out there.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Our University has a cash assistance program for survivors rounded by run through our advocacy office. But I don't know that there are broader efforts beyond individual university efforts.

Laura Johnson: I can say I haven't come across anything, either, and I was somewhat recently looking in college literature about economic abuse.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Uh, let's see. We have uh this

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): question. Uh, we are currently in a disaster situation. So that's your situations around the country in Florida and Puerto Rico.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Um, what can you ask? An Ipv survivor that isn't Are you safe? Since no one is really safe during a disaster to gauge whether they need help when they're also in the context of the disaster I would start with Um! Are you safe from those in your home, or who you reside with?

Kim Pentico: And And then I would spell it up with, What do you? What do you need to get safe. Whether that be you will need help. Do you want to try to get their app them out? What what it What do they need from that point forward,

Kim Pentico: and I can just say with those people thanking you on the Oh, great on the loans um that we've been getting out on the the Independence loans that we helped do credit building on. Um. We have. We're waiting. Anybody that has been impacted by the recent hurricanes. We're waving their um payments for three months, and we did that also to start with Covid as well

Kim Pentico: for everybody.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Well, I think with that I don't see any more questions. Uh, we have a note in the chat about how to access your Ceos for those of you who um purchase them. I would like to thank everyone for attending and our presenters for fabulous information, and for this discussion this afternoon.

Rachel Voth Schrag (she/her): Um, thank you all so much for for your time and for your work with with and on behalf of survivors.
    
  
Disclaimer:
              Opinions or points of view expressed in these recordings represent those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. Any commercial products and manufacturers discussed in these recordings are presented for informational purposes only and do not constitute product approval or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Justice.
  
Date Published: October 11, 2022
    
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