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Domestic Violence Resources Directory
If you’re struggling to cope in an abusive relationship, you’re not alone. Experts estimate that over 10 million Americans are affected by domestic violence every year. Whether it’s physical or verbal abuse, it’s not OK, and you can take action to stop it. These vetted helplines are here for you.
Click to Empower – Allstate Foundation
Domestic Violence Resource
How We Help:The Allstate Foundation helps domestic violence survivors prepare for the future by helping them better understand and manage their personal finances.
History:
Nearly 1 in 4 women experience domestic violence during their lifetime. And, research shows that lacking financial knowledge ...and resources are the main reasons why victims of domestic violence return to or remain in relationships with their abusers. This type of abuse - called economic abuse - affects tens of thousands of women each year.
Economic abuse prevents victims from acquiring, using or maintaining financial resources. Abusers employ isolating tactics such as preventing their spouse or partner from working or accessing a bank, credit card or transportation. Survivors of domestic violence and economic abuse need specialized tools and strategies to address financial challenges and plan for safe, secure futures. However, few resources exist for programs designed to assist survivors with the economic challenges they face.
That's why The Allstate Foundation is taking action. As the corporate foundation of a financial services company,we are uniquely positioned to provide survivors with financial knowledge, skills and resources. Since 2005, we have partnered with The National Network to End Domestic Violence, Inc. (NNEDV) to assist in the economic empowerment of domestic violence survivors.
A social change organization, NNEDV works to create a society in which violence against women no longer exists. Together, The Allstate Foundation and NNEDV are working to helps survivors of domestic violence build their financial skills as a way to escape abusive relationships, get safe, stay safe and thrive.Read More »
How We Help:The Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF), which was founded in 1987, is a cutting edge organization dedicated to women's equality, reproductive health, and non-violence.
History:
The Feminist Majority Foundation is founded by Peg Yorkin, Eleanor Smeal, Katherine Spillar, Toni Carabillo, and Judith Meuli .... The Foundation's mission is to create innovative, cutting-edge research, educational programs, and strategies to further women's equality and empowerment, to reduce violence toward women, to increase the health and economic well-being of women, and to eliminate discrimination of all kinds.
NEW INITIATIVE - The Feminist Majority Foundation begins a National Clinic Defense Project to defend women's health clinics from anti-abortion extremists and to safeguard every woman's constitutional right to choose to have an abortion.
VICTORY - FMF successfully defends some 94 clinics in the greater Los Angeles and Orange County areas from Operation Rescue blockades. Operation Rescue had announced prior to the attempted siege that it would make Los Angeles the first abortion free city. FMF recruits and trains over 7,000 volunteers in Southern California to defend clinics.
NEW INITIATIVE - After meeting with leading scientists and physicians in the U.S. and Europe, the Foundation launches a Campaign for RU 486 and Contraceptive Research. Based in the Foundation's Boston Office, the Campaign presses for immediate access to RU 486 as a method of early abortion in the U.S. and increased testing on the drug's promise as a treatment for menigioma, breast cancer, Cushing's Syndrome, endometriosis, and other serious diseases.
Feminist Majority Foundation produces an award-winning video, Abortion for Survival. The videotape, produced by Peg Yorkin and Eleanor Smeal, opens with the performance of a 6-weeks abortion which takes 1 minute 24 seconds. The videotape, shown three times on Turner Broadcasting System, also reveals what was extracted from the uterus. Abortion for Survival reviews the need for abortion worldwide because of the lack of access to affordable contraception and the desire of women to limit their family size or control births. The videotape is awarded the prestigious Cine Golden Eagle award in 1989.
In conjunction with the NOW Mobilization for Women's Lives, the Feminist Majority Foundation is commissioned to create a monument "IN MEMORY OF THE COURAGEOUS WOMEN WHO DIED FROM ILLEGAL UNSAFE ABORTIONS BECAUSE THEY HAD NO CHOICE." Vice President Toni Carabillo wrote these words lest we forget these women and the price they paid for choice. The monument, which appeared so realistic that tourists complained it was not on official guide maps, was erected on the grounds close to the Washington Monument. Read More »
VDAY: A Global Movement To End Violence Against Women And Girls
Domestic Violence Resource
How We Help:V-Day is an organized response against violence toward women.
History:
In 1994, a play called The Vagina Monologues, written by playwright and activist Eve Ensler, broke ground, offering to the wo ...rld a piece of art like nothing it had seen before. Based on dozens of interviews Ensler conducted with women, the play addressed women's sexuality and the social stigma surrounding rape and abuse, creating a new conversation about and with women. The Vagina Monologues ran Off-Broadway for five years in New York and then toured the United States. After every performance, Ensler found women waiting to share their own stories of survival, leading her to see that The Vagina Monologues could be more than a moving work of art on violence; she divined that the performances could be a mechanism for moving people to act to end violence.
On Valentines Day, 1998, Eve, with a group of women in New York City, established V-Day. Set up as a 501(c)(3) and originally staffed by volunteers, the organization's seed money came from a star-studded, sold out benefit performance at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, a show that raised $250,000 in a single evening.
V-Day's mission is simple. It demands that violence against women and girls must end. To do this, once a year, in February, Eve allows groups around the world to produce a performance of the play, as well as other works created by V-Day, and use the proceeds for local individual projects and programs that work to end violence against women and girls, often shelters and rape crisis centers. What began as one event in New York City in 1998 today includes over 5,800 V-Day events annually.
Performance is just the beginning. V-Day stages large-scale benefits and produces innovative gatherings, films and campaigns to educate and change social attitudes towards violence against women. Read More »
How We Help:WCSC is a grassroots organization, providing assistance and advocacy to victims of crime and families in need on St. Croix, in the U. S. Virgin Islands including 24-hour crisis intervention, counseling and emergency shelter.
History:
In 1981, a symposium for women writers, including Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich and Dr. Gloria Joseph, was held at the College o ...f the Virgin Islands on St. Croix. This event had an inspirational effect on the women who attended. They participated in a discussion on the need for proactive solutions to the growing problem of violence against women in the Territory. A group of the attendees began meeting regularly as a result of that discussion, across their kitchen tables at first. They agreed to begin with the basics: offer support to survivors in crisis. Volunteers started going to hospitals and police stations to meet with rape victims. These women’s efforts became the basis for a movement that evolved into this organization, dedicated to ending violence in the community, and assisting victims and survivors to heal and become empowered. We are now a multicultural, tax-exempt nonprofit organization comprised of a large group of volunteers, members, staff and a board of directors.Read More »
Womenspace National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women
Domestic Violence Resource
How We Help:The National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women seeks to challenge and eliminate all forms of oppression and discrimination against immigrant women facing violence by empowering them to build better lives of their choice.
History:
The National Network to End Violence Against Immigrant Women (Network), founded in 1992, is a broad-based coalition of more t ...han five hundred organizations and individuals that advocate, provide services, and offer assistance to immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking.
The Network is co-chaired by the Family Violence Prevention Fund, The Immigrant Women Program of Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund), and ASISTA Immigration Technical Assistance Project. The three co-chair organizations contribute their special expertise and experience to the technical assistance, training and advocacy leadership the Network provides.
The Family Violence Prevention Fund specializes in promoting community-based strategies to respond and prevent violence against immigrant women. As such, FVPF focuses on building capacity and leadership of immigrant women from diverse communities, training on cultural competency for service providers, law enforcement and advocates and the development and dissemination of culturally and linguistically appropriate resource materials.
Legal Momentum specializes in issues that arise for immigrant victims in family law, justice system, benefits, housing, trafficking, sexual assault, and immigration cases.
ASISTA Immigration Technical Assistance Project specializes in intermediate and advanced immigration law issues.
The Network has undertaken numerous projects that address the needs of battered immigrant women and children and immigrant survivors of sexual assault and trafficking. Through a collaborative approach, the Network has made great progress in assuring that non-citizen victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking are able to flee abuse, survive crimes and receive assistance. Read More »
How We Help:YWCA is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.
History:
Throughout our history, the YWCA has been in the forefront of most major movements in the United States as a pioneer in race ...relations, labor union representation, and the empowerment of women.
1858
The first association in the U.S., Ladies Christian Association, was formed in New York City.
1860
The first boarding house for female students, teachers, and factory workers opened in New York City.
1866
“YWCA” was first used in Boston.
1870
In a YWCA Boston residence for girls, board members installed pulley weights on the back of closet doors, allowing girls from farms to continue to exercise in the city.
1872
The YWCA opened the first employment bureau in New York City.
1873
The first YWCA student association is established in Normal, Ill.
1874
The YWCA opened a low-cost summer “resort” for employed women in Philadelphia.
1877
The Boston YWCA offered a course in calisthenics for young women at a time when women are considered too frail for exercise.
1877
The YWCA Chicago provides medical services at the homes of the sick, becoming the forerunner of the Visiting Nurses Association.
1889
The first African-American YWCA branch opened in Dayton, Ohio.
1890
The first YWCA for Native American women opened at the Haworth Institute in Chilocco, Okla.
1894
The United States of America, England, Sweden, and Norway together created the World YWCA, which today operates in over 125 countries.
1894
YWCA helped to establish Travelers' Aid, a program created to protect women traveling to cities alone.
1906
The YWCA was the first organization to introduce the positive health concept and sex education in all health programming.
1907
YWCA of the USA was incorporated in New York City.
1908
The YWCA was the first industrial federation of clubs to train girls in self-government.
1913
The YWCA National Board created a commission on sex education.
1915
The YWCA held the first interracial conference in Louisville, Ky.
1918
The YWCA was the first organization to send professional workers overseas to provide administrative leadership and support to U.S. Armed Forces.
1918
YWCA’s program on social morality became the official Lecture Bureau of the Division of Social Hygiene of the War Department “to cultivate an attitude of honest, open, scientific interest in the subject of sex.”
1919
The YWCA held the International Conference of Women Physicians, the first gathering of medical women.
1920
Based on its work with women in industrial plants, the YWCA Convention voted to work for “an eight-hour/day law, prohibition of night work, and the right of labor to organize.”
1921
Grace Dodge Hotel completed construction of a Washington, D.C. residence initially designed to house women war workers.
1933
A YWCA National Board Member was sent to Decatur, Ala. to monitor and assess the administration of justice in the Scottsboro case.
1934
The YWCA encouraged members to speak out against lynching and mob violence, and for interracial cooperation and efforts to protect African Americans’ basic civil rights.
1934
YWCA delegates supported birth control services and worked to make it more widely available to the general population.
1936
The YWCA held the Interracial Seminar, marking the first intercollegiate, interracial, co-ed conference in the South.
1938
The YWCA in Columbus, Ohio, established a desegregated dining facility and is cited by the Columbus Urban League “for a courageous step forward in human relations.”
1942
The YWCA extended its services to Japanese American women and girls incarcerated in World War II Relocation Centers.
1944
The National Board appeared at the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate hearings in support of permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee Legislation.
1946
Interracial Charter was adopted by the 17th National YWCA Convention, establishing that “wherever there is injustice on the basis of race, whether in the community, the nation, or the world, our protest must be clear and our labor for its removal, vigorous and steady.”
1949
The National Convention pledged that the YWCA will work for integration and full participation of minority groups in all phases of American life.
1955
National Convention committed local associations and the National Board to review progress towards inclusiveness and decides on “concrete steps” to be taken.
1960
The Atlanta YWCA cafeteria opened to African Americans, becoming the city’s first integrated public dining facility.
1963
The YWCA National Board became a sponsoring agency in 1963 for the summer March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C., where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
1965
The National Board of the YWCA created the Office of Racial Justice to lead the civil rights efforts.
1970
The YWCA National Convention, held in Houston, adopted the One Imperative: “To thrust our collective power towards the elimination of racism, wherever it exists, by any means necessary.
1970
YWCA convention voted to emphasize the importance of repealing laws restricting or prohibiting abortions performed by a duly licensed physician.
1972
YWCA established ENCORE, an education, exercise and support program for post-mastectomy patients.
1973
The 26th National Convention held a silent march and sets up a defense fund to protest the treatment of American Indians at Wounded Knee Reservation, S.C.
1982
YWCA established “Fund for The Future,” designed to help with the cost of operations and education programs.
1983
The YWCA National Board urged Congress to support legislation that opposes the South African policy of apartheid.
1992
The YWCA National Day of Commitment to Eliminate Racism began in response to the beating of Rodney King, an African American man, the acquittal of four white Los Angeles police officers accused of the crime, and the subsequent riots and unrest across the country.
1995
The YWCA Week Without Violence was created to united people against violence in communities. The annual observance is held the third week of October.
2004
Igniting the collective power of the YWCA to eliminate racism, the YWCA USA’s Summit on Eliminating Racism, was held in Birmingham, Ala.
2005
YWCA of Trenton, N.J. and YWCA Princeton, N.J. establish the “Stand Against Racism” campaign, which spreads to 39 states with over a quarter million participants.
2008
The YWCA celebrated its Sesquicentennial Anniversary, 150 years of service, with the launch of the “Own It” campaign. The campaign focused on igniting a new generation of 22 million young women aged 18 to 34, inspiring them to get involved with important issues facing women and the country today.
2013
Today over 2 million people participate in YWCA programs at more than 1,300 sites across the United States.
How We Help:Together, Resource Point connects an individual’s needs with our community’s resources. In doing so, we help create roadmaps to success for those in need.
History:
Resource Point began as a desire of Northland, A Church Distributed to serve the Central Florida Area with a tool that could ...be used by the entire community to find resources for those in need and identify opportunities to serve people and local non-profit, government and faith based organizations.
Resource Point connects an individual’s needs with our community’s resources and provides opportunities to get involved in the Central Florida community by volunteering and giving to others. We offer more than just a database of resources: we offer a partnership. Resource Point offers a roadmap to success, connecting you with goods, services and programs designed to help you in your time of need. If you want to help others, you can be connected to local organizations that provide volunteer opportunities and donation needs.Read More »
For Men, For Women, For Children/Teens, For Elders, Non-profits
Location
Seminole, FL
Americans Overseas Domestic Violence Crisis Center
Domestic Violence Resource
How We Help:The Americans Overseas Domestic Violence Crisis Center receives funds from multiple foundations & corporations overseas and within the USA.
History:
For 14 years Paula lived what looked like an ideal life as an American overseas: A Newsweek photojournalist husband, world w ...ide travel, a successful advertising, marketing and PR business and three beautiful sons. She also hid a terrible secret: the children suffered severe child abuse and Paula, horrific domestic violence, at the hands of her husband, making every day a nightmare.
As the violence increased, so did her desperation. In 1997, she finally disclosed the abuse to her brother in California. Her family called the State Department, congress people and senators. Paula went to the American Embassy and pleaded for help. Their efforts were futile.
Finally her chance to escape materialized, thanks to a thief. Robbed of his passport and money on a train in Germany, her husband was locked outside of the country. Paula searched her husband's offices for the children's American passports which her husband had hidden. After a month of searching she was about to give up. In despair, Paula sat sobbing with her face in her hands. That's when she believes a guardian angel pointed her back to a file she had already checked. Inside, were her children's passports.
Without access to her own money, Paula forged her husband's signature on a check for just enough money to get them to her sister's house in Oregon. She also forged her husband's signature on documents giving her permission to leave the country with the children. She knew if she were caught, she would be put in prison, or worse. But she also knew the possibility of lethality when her husband returned was very high. In the middle of the night, with one suit case and her three children, she took a taxi to the airport in Dubai and prayed. Paula tried not to show her fear as they shuffled through immigration and boarded a flight to New York, and to freedom. Once in New York, the four of them piled onto a train to Oregon, a three day journey.
At her sister's house outside of Portland, Paula's relief was short lived. She found out that even though she, the children, and her husband were all American, he had the right to fight her for jurisdiction and force her to take the boys back to the Middle East - a certain death sentence. In disbelief, she fled her sister's house and went into hiding, living in shelters, on food stamps and welfare while fighting a costly legal battle she never expected to keep her American children in the United States. If she lost, she vowed she would go underground and disappear permanently rather than take her children back. The battle lasted 18 months and cost tens of thousands of dollars. Finally, the Oregon courts ruled that Paula could keep her sons in Oregon. She was granted divorce and custody in September 2000, but no jurisdiction for child support, alimony or court costs. Her husband received supervised visitation of the children.
Despite experiencing homelessness, poverty and extreme debt after years of abuse, Paula felt she had been given a second chance. She resolved to help other abused American women and children around the world so they would not have to go through what she and her children went through. While living in a shelter, Paula founded a non-profit organization, American Women Overseas, and began her work.
But progress was slow. Paula juggled a full time job at night to support her children while running the crisis line out of her living room during the day. It wasn't until 2003 that she received enough funding to begin really making a difference.
Paula remarried and continues to live in Oregon where her two oldest sons now attend college. Read More »
National Latino Alliance For the Elimination of Domestic Violence
Domestic Violence Resource
How We Help:National Latino Alliance for the Elimination of Domestic Violence (Alianza) is part of a national effort to address the domestic violence needs and concerns of under-served populations.
History:
National Latino Alliance for the Elimination of Domestic Violence (Alianza) was established as one of three domestic violence ... “Cultural Institutes” to address the particular needs and concerns of communities of color experiencing family violence. Alianza specifically addresses the needs of Latino/a families and communities, although its work helps to inform the domestic violence field in general. Alianza’s work has been in four main areas: community education, policy advocacy, research, and training and technical assistance. It has grown into a national network of Latina and Latino advocates, practitioners, researchers, activists, and survivors of domestic violence.
Alianza evolved out of a partnership that began in January 1997, between the Office of Community Services (OCS)/Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and a national Steering Committee composed of several Latinas and Latinos with a history of leadership in domestic violence work. DHHS acknowledged the fact that “one size” does not fit all communities and helped create “Cultural Institutes” in the African American, Asian/Pacific Islanders and Latino communities.
In November 1997, the Steering Committee and OCS organized the National Symposium on La Violencia Doméstica: An Emerging Dialogue Among Latinos, which was held in Washington, D.C. The Symposium brought together an interdisciplinary group of 40 Latinos and Latinas, including advocates, community activists, practitioners, lawyers, researchers, and domestic violence survivors to initiate a national dialogue about domestic violence in Latino communities—needs, concerns, assets and to begin to make recommendations for what actions needed to take place. The Symposium proceedings were published in August 1999.
One of the major recommendations that emerged from the Symposium was the creation of a national organization for ongoing dialogue, education, and advocacy. The Steering Committee adopted the current name for the organization in March 1999, and developed a mission, vision, and general goals, setting the foundation for such an organization.
Alianza opened its doors in New York City in January 2000 with a 5-year start-up grant from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). It became incorporated in June 2003 and received its tax-exempt status in 2004. That same year the organization moved its main offices to New Mexico.
In 2005, Alianza received a three-year continuation grant from DHHS enabling it to continue to build its infrastructure and strengthen and enhance its work in its four main areas of work against Domestic Violence.
In addition to receiving funding from DHHS, Alianza has also been successful in obtaining several grants from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) to produce bilingual materials, provide regional trainings, and organize a national conference.Read More »
