Does the Economy Cause Domestic Violence?

I have been asked many times in the past months how the economy has affected domestic violence. Does the economy cause domestic violence? What is economic abuse? I thought I would take this opportunity to provide more information about those issues.

Domestic violence is a pattern of controlling behaviors used by one partner to maintain power and control over his partner. Economic abuse is using economics/money to maintain that power and control.

Examples of how this is done include:

• Controlling finances
• withholding money or credit cards
• ruining credit ratings
• requiring an accounting of money that is spent and punishment if not spent on things the abuser approves
• preventing the partner from working or causing them to lose their job
• withholding necessities such as food, clothing and medication
• stealing from their partner or using their personal identification fraudulently 

Does the bad economy cause domestic violence? The answer is “no”. However, it doesn’t help in situations where there is already abuse present. Economic stresses often lead to more frequent and more violent abuse when domestic violence is already present. It also creates more barriers to a woman’s ability to flee the situation.

• Domestic violence is three times as likely to occur when couples are experiencing high levels of financial strain as when they are experiencing low levels of financial strain.
• Women whose male partners experience two or more periods of unemployment over a 5-year study were almost three times as likely to be victims of intimate violence as were women whose partners were in stable jobs.
• Three out of four domestic violence shelters report an increase in women seeking assistance from abuse since September 2008 (NNEDV, Impact of the economy on domestic violence)

Hope House is one of the shelters that have seen an increase in the numbers of people seeking services. We are seeing the impact of the economy in the length of time people are staying in shelter. People are staying longer, because it’s more difficult to secure employment, get bills paid and access services from other agencies that are at capacity due to their own diminished resources.

We are seeing more people in our outreach programs and have a waiting list that is longer than any time in our history. We turned away more than we served in shelter last fiscal year.

The struggle for Hope House is to find the balance between the increase in the demand for services coupled with decreases in our funding. We are doing more with less but will continue to work to provide the absolute best service for our clients, while we work to increase our resources.

Ground Breaking for Building Hope Capital Campaign

I am very excited to be writing about the ground breaking for our construction project on our Independence campus. We have worked so hard on the Building Hope Capital Campaign and have made tremendous progress in the past year. This progress is due to our dedicated committee, and the dedication and commitment of Chief Development Officer, Nancy DuVall. Nancy has worked tirelessly to see the campaign to its completion.

The ground breaking ceremony is a time for us to celebrate all of the accomplishments and the excitement of the new construction and the many changes that will follow. I am very excited about the improvements that will take place on the campus that will allow the clients a place of serenity and safety as they stay with us and begin to rebuild their lives. They deserve a place of beauty and comfort; a place that will energize them and give them the peace of mind to work through the issues they must face to live free of abuse.

The contractor estimates construction of the new therapy building will take 9 months, so if (when) we stay on schedule, we will be in our new therapy building in early 2011. The renovations to the existing buildings are not expected to take as long as constructing a whole new building, so we will be enjoying and utilizing the newly renovated spaces in Shelter and the Early Childhood Center in 2010.

The Community Partnership Building will open as soon as the therapists are able to move into their new building. How exciting to be able to offer the clients this new space which will better meet their needs and a place for community businesses to come and partner with us to offer services to our clients.

We still have work to do to finish the campaign; we still need to raise $430,000 to complete the $5,000,000 campaign. We have tax credits available for anyone who is interested in making a gift to the campaign. If you are interested in learning more about the campaign or would like to join us on April 9th at 10AM for the ground breaking ceremony, contact Nancy at nduvall@hopehouse.net.

Funding For Hope House

With the news of potential 50% funding cuts from the state of Missouri, many questions have been asked about our funding so I thought I would take this opportunity to address that in this blog.

We receive revenues from public and private sources. Our public funding consists of grant funding from city, county, state and federal government sources and accounts for 42% of our overall funding. We are very proud to be United Way partner agency, with 5% of our budget coming from United Way. Our private funding comes from individuals, businesses, service organizations, churches and special events, and is the remaining 53% of our budget.

INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

We have worked hard to diversify our funding so that a downturn in one area won’t significantly impact or cripple our budget. This has not been easy; however, we recognize its importance and will continue to strive toward this goal. In the past two years, cuts in funding from public sources have forced us to add to our private fundraising expectations. We have worked to create funding sources that are sustainable and “economy proof”. One way we are accomplishing this is through innovative partnerships. I am happy to share two examples.

BEST VALUE THRIFT STORES

The first partnership is with Best Value Thrift Stores. Best Value collects donated items on behalf of Hope House to sell in their thrift stores. In exchange, Hope House receives a monthly remittance resulting from the sale of donated items. This partnership creates a guaranteed annual compensation of nearly $100,000 in support of Hope House programs and operations! If you are interested in having items picked up from your home, please call 816.554.0870.

GLOBAL RE-SOURCE FUNDING

Another partnership is with Global Re-source Funding. For every inkjet, toner/laser cartridge, digital camera, GPS device, iPod, laptop and cell phone that is collected and donated to Hope House, Global Re-Source Funding will send a donation to Hope House for the full buyback value of the product as it is recycled for re-sale. Global Re-Source Funding will supply collection bins plus pick-up services and marketing materials for your program – all at no cost.

The best part of this program is that you can raise money to support Hope House simply by asking for a donation of items that most people discard anyway. To learn more or to enroll in this partnership please visit http://www.globalre-sourcefunding.com/.

CONTINUING TO STRIVE

We will continue to strive to meet the challenge of serving over 10,000 victims of domestic violence every year by exploring new and lasting ways to bring in sustainable revenue. Please let us know if you have partnership ideas or if you would like to make a donation that will support our services. You can visit http://www.hopehouse.net/ for more information.