 Thank you all for joining us this evening. We are really glad to have you here for this conversation. My name is Autumn MacDonald and I'm the director of New America, California. We are a civic enterprise based in California and we are part of the larger New America which is a think and action tank based in Washington, DC. We focus on issues of economic equity and host forums like this one in addition to other ways in which we engage the community. We are thrilled to have with us this evening Kathy Black from La Casa, Julia Arroyo from Young Women's Freedom Center, Sonia Pasi from FreeFrom, and my co-moderator Debbie Maslow with a commission on the status of women. We are really thrilled to engage in this conversation but I wanted to start us off first by passing the torch over to Debbie to talk a little bit more about the department on the status of women we have to partner with. Thank you, Autumn. It's wonderful to work with you to put this very important event on. I wanna thank all the panelists. I know we'll have a chance to talk with you in a moment. I know that we're hoping that this is a very conversational panel and that we wanna engage also with people who are watching through our chat function. We wanna incorporate your questions for the panelists and I know I've been looking forward to having this conversation because it's a real concern in the middle of a scary time. The rise that we see in domestic violence and that so many women and others in our community and cisgenders and others are not safe within their homes and their homes are not a safe space to shelter. And so really bringing panelists together tonight to talk about that. So I wanna thank everyone for their time. As Autumn mentioned, I'm a commissioner on the commission on the status of women. We are a mayoral appointee body here in the city of San Francisco. The citizens of San Francisco helped to create us by charter initiative and we are the strongest commission in the country. We have a department on status of women. San Francisco is the only city to have a department with the commission and we give out 90% of our budget to community-based partners that help to prevent the violence against women. So I'm glad to be here with you tonight. I did wanna highlight a couple of things. Even though the department, our staff continues to work remote and honor the shelter place. We do have a resource page at our website and that is for survivors of violence, families and community members. And that is at sfgov.org slash d-o-s-w. And we continue to have staff at our city emergency operations center continue to support our emergency response efforts. And finally, we've been working in partnership with the DA's office on a safe home program which is a public private partnership to link domestic violence survivors with free and temporary furnished apartments in San Francisco. So looking to see how we can be helpful in this time and looking forward to the conversation tonight. Thank you. Back to you, Adam. Thanks so much, Debbie. So I'd love for us to get started. Although we are lots of boxes here, Brady Branch style, if you will. I would like to make it as conversational and to imagine that all of us are maybe just grabbing some coffee together, including every single person who is tuned in as well. So with that, I would love if you, each of you would start by just telling us the two minutes of view. Let's talk a little bit about who you are and how you ended up doing the type of work that you are doing now. And I'd love to start with Kathy, if that's okay. Hi. Thank you for having me. This evening is really awesome to be part of this panel. So I, my name is Kathy Black and I've worked at La Casa for 23 years. And that's almost as shocking to me when I say it as it is, it's a long time. And I started out as the director of development and after being here for about four years, the board hired me as the executive director and it's really been an honor to serve in that capacity and I feel like it's a real privilege. I was born in the Midwest just outside of Chicago but I've lived in California's really the North Bay, my, almost my entire life. And so I feel very connected to, I worked on my professional life in San Francisco. So I feel really connected to the area and to the community that really is involved in these important conversations and issues. Fantastic. Thanks. Thank you, Julia. A little bit about your story. Julia, will you tell us a little bit about you please? Sorry, Julia, good to love you. I will start from the beginning. So hi, my name's Julia Royo or I go by Julia as well and she, her pronouns. And the question was how did I come to this work or just to tell myself a little bit about myself? So I would just say that I'm from San Francisco. I was born here. I was born at Letterman's Army Hospital and I would say that in about the year 2000 I actually experienced going into the juvenile justice system and I think that I had the right type of mentors or women come into my life after that experience such as like Latif Assignment, Julia Posadas, Cheyenne Bell at the time, there was normal telling who was running the SAGE project. And I remember when I was getting out of, oh, I'm sorry, one second. I remember when I was getting out of juvenile hall and I was getting my foster care money and I was saying that I'm gonna go to beauty school and I remember them going, oh, that's cool, that's cool. And also you have a calling and so somehow I got wrapped up into this type of work and they invited me to come back and work inside of the jail and also to do some other transformative work with girls that had experienced the underground street economy and street-based violence and gender-based violence. So that was back in 2000 and now, yeah, so now I'm working at the Young Women's Freedom Center and I'm the site director here in our San Francisco organization. Fantastic, thanks so much for sharing with us. And Sonia, now I will turn it over to you. We'd love to hear a little bit about your story, who you are and how you got engaged in this work. Sure, hi everyone, I'm Sonia Passi. I'm the founder and CEO of Free From, my pronouns are she, her, hers. I have been doing domestic violence activism since I was 16. I grew up in and around abuse. I didn't necessarily have words for what I was seeing and experiencing and witnessing, but when I was 16, I thought I wanted to be a human rights lawyer. I started an Amnesty International group at my high school that year and their campaign that year was Global Violence Against Women. And I remember getting all the information and reading about it and learning for the first time that one in three women globally will experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime. And I just remember one being horrified that I was learning this for the first time, not understanding why this wasn't the front page of every newspaper every single day. It was clear to me that when you're talking about one in three, you're talking about a global crisis. So why are we not talking about the crisis and addressing the crisis? And so I very quickly resonated with this idea that to be safe in your own home is a fundamental human right. And if we aren't safe in our own home, where can we ever truly feel safe? And so the first thing that I started by doing was domestic violence awareness weeks at my high school. I then went on to college, I grew up in England and I went to college in England. During college, I created a group that was educating campus and high school students about intimate partner violence. I then moved to the Bay. I actually went to Berkeley Law, which was when I first met Kathy. And I started the Family Violence Appellate Project while I was in law school, which is a Oakland-based nonprofit providing pro bono appellate legal services to survivors and really trying to shape California domestic violence law to benefit survivors through the courts. And what I kept seeing happen over and over again was that the clients that were coming to us, very often they had left three or four years ago. They were still homeless. They were living in their car or they were living on someone's couch. And they had lost custody of their children to the person who had harmed them and more often than not had harmed the children because they couldn't afford to support them. And because of the financial devastation that had accompanied that domestic abuse. And this kept happening over and over again and I started to look at kind of what was out there to support survivors in that long-term rebuilding financially. And I found that there was a gap and the gap really I think exists because we're trying to solve a global crisis as a very small group of underfunded and under resourced organizations. And that's when late 2016 I started Free From with the mission to support survivors and build infrastructure for survivors to be able to ensure their financial security and long-term safety. Thank you so much for sharing each of you how you came to this work. I know we really want tonight to be about practical solutions as well for people who are watching, people who might have people in their community who need help but they need help themselves. So we'd love to just hear a little bit more about the organizations that each of you run and exactly what it is that you do for survivors and how survivors can connect with you for the services that you provide. So Kathy, could we start with you to tell us a little bit about La Casa? Sure. So La Casa started in 1976 right here in San Francisco and I'm told by the founders that it was the third domestic violence shelter program founded worldwide and so their goal was to specifically work with victims and survivors of domestic violence and so it's been at the vanguard of the domestic violence movement from the very beginning. So we are San Francisco's oldest and largest shelter and for victims and survivors of domestic violence and intimate partner violence, our mission is to respond to calls for help from victims and survivors of all ages, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We want to give survivors tools to transform their lives. That means partnering with programs like Sonia's and to educate the community to prevent future violence to change public perceptions about domestic violence. So those are some key factors and I think that what most people think of when they hear about La Casa de las Madres is our shelter program and that is that was the foundational part of how this organization was formed and the sheroes that brought it all together at that time. Over the years, things have really changed because the needs of victims and survivors have changed dramatically since 1976 and so we really had to find a way to be out in the community where individuals are. So if someone is at Zuckerberg General Hospital and they're at one of the five primary care clinics, they are very, and they're disclosing that they're struggling with violence in their relationship at home, they may not be safe at home. They will get a warm handoff to a La Casa advocate who's sitting on the campus over at Zuckerberg General Hospital. Of course, we still have our shelter. It's the biggest ticket item we have. It's the most expensive, but also the band aid, right? It's not getting at the source, but hugely important. We are also, we work with the San Francisco Housing Authority and we have two advocates that serve about 4,000 units of public housing. So if there are victims and survivors who are either in currently in an abusive relationship or are struggling to get on their feet and be in a safe place, they can again work with the advocates and do transfers to a new unit where it's safe, have lock changes, a whole host of things. The Housing Authority might do something like somebody is in a violent relationship and they ask for a transfer and the Housing Authority doesn't really see the big picture and they may move them to the unit right next door. So that's, we're able to help survivors navigate that system. We also are part of the High Lethality Assessment Team at the Bayview Police Department and that's a project that comes out of the Department and the Commission on the Status of Women. And what we do there is also receive warm handoffs. So when responding officers work with a victim and they're asked a set of questions if they score a certain point, the officers are able to talk to the victim about their risks and ask them if they can call a cause and if the victim is willing to speak to an advocate. And that often will end up with law enforcement helping the victim or survivor come in, even just spend the night at La Casa's shelter, have a warm place to sit, figure out what they wanna do and explore their options. So it's a gentle intervention out of a not so gentle event. We have an advocate that's out stationed at the San Francisco Police Department and the Special Victims Unit. And so all of the reports that stem from intimate partner violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, those reports go to an advocate and that advocate calls each victim, makes several attempts in hopes of connecting and then provides, finds out if the individual is interested in receiving some assistance because we want to empower victims and survivors. So they will connect them with community resources. Our advocate will connect them with not just La Casa but other really important community resources, legal service programs, financial empowerment programs, any number of projects. And we also are very connected to the San Francisco Unified School District. So in a, although this year was surely gonna be very different, we have advocates that are connected to the wellness centers. And so teachers and school administrators are able to refer students to La Casa's advocate. And the goal is to keep students engaged in school. So they may be experiencing domestic violence in their home, their parents may be involved in domestic violence or they may be just engaging in new relationships that they don't feel are healthy. And so we try and be very open and work with them toward that. And then last but not least, a big program that we're involved in is the CalWorks program in the DV waiver, making sure that the clock stops for victims who are receiving CalWorks benefits and that they're able to get back on their feet and that it extends the time that they receive their benefits. And that's really important. And so those are a general at our drop in counseling center. The world has changed completely but we are working on connecting people with counselors by phone. We're going to do small group sessions starting in the summer and probably look for platforms where those kind of services can be offered in a way that is safe. People are knocking on the door, it says close because we can't social, really be socially distant here. But victims and survivors are coming by almost every day and asking for help. So it's been an interesting process and we're still answering our hotline, our text line. So we've got a lot going on. Yes, thank you, Kathy. I know how much LaCosta has evolved under your leadership and in particular going out to where survivors need you the most throughout the community and really talking in those moments when survivors have an opportunity to connect with resources that's really evolved under your leadership. And I know we'll get to later in the program, COVID specifically and what people are experiencing and these tragic rises that we're seeing throughout the globe and to your point even with being able to be there for people who really need that right now talking about specifically how we're doing that. So thank you. Julie, I would love to go to you next. Young Women's Freedom Center, an iconic social justice institution. You mentioned, you know, Shiro, the community, Latifah Simon, all the women who work there and who've been part of that movement. So I would love to hear just a little bit more about the Young Women's Freedom Center. Right. I'll do it like a little genealogy too of the 1993 and I'll tell it in my interpretation in the way that storytellers have told me. In 1993, Rachel Pfeffer had came and she was doing her dissertation on women and girls living and surviving on the streets of San Francisco. This was at the kind of the tail end or height of the AIDS crack generation, kind of all of those things, epidemics were happening at the time. And what Rachel did was she trained everyone as these kind of health workers. And so she hired those that were directly impacted to kind of lead the work. And what she found out out of her findings is that these people were actually brilliant and they were like living and surviving and taking care of themselves all on their own and finding what they needed. And so she left the organization to those Young Women. And so Latifah Simon became the youngest executive director in the nation at that point and took on. And Jessica Nalem, who's now the executive director, she was I think the deputy director at 17 years old. And so there was like all of these great phenomenal leaders and when I really think about the work, I really think about this like leadership incubator of just like really investing in that leadership of those like directly impacted and dispersing amongst everywhere and just leading really radically in their own ways in many different ways for all of the folks that came through the organization. So our mission is to empower and inspire cis, transgender, non-conforming young folks that have been involved or impacted by the underground street economy or the criminal justice system and to make transformative changes in their own lives in their community. So that's the Young Women's Freedom Center. And I actually came through, I heard Latifah Simon when I was coming out of juvenile hall, she was giving one of these real fiery speeches and I was like, how does she know my story? How does she know what I'm going through? And so I was actually able to experience what it was like to move through the organization to as a participant and as a staff member as well. We are huge fans of the center. Thank you for all the work that you do. And I think from its early days, the center has really centered voices and to your point, brilliant and amazing minds who should be centered in the policymaking and other things all around this movement. So thank you for everything you're doing. And Sonya, free form and just the work that you've done, fascinating coming at it from a crucial side, the legal side and supporting women, it sounds like in the economic recovery and economic social justice work, tell us a little bit more about these organizations that you founded and what you're doing now, it sounds like you're working in partnership with TLCASA as well. Sure, it's free from, not free form, it's like free from abuse. No, no, everybody does it, totally, everybody does it. We launched and then ABC Family changed their name to free form and then it was game over. I know, I kept on looking at it and didn't want to miss that. No, not at all, not at all. As soon as I say free from abuse, people get it. So we do a lot of things and I'll kind of talk about some of the most exciting projects that we're working on right now, but everything is around building an ecosystem of support for survivors to ensure their long-term safety and we sort of operate from the standpoint that financial security is necessary for survivors to stay safe in the long run and investing in survivors is the way to end generational gender-based violence. The number one reason survivors stay in and return to abusive situations is financial insecurity and that's for two reasons. The first is it's just incredibly expensive to have experienced gender-based violence. The CDC did a study in 2018 and they found that intimate partner violence costs a female survivor an average of $104,000 which is more than most people make in a year, in two years and then you add to that the fact that in 99% of cases, financial abuse occurs and that looks like anything from not being allowed to work to having to hand over your paycheck to not knowing what bank accounts are in your name, what credit cards are in your name, having debt that's either coerced or fraudulent. And so often survivors are faced with this insurmountable and possible decision of do I leave with six figures in debt, no job, no cash, no fallback system and a damaged credit score and how do I stay safe with that mountain to overcome? And so a couple of the things that we're doing, the first is we've developed a national training program for domestic violence organizations through which we train domestic violence, case managers, advocates, all the way up to executive directors sometimes on how to build programming to support survivors financial security. How do you support someone in building credit? How do you support someone who may have never worked before in building income? How do you have conversations with people who've been financially abused about money and have that be a productive and healing conversation? And so we've been training nationwide and really kind of seeing that ripple effect starting to happen. The first organization that we ever trained is based in Houston, the executive director went through the training and within three weeks of the training she increased everyone's salaries because she understood that her staff's financial well-being was key to her clients' well-being and they now have 16 clients who they've supported in starting small businesses because we trained them in doing that. We're also kind of focused on how do you get resources directly to survivors and we've got two ways in which we're doing that right now. We've created an online tech platform for survivors called the Compensation Compass that supports survivors very quickly in figuring out how they can pursue compensation for the harm they have experienced either from the person that harmed them or from the state. For example, very few people know that in California if you have eligible receipts and you are a victim of crime you can get up to $77,000 from the state of California. And so you basically have to fill out a form and attach your receipts, it's that simple. And so this tool that we've created it's available in every state, the laws are different in every state so you start by putting in your state and it will give you a step-by-step guide as to how to do that. Step one, here's the form. Step two, this is how to fill it out. Step three, this is how long you have to file. Another kind of direct to survivors resources that we've created this year we didn't intend to create it during COVID but that's where we ended up is we've created peer-to-peer financial support groups for survivors. If you think about, these are both terrible examples but it's kind of what we base the model on if you think about Weight Watchers or you think about AA or Al-Anon these are community-based groups started by the community for the community a very formulaic model if you will and very simple so that anyone can start one in their community. One of the things that is missing in the way that we're approaching domestic violence is we're not thinking about survivors who don't leave. We're not thinking about survivors who either can't leave or don't want to leave or don't have the money to leave. Survivors who are living in communities where you don't go outside of the community. Survivors who are in rural areas where there aren't services and so how can we create something that communities can support themselves with regardless of philanthropy, regardless of state funding for the issue, regardless of whether there are services nearby. And also how can we both support survivors in building financial security and break down the isolation of abuse and sort of it's accomplishing both of those. And so we've now got groups that have either formed or are forming in about 23 states and that's really starting to take off. And then kind of the rest of our attention goes to doing systems change work. So how do we bring other pillars of our community and our society into addressing the issue? Our employers, our banks, our credit card companies and one big project that we're working on this year is we have almost finished developing industry guidelines and best practices for banks on how they can do their part to address economic abuse but also support clients, customers who are survivors. So everything from creating protected bank accounts for survivors to be able to safely save money to training bank tellers on how to spot economic abuse when it's happening in front of you and how to respond to having systems and processes in place to interrupt things like invasions of privacy or keep a survivor's new address confidential from a joint account holder. And really, the movement is doing so much to end domestic violence but we're talking about a systemic problem. So we're always asking ourselves the question how do we make sure that everyone's doing the bit that they can do? Because that's how you solve a problem of this magnitude. I really appreciate all of you sharing your personal stories the work that you're doing. I find it really compelling and Sonia you know that I am familiar with your work and you as one of our New America, California fellows in 2018 and I have heard you tell many stories that I think really hit home for those who are not as familiar with the true picture, the true experience. I can say for myself that my daughter's middle name is after my best friend to unfortunately is a victim of domestic violence. I was not a survivor but even with that I couldn't say that I know the true experience or what that looks like, the picture I know of one snippet. But I think it can be really compelling for folks to hear a little bit more about what that looks like and you've done that in some ways by sharing some of the elements that many may not think about, the financial aspects of it. What does it look like to have a joint account with them? What does it look like to have your credit loan to have money stolen, your paycheck stolen from you? Things like that that keep you from having the ability to get free from. So with that in mind, I would love if you would start us off we'll go in the other direction this time by just painting a little bit of a picture for us and whatever you think is fitting to tell us a little bit about what it might be slightly like to walk in the shoes of a survivor. Sure, sure. I also would love to say, well, I wouldn't love to say this, but this is the facts. There was a study that came out recently that found that 46% of women in community colleges have experienced financial abuse which is higher than the number of people who've experienced domestic violence. And what I think that suggests is that more people have experienced financial abuse than we think. And we don't talk about money as a society. So it's so kind of under the radar when it happens but I'll give you a couple of examples of situations of financial abuse that we've kind of worked with survivors to get through. So just to kind of paint a picture of what that looks like the first is a client who left her home to her and sort of like 18 months later going through the divorce. And she started to get debt collectors calling her and she didn't understand why. And she found out that she had seven credit cards in her name and the total amount of money on those credit cards was $17,000. And none of it was hers. She didn't even know about it. And she did some investigating. She found that her ex-husband had taken out the credit cards. He had had them sent to his brother's house. So she had never seen them or the statements. And together they had amassed $17,000 of debt in her name which remained unpaid to the day the debt collector started calling. It had completely destroyed her credit score. She was living off of, she was living on someone's couch with two kids and I think she got $535 a month. So there was no way she was ever gonna be able to pay it off. We were able to work with her to get six of those seven credit card companies to recognize that debt as fraud. And from our perspective, we weren't saying forgive this debt. We were saying go after the person whose debt it is. But one of the credit card companies refused and that was $7,000 in debt. So she's yet to be able to recover from that. And we were even able to demonstrate that she had a restraining order. We were able to demonstrate that she wasn't in the country when most of these, like she had flight receipts and the payments were local. So she couldn't have possibly been the one to make those charges. But the credit card company called the police and the police said, this is a civil matter. We can't help. And so that was all they needed to know to not get involved. Another survivor, she was financially controlled to such a degree that she went to her harm doer and said, I need money for tampons. And he said, by my calculation, you have five days until your next period. So I know that you're lying to me. Another client in this goes back to the banking work that we talked about. Flood moved to a different state, got a new apartment, went into the branch of her bank and said, this is my new address. I needed new debit card. And the bank sent a letter to her old address a week later with her new address and her new debit card. And so all of that time and energy and bravery that had gone into getting safe, she now had to start again. Wow. Thank you for sharing these stories. I think that it's really important for people to be able to understand this voice, this experience. And so that they can, hopefully everyone who's listening is already very much compelled to figure out what they can do and how they can be helpful and really meaningful ways. But if they weren't before, hopefully these stories are helping them see a little bit more about what's at stake. I would love to move now to Julia and ask you if you are willing to share a story or two or whatever you feel is a compelling way of just kind of sharing the stories of things that you've seen so that people can understand what's at stake here. Absolutely. So one of the things I want to just say is like domestic violence shows up in different ways and violence shows up in different ways. And so in our response to it shows up in different ways. And I'm somebody who experienced violence at a really young age and really just kind of have the experience of just trying to figure it out. And I do have the experience of being exploited on the streets. And I know that a lot of it stemmed as a direct result of some of the things I experienced at a really early age. And so at the time that I was incarcerated as a youth, I felt punished for like the harm that I had experienced. And it kind of further validated my experience of feeling like unwanted or left alone and when I believe when violence happens now I see that it's a time where you need folks to kind of like gather and show you love. And I just feel like I could have had a different response. And if I would have had more patience from the adults around me to kind of understand a little bit more deeply about what I was going through because if at the first look at it, you may have looked at it like, oh, this person is like being very resistant and rebellious and acting out. And really it was more so, I believe it was a direct response to a lot of the violence that I had experienced. And I was working it out in my own way. And so, and I kind of needed that space too to kind of figure it out also. So I think that there are people that are experiencing, one thing that I can't say that would, I experienced so many years ago and like stepping into like, I know that our detention centers closing now in San Francisco and we're going as a different response, but that's out of like us evolving in our solutions of how we respond to when things happen inside of our communities. So I think that it's got a little people kind of thinking like, what's next and what are we gonna do? But one thing that I do know that having experienced the juvenile system and the adult system is that there are a lot of survivors of violence on the inside. And everybody, you know, violence is this thing like this ball of like energy that's created, right? And it impacts a lot of people because you think about violence happens and then now I tell my story and now somebody else takes it in a little bit, you know? And then it just, it has this ripple effect. And so what do we do with this energy that's created when violence happens? And so I would just say that, yeah, I had a lot of people that just kind of loved me through this and I can remember a time where, you know, I took a giant step back and, you know, and in my growth and development. And I remember Norma Hotelling, who was the executive director of SAGE at the time, I remember her coming out to an alley. She came out to an alley and she said, how are you doing? And I was like, no, I was like, I'm like, don't look at me, you know, kind of, it was, but she was like, no, like, I'm here, and just having those consistent people to like love me through a lot of it, you know, like there's the little cycle of violence, right? That they show us where it's like the honeymoon and then the explosion and, you know, the tension and the explosion. And they say often, like people go through that nine times. Some people go through that nine times before they get it and understand it or whatever it is, you know, and so it takes time for us because we've been deceived, you know, like when violence happens, it's like something was, something is kind of broken inside of our spirits and we're like, oh, I was deceived. And now it takes time to like be able to come to, you know, coming from just a survivor centered, you know, experience and kind of being able to define like what more power and agency and being able to like make those decisions on my own and people kind of supporting me through the way is I think that are really healing. And then there's times where, you know, where people don't make it around that, that little wheel of nine times. And so I've definitely, you know, have buried people. And I think that one of the most, the biggest things for me is, so is housing and that is a very vulnerable time to like have that plan to like get to a safe environment. And we're living in one of the most expensive places in the world. And like, it's intense. Like when I was 18 years old, I was able to get an apartment at $700 a month. That is not like, that is non-existent for San Francisco right now. So I think that one person specifically, she was leaving out a domestic violent relationship and she had a child that tied her to the relationship. And I remember calling every single shelter and everyone saying that we are full. We are full. We are full. And it was, and you know, we found a place for her to safely be at. And much like Sonia had said, like her aggressor had lured her out. She was going to school. And he said, I can give you a ride. I can give you a ride to school because we couldn't provide it. Who could provide her with a ride? And you know, like all this stuff. And you know, this is a very real situation. And so he lured her out and he said that, I have a laptop for you. I have a laptop for you. And you know what? I'm open to co-parenting with you. And he had a plan that he was gonna kill her that day. And that was the outcome. And I think that, you know, as you know, the investment also too for the folks that are holding this work as well, you know, like we hold a lot inside of this work. And I think that I'm so glad that I had a really strong organization of that, but built collective relationships amongst all the women. And I'm also part of an indigenous community. And a lot of the organizations came together to be able to help us all from humanly, from the violence of this persons that had died. And so those are just two examples of violence and how it can happen. Two really powerful examples. Thank you so much for sharing them, sharing your own story and letting us kind of have a moment to join in with you and some of the experienced even do people you've known. Kathy, I would love to hear a little bit about whatever stories or experiences you feel help share the story and share the perspective. So both of those are Sonia and Julia, their accounts are so powerful and really meaningful. Sonia, I'll say, when I was very young, I worked at a bank and I'm of an age where when I worked at a bank, women couldn't get credit without their husband co-signing. And I remember feeling so indignant. Julia, I love that look, because that's exactly how I felt. It was like, what the heck that you have to have, you know, your partner or husband somebody else signed to in order for you to have credit. And so the financial abuse thing has been a really big thing for me over the course of my life because I've worked in nonprofit and in banking over the years. And I've seen many cases of really devastation, bank accounts emptied and things like that. So I just wanna really talk about that. And also Norma was just like one of my heroes. I can remember the last time I saw her and where she was exactly where she was sitting. And it's just like, it's like tattooed on me. So I would say that I think a lot of people think about the work that LaCossa does. And so we're often at the point of where there has been a violent incident has occurred and people are seeking safe shelter. And so that in some ways changes my view of things, the dynamic. And very early on, I went to the police department, probably in the early 2000s and sat down and read 150 domestic violence police reports. And at the end of reading those, I have to tell you I was just really moved, shocked, whatever you would want to call it. I was stunned at the level of physical violence and also stunned that many of the survivors and victims weren't connected to any service provider, any helping organization. Their sole contact was somebody in law enforcement who was trying to investigate their crime at the same time as trying to handle their basic human needs, food, clothing, shelter. And they may, in many cases, children were in tow and the officers were buying them dinners. And so I really saw this need to bolster that support so that law enforcement can do its thing on these domestic violence cases and that the service community can help restore some level of freedom, agency, peace, tranquility, whatever it might be. And Hulia really talking about not being the new rule setter, but being the person who has open arms and says, what can I do? Just because of the time we're in, I happen to be here at times where I'm answering the phone because I'm the only person in the building. And when somebody calls, I say, please don't hang up, I'm gonna connect you with somebody who's gonna help you. But I'm really moved to make sure that I get that person connected. The other thing is recently, so I think that that's what people think of when they think of La Cossa, even though we have many different experiences of people over the span of their lifetime from school age, adolescence, to victims and survivors that they call not elderly, but later in life, 50 to 65 who are immensely vulnerable because they're not eligible for social security and they may be stuck completely in a financial bind where they're having to put up with abuses that nobody should have to tolerate. But recently, La Cossa had this really awesome opportunity to work with 35 women who are incarcerated in Chowchilla and provide them conduct the 40 hour domestic violence counselor training. And so we certified them all as domestic violence counselors. And in the process, the three staff people from La Cossa who went and did this over the course of two weekends, 40 hours over two Saturdays and Sundays. So they were long days, grueling, really intense. But I think what I saw from my perspective was a whole different view of what domestic violence looks like, what happens if you don't have the right support, if you don't have people advocating for you. And it really, I think in many ways, I'll say the three employees would say to me that it was life changing for them and also deeply changed the perspective of us here at La Cossa. And in recent weeks, I've met and been involved with two people who spent more than 30 years each behind bars and who are now free. And I think I have been forever changed by those moments. And what their experience was of violence is really no different than the victims that come through the door here at La Cossa seeking safe shelter. And so it has been a real awakening time in many ways for me. And I'm happy to have experienced that. But I'll just circle back to that. I do think that we have, our reputation, our service provision is very much focused on being at the front and of a incident that will help somebody who may have gone through those nine times through the cycle of violence to figure out that it's time to get out because it's no longer, it's not gonna change and it's only gonna become more dangerous. So that's a little bit of my experiences. Kathy, thank you for that. And for each of you sharing, as Autumn said, it's so important to really try to understand the reality here and that people I found really want to serve right now in this time and kind of understanding how to be of service when it looks so different for all of us during COVID. I wanna just double back on what you said, Kathy. And I know it's about six o'clock. We wanna make sure that we are incorporating questions from our viewers. We wanna thank people for joining tonight. So I know we have a couple of things we wanna highlight. So trying to do a couple of these questions if those could just spend maybe a couple minutes on. Kathy, we'll start with you just following up on what you said about this time that we're in, the scary, surreal, defining moment that we're in in our lives around shelter in place, around the changes that we're seeing, around, you know, if this certainly is not going to go back to what it was before. So how is that uniquely impacting survivors of violence who are in their homes? What are you seeing right now on how two can people be of service, people in the community be of service? So it's interesting. At the beginning, our hotline calls were kind of flat and they really mirrored the calls that were going to 911, which were also flat compared to last year. And then what we've seen is the longer time goes by is that the calls we're getting are much longer require a lot more logistical planning, a lot more safety planning. People are calling when they have a minute to call if they're lucky enough to be able to call. We also have a text line. And so people are texting with a lot more frequency than previously. And again, the length of the exchange around texting is longer because it's just more complicated and people are rightly fearful. And I think that I have described it a couple of times as being kind of the perfect storm. The kind of violence that we're talking about is about power and control. And so what one of the hallmarks is to isolate the person from their support system, from their friends, their families, organizations that they go to to learn to grow and to be connected with other individuals who are in their circumstance, whatever it might be, school, religion. I mean, there's a whole host of things. So suddenly you are completely trapped in place and that has got to be so frightening. And I try and imagine it and I really, all I can do is imagine it. I can't really know how horrible it must be. And I have to think that I say, you know, we're called survivors for a reason because I believe that there's the fortitude to survive this and then when it's over, they're gonna get out, right? And so I think that there's gonna be a very high demand for services when we get to the other side of this. And we're already seeing it because as things are loosening up a little bit, there's a lot more calls. In the beginning, people were really reluctant to go out and seek helping services. People were afraid to come to shelter and now we're doing intakes on a pretty regular basis, which I think is encouraging. It's scary, but at the same time, encouraging. So I do think that I do think that we're gonna see a big uptick and in demands for legal services, people are gonna need to be financially stable in order to be able to get out. We're gonna need all of these services that we're talking about in order to move forward. And I think that people, you know, many people are connected to organizations and I think they really should invest both of themselves. There are time, there are resources and organizations that they believe in and that they feel like they have something to offer. And I would say the best place to start is to listen. And when you're asking if I were calling Young Women's Freedom Center, I would ask, what can I do? Can you tell me? What do you need? Not me telling you what I think I might be able to do for you, right? To really listen to what you need and how I might be able to contribute. And I think that that can be really powerful. The listening can be really powerful. Thank you. Agree that oftentimes that's where it starts. It's just listening to someone and what they need and understanding the warning signs. And I'd like to go, Sonia, to you next around what are you seeing right now during this time of COVID? Certainly it's a scary time economically with a lot of people, you know, potentially losing work, layoffs that are happening. When we talk about the financial freedom of women and others who are trapped in these relationships, what do you see and what are some pieces of advice you give? Yeah, sure, thank you. So a couple of weeks ago, it may have even been six weeks ago now, but it's all the time that's merged. We started raising money for a cash safety fund for survivors. And our hope was to raise about $75,000 and to give out the cash to survivors like roughly around $250 a person. We were able to raise, so far we've raised $101,000 and we've dispersed it all. And when we had people start to apply for that money, we had over 750 applications in the span of two days. And we ended up having to close the application because we weren't sure if we were gonna be able to support more people. And we asked folks a couple of questions in that application, which were voluntary, if you had time and you wanted to answer. And so we learned a couple of things from that. We learned that the average amount of money that survivors are saying that they need right now in order to be safe is $800 a person. To be safe is $832, which when you think about it, it's not a lot of money to ensure somebody's safety, not a lot of money at all. The top financial concerns that survivors have right now are food and utilities bills. And then we learned a lot of stories around what, how COVID has exacerbated either financial abuse or their financially precarious situation. You know, it's like what Kathy said, survivors are survivors. We have this kind of misconception in our head that somebody is abused and then they run out the door and they take their keys and they go to a shelter and then that's how it goes. It's much more, there's a lot more planning that goes into it on the part of the survivor. And so, you know, examples like survivors saying, well, I don't have access to my own cash, but what I would used to do is when my harm doer would go to work, I would bake and then I'd go out and sell what I baked, pocket that money, and then before my harm doer came home, there's no idea it was happening. And I was using that money that I was pocketing on a daily basis, that was gonna be the money that I was gonna leave with. And my hope was that I was gonna leave at the end of this year. And so probably I'm not leaving this year. And it's, I think what's really, really important while people are listening and they're paying attention to domestic violence is to really understand how it goes, how somebody leaves and the trajectory of that so that you can actually be supportive in a way that survivors need. And so, you know, don't judge how much domestic violence is impacting people just based on police calls, for example, because that's not always the best determinant. And I say this a lot, you know, survivors were trapped before COVID. It's like the shelter in place and shelter at home orders have given us all a slightly like surface experience of what it's like to be trapped at home, whether that's because you're immunocompromised or you have chronic pain or you're experiencing domestic violence. We, you know, we're talking a lot about how isolation is so difficult for our emotional wellbeing while we're still putting people who are incarcerated in isolation. And so, you know, we're all kind of understanding a lot more about the world than I think any of us did before this. We've all learned through this and how can we use this as a window to do something about that so that when we all go back to our regular lives and we're all vaccinated and we can go on vacation and see our friends, survivors aren't still trapped and we're not still putting people who are incarcerated in isolation for 45 days and so on and so forth. Yes, Sonia, I'd like to thank you for that. And, you know, I've been talking with some of my friends, you know, if you look at just the cut of government services and the budgets that we're going through when people talk about ways that we can serve, you know, the numbers that you gave $800 for a woman to feel safe. So again, it's such an opportunity right now to provide such a service to the community. So the invitation for people to do that and the ways that will be most meaningful to people who need the help. And Julia, I would like to go to you next for your thoughts as well before we go into audience questions. Both of the fact of our jails and our prisons are clearly very dangerous places, some of the COVID hotspots. So how we're advocating for survivors who are inside and then for people who are coming out right now, you know, with the expensive housing, with the cutback in services, people that are coming out and potentially, you know, having very limited places to go. What are some things that you're seeing and what are some ways that the community can be supportive? Oh, Julia, I think you're on mute. Oh, really? Oh, really, that too. Okay, thank you, teamwork. Okay, so right away, two things came to my mind, when you said that, like locally, right when COVID had happened inside of our jail system here, they automatically in order to social distance the men, they further, they shrunk everyone into one pod of all the women. And right away, there was, you know, they disrupted what was kind of like they're living and they confined them even further. So like that was dangerous right from the beginning. So I just think the conditions of not being able to social distance, it doesn't have, there's no ventilation inside of the place. They actually pay a fine every year because it doesn't have an outdoor living space to go in. So there's folks inside of there that haven't seen or felt air, fresh air, or felt sunlight on their face for years, awaiting sentencing or whatever it is. So I'm thinking about like instances like that. And then I'm also thinking about the housing that we currently have right now, the emergency housing during COVID, where we are prioritizing a long time folks that are or lifers or people that serve that long-term sentences coming home after 17, 25, 30 years of their lives and now coming back into this new environment that during COVID-19 presents a lot of challenges on their zone. So like they're being released with like no actual like services or plans. And so we've stepped into to be able to, I feel like it's like a warm blanket around like we got you, we got you. And it's like just bringing them in and being able to kind of get them like acclimated into the swing of things. And it's like everyone's coming into, we are practicing sheltering in place. So that's different for folks that haven't been able to experience the outside and now being confined into another environment. And so on the inside, people are super resilient and they have loved ones that they leave behind on the inside as well. And so now being in a new environment where you don't have access to those, those people that you may have just seen for the past 20 years of your life and then now you're, and now you have this new freedom and it's almost like you leave your loved ones behind too. So I feel like there's that real, the balance of folks figuring it out for themselves and also feeling like they want to do more to be able to make, create that pathway for other folks to come home to and have an opportunity. And I think that with that being said, is actually folks being able to get things like, you know, like little things are really difficult at this point, even for somebody leaving out of a, and it's also this housing centers, domestic violence survivors also as well. But one thing that's difficult right now is, you know, the employment, the economic opportunities of being able to go out and do your job search, get your documentation of an ID, a social security card, a birth certificate, all of those things are like presents as challenges now. So like we're moving differently right now. We're just moving a lot differently. And it's, there's a process to everything. So I think, and also they're not exactly like, everybody's not opening their doors to do like viewings to, you know, if you are looking for housing at this point or to get into a different place of living, you know, folks aren't opening their doors as freely to like view apartments. And it's definitely presented as challenges. Cause what do you do for folks that when there's a shelter in place order and you don't have a home to shelter in place to, you know, and you are somebody that has experienced violence and you live in a tent, you know, and inside of San Francisco, like there is a very vulnerable population of folks that are living in vehicles and tents as well. So, and they're part of the city too. And I think that it, none of us can even do our run for our essential items and not know that that is actually something that, you know, as a city that we're looking at too. So I think that just a couple of those things just come to mind because I don't feel like we are just one thing, you know, in our lives on what isolated incident. Like if I'm a survivor of domestic violence, like I am, there are many other things that as a piece of part of people's stories. So, but that is one thing that we are doing right now is we actually have those beds and that emergency housing and we hope to expand on that. And I think that this is something that we've always like dreamed of as an organization. And there's so many folks that are like, yeah, we got the internship, not everything, but housing, like housing is that one piece that, you know, as you need these spaces to much like somebody goes away to college, right? And they live in a dorm and they have time to think and explore and like grow what they want for the future. Like people need those kind of opportunities too in that investment in them to be able to grow and think about their next steps and what they're going to do. So I would definitely just say that investing in that piece of this organization is a huge opportunity. And I think that there's been phenomenal folks that have come through this organization, not just one of many, many people. And I just, yeah, I'm really honored to be in this position to be working in this organization. I can't wait for the next generation of leaders to come through here. So I would just say that that is the call to action to what moves your heart to and what you can do. Much of that, that's incredible. It's important for people to know how they can kind of get involved and with that I would love to move us to the Q and A section which is we've got a set of different questions here that are fantastic. I'm gonna actually combine a few of these because I think that they have some connections. So one is related to an issue of kind of resources and tools, many of you've already shared a bunch of tools and a bunch of resources. However, I would like to put out there an opportunity to say if there's one, I'm just gonna ask you for like one specific resource or one specific tool that you haven't mentioned yet that you think people should be aware of. And if you don't have one, it's fine. You don't each have to answer. But if you have something that feels like it's timely, go ahead and share it with us, please. I can go. So we recently put out a COVID response guide which is actually for everyone. It has what you can do as a community member, what you can do as a religious organization, what you can do as an employer and kind of in line with building that ecosystem, there's something everyone can do. And Hulia really shared how for her, it was community that helped her heal. And we've lost that a little as a movement and really kind of thinking about how does everybody do their part. And then the next thing I'll just say really, really quickly, one of the things that free from debts is we have an online social enterprise. We sell products made by survivors of domestic violence and the store operates to build income for survivors. And we have hand sanitizer and we have adult face masks and kids face masks. So if you are in need, we can help you out. Just visit our website. Kathy or Julia, do you have anything? Fine, if you don't. You know, I would just reinforce that a starting point here is the hotline, which is 877-503-1850. Because in that moment, there'll be 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Someone will answer and the person is someone who is at La Casa, either in this office or at the shelter. And so if you go to shelter, the very person you talk to on the phone is going to be the person who greets you at the door. So really, a compassionate contact and from there, all other items, all other hope and resources can be dispensed. I'll just say. Go ahead, Julia. Oh. I think to the, like when you're getting out, like there's this piece of you that there's like all these like resources and stuff that you can tap into. But I think that really is like when folks have the driver determination to also be of support. It's kind of funny because it's interesting how it works where somebody that has so little will give their last. I don't know if you ever experienced that. I experienced that though, of like really struggling with people and like sharing the very last bit. And I just feel like I see that still to this day when I'm working with folks where they will split their last. And I still want, like I still want to take that. I want to take that love and desire and compassion to help others to also let you know that we have like a sister warriors freedom coalition like that if you do know like folks that are getting out that want to stay connected that, you know, have a story to tell or whatever it is or interested in policy work or, you know, just the first step, you know, and coming out we have a Freedom 2030 campaign that folks can get involved in and really hone in on their skills and be part of that. So, yeah, I just think about centering self-determination and what folks are asking for, you know, like that's what I just, if anybody can get anything out of what I'm saying is, yeah, self-determination just to hear and listen to what people are asking and whatever it is, you know, just, yeah. Debbie, I was going to pass it to you if you wanted to ask the next question as you say. Thank you very much. We're getting a lot of questions in particular, Sonia, for you of how other partner organizations, other community-based organizations can partner with you. I think it'd be great just to go around quickly and to hear that from each of the panelists for other survivor-led organizations out there for other community partners. How can they potentially partner with each of your organizations? Sonia, let's start with you. Sure. I would just say email me, Sonia.passyatfreefrom.org, would let the chat about the different ways that the main way that we tend to partner with domestic violence organizations is by providing training to staff and support staff. But, and also if there are community groups, we can connect on, you know, launching peer-to-peer financial support groups for survivors and working on policy work together, if that's what you do. So, I would just say email me and love to start the session. Thank you. Julia, ways that organizations can partner with you. So, definitely reaching out to our executive director for those partnering relationships. If you're like, you know what, like I feel like we're fitting into the piece of the puzzle right here. And I think that the community is definitely something that it will take all of our collective knowledge and all of our, you know, brilliant. If you, I think that it's, there's many ways that people can get involved, but definitely Jessica Nowland. So, as somebody you can reach out to or Sarah as our development director too. So, it's either Sarah or Jessica at youngwomenfree.org and you can check out our website, youngwomenfree.org. I know we're already partnering with LaCosta. Like it's not possible to do this alone, like in isolation. Like we have to be moving collectively together. So, in many different ways. We have so many, I only talked about like very small pieces of like, of what we do. We have so many different things that we're doing right now. So, that would be the way to partner with us. Thank you. Yes, I agree. We all need each other and we all find each other, but we need each other in particular right now. Kathy, for you. Yeah, so. Variety of things right here. How can people partner? So, we like to partner. We have lots of partnerships as you could tell from my earlier presentation. And we did just sign a formal MOU with Young Women's Freedom Center. And I'm amazingly, awesomely waiting to get started on making that happen. And one of the things that I learned tonight is that housing is really important. And so, we have recently been funded by the state of California with a grant called Housing First for Domestic Violence Victims. And so, we can help get victims and survivors into housing and subsidize help with, you know, first and last month's rent, utilities, all kinds of things that help keep somebody stably housed or move into a new place. And we've even had, during the middle of COVID, somebody successfully get housed and moved to their new place, which we thought was so fantastic. But I mean, I see that as one of the ways. So tonight, for sure, Julia and I will figure out a way to make sure that we make sure that both of our staffs know, both of the employees know what we can do for each other's clients, for sure. That's just one way, like was previously said. I think there's so many ways that we can offer support where one program may have a strength, another program may need that, may need that. And so, we wanna be open to working together. Thank you so much, all of you for that. We are coming close to our close. So one, I wanted to make sure to thank Blue Shield of California Foundation and the Women's Foundation for helping to make this conversation possible. We are very much appreciative of their support. And also, I wanted to extend, if it's okay with you, Debbie, I was thinking that we would have each of them just say kind of a final word, if you will. And of course, it doesn't have to be one word, but like a phrase, if you will, or that something that you think is meaningful for people to take with them as they leave this conversation. And why don't you begin, Cathy, if that's okay with you? Okay, so I would say my closing words would be to be open, be really open to receiving requests for help, or just to be standing with somebody and responding to whatever their needs are in the moment, just be really open and kind and receptive. Leah, do you wanna share your final word, please? Yeah, I would say that there's a lot of things I wanna close with, but I would say to, being survivor-centered in our approaches and also making space for their opportunities to be survivor-led too. I think that that's an important piece of this, that we continue for folks that that's something in their path or what they want to do. It's important that they are actually the ones that are informing our work, because if we're too far removed from the problem or the issues, then we will create something that may not be of use. So, I mean, or that people will not maybe utilize us as much, so I think that just making sure that your organizations or that you're making sure that there's space for folks to come through. Thank you so much for that. I'm gonna ask Asanya to share her word and then after that, if you will just close this out all together. Thank you, Asanya. Sure, I'm sorry that I look like an angel right now. The light has significantly moved and I'm not quite sure how to make this a little better. I think what I would say is all of us know at least one person, most likely many more, who are survivors, who are in what we would consider to be abusive or toxic situations in unsafe situations. And I really wanna encourage everyone to show up and be community. And I think that we put the burden on survivors to figure it out and we put the burden on survivors to get out and solve it for themselves and you should call the hotline and you should find a safe place to go and it's a societal problem and we all have to own a piece of that burden and we all have to do our part and it can be as simple as texting someone who you know is in a situation like this and saying, how are you? I'm thinking about you, that's all you have to do. And I think in our heads, it's so much scarier. What if they're not well ready to talk about it but at the end of the day, it comes down to community, we all need it, it keeps us all alive and that's no different for survivors of gender-based violence. I really wanna thank each of you and I think that's come through loud and clear and I know having had the honor to work with many of you that never underestimate just caring about someone and just taking the time to see them and to listen to them and it can change lives and we've talked about that tonight too and so I just wanna say, I'm really nourished talking about community, being here with all of you, hearing all the work that you're doing, seeing the things that have been on the chats, people engaging with us tonight. So really wanna thank everybody, thank people for caring about this, something that's going to continue to be so important as it has been as we know that this is a long journey economically and just the reality as we continue to work together to keep each other safe through this pandemic. So it looks differently and that's one thing we really explored tonight. Just a couple of things to highlight before we close. Number one, there is going to be a replay of this program tonight and that's on newamerica.org events line and I'm gonna ask one of our very helpful folks from New America, they'll share that with everybody. Thank you to everyone so people can see where that's listed if you wanna come back and see any resources. Thank you for everyone who's been sharing resources in the chat. We'll also have a panel coming up on June 2nd and hope everyone will join us then. This will be on women-owned businesses and in particular again, the impact of COVID on women-owned businesses, how we can come together as a community to support women-owned businesses and some of the resources that will be shared there. That's June 2nd at 5 p.m. So we hope that everyone will join us then. And again, thank you so much to our panelists. Thank you for everyone who's tuned in today and thank you for caring about this very important topic. Thank you, good night.