IMPACT MATTERS

Enabling Children and Families to Be Safe from Violence

Sadly, for many women and children within our community, home is not a safe place. Domestic violence is one of the 17 priority problems identified by United Way of Salt Lake (UWSL) in its 2007 Community Assessment and a social ill that we must address. While there are no simplistic answers to this problem, UWSL believes effecting positive social change is both possible and necessary.

Anne Burkholder, CEO of the YWCA of Salt Lake City, says there are three general change strategies with regard to breaking the chain of domestic violence: prevention, intervention, and accountability. UWSL and our Community Partners utilize all of these strategies.

Prevention

Prevention starts with recognizing (as a society) that domestic violence is not solely a women's issue, and that the victims of domestic violence did not cause, create, or attract the abuse. Prevention requires a community-wide education effort, as well as changes in individual behavior. For example, the Asian Association of Utah provides training on appropriate ways to express anger. Outreach programs educate women and children about recognizing the cycle of abuse and making healthy relationship choices.

Intervention

Intervention involves the community coming together to meet the needs of domestic violence victims by providing safe shelter and access to social support services. Utah has 16 domestic violence shelters, each of which plays an important role in meeting the needs of domestic violence victims. Several of these shelters are within the UWSL service area, including the Safe Harbor Domestic Violence Shelter, Peace House, Inc. and the YWCA of Salt Lake City.

• More than 80 percent of the women entering Safe Harbor meet with a caseworker within two days to develop an action plan, a safety plan, and a risk assessment. When leaving the shelter, 94 percent report an increased knowledge of community resources.
• Peace House, Inc. provides domestic violence skills classes to shelter residents, and 100 percent of the women who attend these classes say they are not returning to their abuser.
• The YWCA of Salt Lake operates a crisis shelter and transitional housing program that provides housing, case management, and crisis intervention for women and their children. After completing the program, 74 percent of the families have moved into permanent housing.

Accountability

To effect change, perpetrators of domestic violence must be held accountable for their actions--by the community at large and by our court system. No victim should ever feel compelled to return to an abuser for a lack of alternatives.

To focus on accountability, the YWCA has established a Family Justice Center, a broad, one-stop program that provides, among many other things, legal services, law enforcement, and protective orders under one roof. Further, Legal Aid Society of Utah provides assistance to victims of domestic violence, as well as services for child protective orders.

The exemplary efforts mentioned here are but a few of those provided by Utah's crisis shelters. Unfortunately, the growing demand put upon these shelters precludes many victims from receiving all of the services they need. Rather than build more shelters, a broader community focus on prevention is required.

UWSL supports the efforts of its Community Partners as they provide safe and supportive atmospheres for victims of abuse, as well as programs that seek to disrupt the cycle of abuse. In the long term, it will take all of us working together, to create lasting change.