March 30, 2010, Vol. 16, Issue 4 GOOD NEWS FOR DOMESTIC LAUNCH OF COACHING BOYS VIOLENCE VICTIMS IN INTO MEN IN ASIA HEALTH REFORM Well-known cricket coaches and This morning, President Obama signed players in Mumbai, India are beginning to a health reform reconciliation bill, putting educate boys to treat girls with respect and the final touches on a new law that offers recognize that violence is wrong, thanks to a significant benefits to victims of domestic new program that is based on lessons violence. The new health reform law means learned through the Family Violence that it will soon be illegal for health insurers Prevention Fund’s (FVPF’s) groundbreaking to deny coverage to victims of domestic Coaching Boys into Men initiative. The new violence because they consider their abuse Parivartan pilot program launched in India to be a preexisting condition. on March 8 – International Women’s Day . Before the legislation was signed, there It has trained two dozen coaches and were no laws prohibiting insurance more than a dozen community mentors in companies in eight states and the District of Mumbai to take gender equity messages to Columbia from discriminating against the hundreds of boys learning cricketing victims by declaring domestic violence, or a skills from them. Using a variety of tools medical condition caused by domestic and methods, these cricket coaches have violence, to be a preexisting condition. been taught to identify ‘teachable moments’ Domestic violence victims in those states on the field, and to point out inappropriate risked being denied health care when they language and behavior and the need to needed it most. change it. Parivartan will eventually be “When this part of the new law takes implemented in 50 private and government- effect in a few years, victims of domestic aided schools and communities across violence will be able to talk to their health Mumbai. care providers about the cause of their “I reluctantly joined the programme last injuries without fear of losing their health August,” said one of Parivartan’s master insurance,” said Family Violence Prevention coaches, Nagesh Thakur. “But I am glad I Fund President Esta Soler. “We’ve fought did. I have always concentrated only on for many years at the state and federal levels teaching kids how to hold the bat or throw for laws that outlaw discrimination on the the ball. I somehow accepted that boys use basis of domestic and sexual violence. We foul language on the ground, I never thought are delighted that lawmakers have now I can stop that and instill some values in addressed insurance discrimination against them.” victims of domestic violence. We are Athletic coaches play an extremely especially grateful to Congresswoman influential and unique role in the lives of Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) for young men, often serving as parents or championing this provision.” mentors to the boys they coach. Because of The bill also includes significant these special relationships, coaches are funding for expansion of home visitation Parivartan continued on page seven… Health reform continued on page five… Speaking Up, Vol. 16, Issue 4 Page 2 March 30, 2010 FAMILY VIOLENCE VICTIMS also face abuse by an intimate partner or ex- NOT GETTING HELP THEY partner. Being abused complicates their NEED FROM TANF PROGRAMS, efforts to achieve economic stability, and SURVEY FINDS poverty undermines their efforts to escape abuse. That’s why lawmakers put the Bureaucratic black holes, indifferent or Family Violence Option (FVO) in place, to hostile staff members, inadequate benefits, help address the enormous challenges that and shortsighted procedures and policies are impoverished victims of violence face. But preventing many family violence victims even with the FVO, TANF is not working from getting the resources they need to for many of the women who need it most. escape abuse from the Temporary With the recession forcing so many families Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) into poverty, we need to improve this policy program. That is according to a national now more than ever.” survey of service providers released on The survey also found that: March 17. • Not Enough: What TANF Offers Family Victims are not consistently and Violence Victims was produced by Legal effectively screened or notified of family Momentum and the National Resource violence specific responses, waivers or Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV). protections. One respondent described The survey on which it is based is a unique, the problem this way, “Oftentimes comprehensive effort to understand when women are interviewed in public places TANF successfully assists victims of family like a counter, and also when the abuser violence, and when the program falls short. is present, or not asked at all.” Some 600 staff members from domestic • violence programs, legal aid and anti- Respondents say the requirement that poverty agencies who work with victims on victims “prove” that they have TANF-related issues completed the survey experienced violence is a significant in late 2009. barrier. 61 percent say victims When TANF works well, it makes a frequently don’t disclose violence significant difference, the survey finds. But because they fear it is unsafe to do so. many family violence victims encounter 63 percent say victims don’t disclose serious difficulties that undermine their violence because they see the TANF efforts to access resources and forge a path worker or system as unsympathetic. 73 to safety for themselves and their children. percent say fear of child protection Just 14 percent of survey respondents system involvement is a significant said that the TANF family violence factor. responses work well in their states, and 43 percent said fewer than half of family • Only 12 percent of respondents report violence victims were able to access TANF that the child support enforcement benefits. One in four respondents said “no” cooperation exemption due to family when asked if family violence information violence is working well, while 29 disclosed by victims was handled in an percent said it is not working. One appropriate way. respondent reported, “Child support “The results of this survey are deeply enforcement has helped in many ways troubling,” said NRCDV Director Anne with some family violence victims that Menard. “Studies consistently show that a we have served and with others it has high proportion of women living in poverty Speaking Up, Vol. 16, Issue 4 Page 3 March 30, 2010 created more barriers for victims to NEW INITIATIVE WILL HELP overcome.” VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE, PREVENT ABUSE & • Respondents were asked to rate 11 UNPLANNED PREGNANCY features of their state TANF family violence response policies. Referrals to The Family Violence Prevention Fund local domestic violence programs (FVPF) has selected ten sites in nine states received the highest ratings, with 70 to participate in a groundbreaking two-year percent of respondents saying it works violence prevention initiative designed to well or works OK. improve the health and safety of women and children. Project Connect: A Coordinated • At least 85 percent of respondents say Public Health Initiative to Prevent Violence that increasing employment services that against Women is funded by the U.S. lead to a living wage, increasing access Department of Health and Human Services. to child care, and increasing training on It is designed to identify new ways to domestic violence for TANF and child identify, respond to and prevent domestic support enforcement workers would and sexual violence, and promote an make TANF a more effective resource. improved public health response to abuse. More than half the Project’s funds are “TANF is a lifeline for family violence directed to ten geographically and ethnically victims, but it must be improved to be diverse sites that will create comprehensive effective,” said Legal Momentum staff models of public health prevention and attorney Timothy Casey. “For too many intervention that can lead to improved health victims, the TANF application process and safety. Each site will work with family creates impossible barriers to assistance that planning, adolescent health, home visitation, prevent them from ever accessing the and other maternal child health and perinatal economic support they need. And for those programs to develop policy and public who actually access benefits, too often the health responses to domestic and sexual amount of aid that TANF provides is not violence. Project Connect grantees will also enough to allow victims to meet their own provide basic health and reproductive health and their children’s basic needs.” services in domestic and sexual violence Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-WI), programs. said, “This report shows us how women The FVPF is working with the U.S. suffer under a broken system. A woman Department of Health and Human Services’ needs all the support she can get as she flees Office on Women’s Health to provide domestic violence, but instead she and her technical assistance and monitor the children face the heartbreaking possibility of grantees selected for Project Connect . They being found by her abuser and the risk of were selected through a competitive process becoming homeless. A safety net with holes and will be awarded $200,000 for like these is hardly safe. I am working on implementation. The grantees are: legislation to fill these holes and help give women a real support system.” • Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Not Enough: What TANF Offers Family Violence Violence Victims is available at • Southern Indian Health Council in http://www.legalmomentum.org/assets/pdfs/ California not-enough-what-tanf-offers.pdf . ******************** Speaking Up, Vol. 16, Issue 4 Page 4 March 30, 2010 • Kima:w Medical Center/Hoopa Valley pregnancy by promoting collaboration Tribe in California between the violence prevention and • Georgia Coalition Against Domestic reproductive and child health care systems.” Violence Funding for Project Connect stems • Ohio Domestic Violence Network from the health provisions in the Violence • Iowa Department of Health Against Women Reauthorization Act of • Maine Centers for Disease Control 2005 .