On the Front Lines of the Battle: Thoughts on the Violence Against Women Act.

As a nineteen year old woman with no college degree to her name, no big career in saving lives, and no long standing experience with legal or political process or dialogue I wouldn't blame you for not taking my words to heart. I am not the most experienced, I am not the most read, nor am I the most overworked. I am simply starting out on my journey and therefore the perspectives I am about to share have a certain raw hurt that the older populace has probably forgotten due to the long years of crisis callousing their expectations and ideas of justice. This is not to say that my experience is better than theirs--only that it is different and perhaps more fresh in my memory.

In May I began training to work with a local nonprofit in my home state of Oregon called Community Works. Community Works is actually a rather large organization whose purpose is to provide resources and education in various ways to improve the community. Part of the resources they offer, are the victim services through the Dunn House and Dunn House Outreach. The Dunn House is the only comprehensive shelter in my entire county for women and children needing refuge from domestic and sexual violence. Food, clothing, counseling, and support groups are all available at a safe confidential location away from violence and abuse. The Dunn House is nothing short of a miracle for the many many women who have needed to use its services to stay safe, and the support from the staff and volunteers has made a huge difference in their lives. Dunn House Outreach are the other victim services that Community Works has to offer. SAVS--the Sexual Assault Victim Services--are powered twenty four hours a day, seven days a week by a dedicated group of volunteers and staff that are on call to go to hospitals with survivors of rape and be with them as nurses perform their examination to complete a rape kit. They carry with them a backpack of clothes, food, and other essentials for women and girls of all ages and ability and advocate for them through the beginning phases of their healing, and even into court if the survivor chooses to report or press charges. DHO also has their community educators, who do presentations and trainings to educate the community on DV [domestic violence] and SA [sexual assault]. I chose to volunteer on the bridge between both the Dunn House, which is typically for women escaping domestic violence, and SAVS by becoming a Volunteer Court Advocate.

The Court Advocacy program is one of the most life changing experiences I have ever had the honor of being in. I cannot even begin to explain how humbled, awed, and empowered I am on a daily basis sitting in the small volunteer office on the third floor of the county courthouse. Court Advocacy is not easy work, and I have had to stumble through it with limited training due to a loss of staffing, funding, and dated resources and guides. However, I have experienced many victories and I have grown quite confident in my ability to learn--even if if I am not entirely confident in what I think I know.

A Court Advocate serves three primary functions: The first is to help survivors of domestic and sexual violence file, obtain, and retain protective orders [restraining orders/ no contact orders/stalking orders]. Second, help survivors make a safety plan for themselves and their children. And finally the third function is possible the most important thing we can do as advocates and as human beings--we listen, believe, and provide options for survivors of violence. As you could probably imagine, this is not work just anyone can step into. I doubt my own drive and passion as I speak as calmly as I can to sobbing mothers who have been denied their restraining order, or when I am sitting in court in a room of survivors of violence and watching lawyers sneer and call them "accusers" or "alleged victims" and scoff as they try to speak. I doubt my ability to work in this field when I go home some days and shake in my boyfriend's arms for hours, trying not to cry in anger. Yet after the first three weeks, which have tried their hardest to break me, I still go into that office 2--5 days a week, 8:30AM to 4:00PM.

Now I can't say much in terms of the people I have helped because confidentiality is paramount in any kind of victim service work, but I can say that I have served at least one hundred people since starting four weeks ago. I have served Doctors and I have served people who don't even have a GED. I have served single mothers, single fathers, gay men, lesbians, grandmothers, disabled people, veterans, people struggling with addiction, and pretty much any combination thereof. I have served mothers calling me on behalf of their pregnant daughters--pleading for assistance before her child experiences a miscarriage due to being thrown around by her boyfriend. And I have even served men who come to my office holding their daughter's hand as she talks about how her husband raped her. In the month I have volunteered through Community Works, I can honestly say I have seen more than my fair share of the remnants of violence. And it is with this sentiment that I explain what the Violence Against Women Act is to me.

The Violence Against Women Act is hope. As imperfect as it is, as battered by the GOP it has become, and as much abuse it has experienced by the rich--it is hope. In being one of the few pieces of federal level legislation that has ever been created specifically to try to alleviate some of the violence women experience in their day by day lives--it is the only one that has ever been passed and funded. This legislation funds Community Works directly (and indirectly) in every face of its Victim Services programs. It isn't enough by any means--the amount of people I cannot help give me more nightmares than the amount of horror stories I hear--but it is all we have. Right now this legislation suffered serious damage from the Republican dominate House, which made cuts to stipulations that provide services to immigrant women and queer women. The Democrat dominate Senate isn't sure if it wants to pass this bill along with all of the damages it has endured. I can't say what is right in this moral conundrum. I see the Dems' point and in a way I know that I could never lobby for this bill passionately either.

This Monday I am going to walk into that volunteer office, and I am probably going to encounter 15--30 people that need my services for various reasons. I know that if this bill got passed again, that it could be amended and improved upon, and I also know that if it didn't that within the next year there wouldn't be enough funding to keep that office open 8:30 to 4:00. So I pray that this bill gets passed quickly, if only to keep my office open a little longer to witness a little more change.

After all, I know that even with all the current stipulations VAWA isn't enough. However it was enough to bring me and about twelve other people to that office to help people. In celebration of American Independence, I am going to be in a parade with other Community Works volunteers spreading awareness about DV and SA. This is what we do. I do not think it is too much to ask that our federal government grants us the funding to help others in such a profound way. I believe I read somewhere that the Constitution was created to insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity--and helping survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence is a huge part of that.