 So much for being here today as we highlight sexual violence and abuse awareness week Which unfortunately happens far too often is on the rise in fact in 2023 the member organizations of the Vermont network against domestic and sexual violence received a total of 23,300 calls and provided in-person assistance to almost 8,500 survivors of domestic and sexual violence It's up to all of us to ensure that survivors have access to the resources they need To recover and move forward while also holding those who commit these terrible crimes accountable I First want to thank the network and all their incredible partners for the work They do every single day to support Vermonters who have been on the receiving end of violence and abuse Your dedication to our friends family members and neighbors is inspiring I Also want to thank the treasurer and M&T Bank for their partnership with the network on this initiative You'll hear about in a few minutes, which will help survivors with financial empowerment Because studies have shown that economic instability is one of the primary barriers preventing victims of domestic and sexual violence From leaving the situation they find themselves in Our work to address the crisis of domestic and sexual violence Cannot stop until it's no longer needed And I'm proud to stand here today with so many who have made them that mission their life's work along with their allies With that I'll turn it over to Karen transguard Scott the executive director of the Vermont network Thank you so much Good morning, I'm Karen transguard Scott I work at the Vermont network against domestic and sexual violence where I'm the executive director Thank You governor Scott Treasure P check and our partners at M&T Bank for your leadership You know last summer on one of the few sunny hot days of the summer treasure P check came over to the network office and After just a few minutes of conversation about the economic toll that domestic violence Places on survivors and on Vermont's families. He said, you know, I think we can do something I've got these friends at M&T Bank and and it's amazing to me that here. We are today ready to kick off this incredible initiative We're here and thrilled today to announce this important partnership between the Vermont treasurer's office The Vermont network against domestic and sexual violence in M&T Bank to address financial abuse This new initiative will utilize financial empowerment training and credit-building opportunities To enhance opportunities for survivors of violence to heal and recover in the wake of abuse and ultimately to thrive The financial toll of domestic and sexual violence is immense at the network We estimate that our spec state spends over one hundred million dollars a year Responding to domestic violence and this includes the costs associated with the response from law enforcement Corrections medical and social services, but by far the most profound cost of domestic violence is On victims and survivors of themselves in just a few minutes You'll hear directly from a domestic violence advocate who will speak to the impacts that financial abuse has on the daily lives of survivors in our communities One of the things that sets this partnership apart is the collaboration between the nonprofit world the business world and the public sector We're coming together to address to address this issue Because we recognize that the reality is that domestic violence affects each and every one of us And we know that this is one meaningful way to address the cost of violence in our communities And we're really thrilled and grateful to be a part of this partnership and initiative And now I want to introduce to you airy Menard who's an advocate from Circle Vermont right here in Washington County Good afternoon, my name is airy. I am the shelter coordinator for Circle, which is Washington County's domestic violence agency. I Hear many different stories of abuse on a daily basis But there is one form of abuse that is the single biggest barrier to housing and To allowing survivors to move on with their life And that is financial abuse So financial abuse can look like many different things It might look like a partner saying you can't work or Forcing someone to cash and then hand over their disability or their paycheck It can look like someone counting the mileage on your car to make sure that you only went to the grocery store And then demanding the receipts when you return to account for every penny spent It can also look like opening credit cards in someone else's name and then maxing them out or forcing someone to cosine on a loan or a debt It can also look like more stereotypical forms of abuse verbal and physical abuse. We might think of more commonly That forces someone to flee their home and pay for places to stay temporarily until their own credit cards are maxed out We call this the cost of survivorship Most often I see the tangible effects of financial abuse in poor credit scores that in no way reflect the credit and the Financial abilities of the person with that score These credit scores haunt survivors as they seek housing or to apply for new financial products While they try to work to reassemble the pieces of their lives. I Am an advocate. I am not a financial counselor And yet I spend a great deal of my time teaching people about credit scores secured loans budgeting and other forms of credit repair These are pieces of financial literacy that I've had to teach myself And I know from the survivors I work with that there is no way to budget your way out of poverty When you're living in a shelter like the one that I run with two kids under the age of three and no viable child care options and Therefore no way to get and maintain a job and your reach up income is $735 a month to cover your rent and other living expenses. There's nothing extra to repair the damage of financial abuse This is why I'm excited for this new program I'm Excited that we're recognizing the harms and barriers faced by the people I work with and Programs such as this that address the financial toll of abuse and the impossibility of exiting poverty under conditions of oppression Create a more equitable just and fair world for all So now I'd like to introduce Heidi Stumpf from M&T Bank. Thank you. Wow I feel so fortunate to be here today to shine light on an important initiative And one that M&T Bank is honored to be part of Thank You Governor Scott and Treasurer Pichak and your teams for bringing us all together M&T Bank has a long history of providing support in the communities in which we serve in 2023 we provided more than 1.5 million dollars in community support throughout Vermont Equally or even more important is our commitment to volunteerism our employees receive 40 hours of paid volunteer time each year to Invest scenarios and that are important to them Last year Vermont employees provided over 6,200 hours of volunteer time across the state Continuing with our pillars of giving M&T Bank has pledged a hundred thousand dollars over four years To the statewide partnership to bring financial literacy to a vulnerable group of Vermonters Financial literacy is a critical piece for domestic and sexual violence survivors to regain independence Additionally our M&T employees through their commitment to volunteerism Are poised to provide the critical training and one-on-one support through the 15 advocate agencies throughout Vermont? I can't tell you how rich and meaningful this work is and I'm thrilled that M&T Bank can be part of it. I Will now introduce treasurer Mike Pichak. Thanks Heidi Thank you everybody and thank you very much to the governor to Karen to Ari to Heidi Thank you to the legislators who are here with us as well You know the treasurer's office had a long-standing interest in financial literacy Dating back to treasurer Pierce and treasurer Spaulding and treasurer Douglas And I myself at the Department of Financial Regulation when I was commissioner had a great interest and spent a lot of time focused on Financial literacy So when we sought to initiate our first financial literacy partnership since taking office We really wanted to focus our advocacy efforts where they could yield the most significant impacts We wanted an actionable program that doesn't just focus on financial literacy But also involves financial empowerment and we wanted to do that with partners that We could work well with who are well respected and that's why I'm so excited to be here today because this initiative ties together Those three aims as you've heard today Financial dependency is a way for abusers to gain power over their partners Financial reliance can be the main reason survivors are unable to leave an abusive partner or feel like they have no choice But to return to an abusive partner 21% to 60% of domestic violence victims lose their jobs due to reasons stemming from abuse So there is workplace in security 85% of women leave an abusive relationship but end up returning to their abusive partner because of economic dependence on that individual US victims of domestic violence lose on average eight million days of paid work each year Resulting in a total economic loss of over eight billion dollars annually across America So it's a really important issue for us to focus on in terms of its economic impact The impact on the individual and the impact that it has on the community It's also actionable. You heard from Heidi about how this will involve Trainings throughout the state through the M&T network, but the partnership will also include a financial match program available to survivors The match funds will be offered to participants to boost their savings as that individual is saving toward their own financial future It's a designated to incentivize savings and enhance money management skills There'll also be a financial empowerment grant program associated with the program as well Both of which will be administered by the network So as I mentioned having great partners was a key to this program as well We want to thank Kara Casey from the network for her work and putting together The lead on this partnership for creating the proposal and for the work that the network will do to Operationalize it and put it into action this year. I also want to thank M&T Bank for their generous sponsorship It's great to have a partner like that in our community Their commitment to financial equity and supporting the financial well-being of a month's most vulnerable. It's really important And then I also want to call out the office of the Massachusetts treasurer who implemented a similar program with M&T Bank in Massachusetts over the last few years This was an opportunity for us to learn from partners within New England to build on it and make it something unique for Vermont And for all those reasons really excited to be here and make this announcement And now I believe we'll have an opportunity for the governor to sign the proclamation Any questions regarding the partnership would be happy to take House about coercive and controlling behavior Extremist protection orders and that type of thing one thing that we heard was that it's challenging sometimes for survivors to come forward And actually seek either legal recourse or even ask for help. So I guess my question is How confident are you or how do you get people to reach out to M&T to the state for this? Well, it's really going to be critical and I'll ask Ari to come up here in a minute because you know None of us can do this independently of each other The Treasurer's Office and M&T Bank would not be successful if we didn't include the networks It's really the network the relationships that they have throughout the state the trust that they have within Individuals that are victims of violence. That's the reason that it is successful And maybe Ari wouldn't want to touch a little bit more on that from her perspective Yeah Sorry, could you just repeat the question I guess how how do you get people to make to reach out to you or to ask for For sure so that is One of the big problems with abuse is one of the techniques that's used is isolation In isolation the abuser can create a world in which there's things that are okay that anyone outside of that world would say Hey, that's actually not okay So we get a lot of calls from friends and family asking these types of questions like how do I help someone leave a situation like this? And seek help and the reality is we just need to be there with a lot of love and compassion for our friends and family one in three Women is a survivor of domestic violence So there's a lot of people out there around us all the time who are in need of our support and One of the big problems for abuse is that people are someone is forcing someone else to do something So we in our work do not want to force anyone to do anything We don't want family members trying to force people to leave a relationship for example Because the survivors the one who knows the dangers very intimately what what that means And it can cost, you know up to your life to leave a relationship like this so All we can do is be visible be present and be caring and loving So in my work I run the shelter for circle and This is a stage where survivors are trying to restart their life and get into new housing whether it's renting or maybe owning I've never seen that yet because of the cost of financial abuse That's the stage where up this financial literacy piece comes in because people are coming to me with credit scores of 480 I'm having to help them get those credit scores up to a place where a landlord might actually rent to them Or a bank might ever consider giving them a loan for anything You know for a car or whatever else they might need to get to a job. We live in a rural state So transportation is really important so that In my experience is where I've seen this be most useful But honestly, I think at at every at any and every stage we work with a lot of people on the phone where sometimes we plan for two years for them to exit a relationship safely and I Can provide those pieces of financial literacy at that point as well to help them get their own bank account that's separate from their abuser Get them to get their paychecks going to a different place So that the abuser is not taking the paychecks from them so Really, I think at any stage financial literacy Training and services can be important and useful and helpful to a survivor Whether they're still in the relationship just exiting or trying to get back on their feet Yes, it'll be a private program administered by the network so the network will both administer The financial empowerment grants the matching program their administrative costs and work with M&T to execute on the training as well M&T is providing the funding for that operation of the network Incredibly generous $25,000 a year is is not insignificant in our world So this is going to allow us to do the financial literacy training with our member organization So it's important to know that there are 15 nonprofits in our state that Operate 24 hours a day seven days a week meeting the needs of survivors of domestic and sexual violence and those Relationships as as airy talked about our their their sacred relationships I would characterize them as they they these advocates are available to talk to people no matter where they are in your journey And their journey and no matter what is going on for them So this will give us the opportunity to train those advocates to help folks In addition to the work that they're already doing with them to help them have conversations about financial literacy and financial security and then these this this idea of match savings is also I Mean, you know talking about scale here So a match savings how this works is that a person will save an amount of money Say every week say ten dollars a week and then what happens is with these grants We can match that so at the end of a period of time They can come away with enough money for a deposit on a on an apartment or on a car to pay off utility bills That are sitting outstanding left over from their abusive relationship This also another provision in this program is is credit repair. So airy talked about the devastating impact of What happens to people's credit scores when they're abusive relationships and They need to be able to repair their credit and so this so that without going too deep in the weeds Pete the The system allows us to create Situation where if there's they're putting money into a savings It's also repairing credit. So they're building higher credit scores Which then is that's you know, that's liberatory that when you have credit There's a lot of things you can do and so a hundred thousand dollars is a generous Amount for us and and we're looking forward to making that hundred thousand dollars have the biggest impact possible I'm going to ask Kara to provide us with those details One thing that we do with the network right now is we Funding for folks that are moving either out of shelter or from an abusive household into a safe Situation and we're going to be able to kind of boost that and provide additional funds for survivors with mini grants up to five hundred dollars for folks to be able to use for car repairs or Education or housing Thank you and for those legislators in the room, they're always welcome to add more to that amount as well, right? I So sorry we we work with a curriculum that has been MIT Bank has been Trained on it as well the trainer that's going to be working with me to do the financial empowerment piece So we work with a curriculum has been put together with the national network to end domestic violence and all state And that is specifically a curriculum that's designed around how to support survivors around financial literacy So we know that there are specific safety and other That need to be taken into account when talking about this. It's not Not probably the same thing you would give to anyone And the first part of that training is is actually delving into what is financial abuse talking about Safety financial safety planning and that would be with advocates and also folks from M&T Bank We'll be attending that and I'll be I'll be kicking it off with that that first one. So we will be Utilizing both the skills that the advocates already have around doing that type of safety planning along with this specific training That was designed for survivors We haven't we'll wait and see what happens in the Senate and then I'm sure we'll find a way to get what we need out of it Governor Scott is the highest elect official in our state and his the words that he spoke at the beginning of his remarks the The understanding that he demonstrates about the incredible and terrible impact of domestic violence on citizens of Vermont speaks to his commitment to seeing all Vermonters, you know all of us and his support for this program and his support for survivors in general is Incredibly meaningful because it helps us to not only pass and implement policies that benefit survivors and and help us Do things with people who cause harm that are that that are meaningful But it also sends a message to those very survivors that the highest elected official in our state Believes in them believes them and is willing to take action to support them So it's not a bad thing. It's a good. It's a really good thing and we're very very grateful I guess back to January put out their domestic violence Report showing it is down a little bit but in years past it's about 45 ish percent of Homicides are related to domestic violence in Vermont. What role do you see a program like this and and more broadly just Addressing, you know domestic violence What role do you see that playing in the bigger public safety picture? Well, I think having domestic violence and sexual abuse out in the public eye more and more put in the in the spotlight is Very important. I think we've seen over the last number of years the escalation of domestic violence in particular And I'm very concerned about that and part of it started with the pandemic We saw that there was a lot of child abuse in those situations And we weren't able to identify it because kids weren't in school So that's why we thought it was so important to get kids back in school back in the public eye and so These types of situations these types of products anything we can do to shed a spotlight on this terrible act it's going to be beneficial for those survivors and We need to put a stop to it each and every one of us. This isn't a partisan issue None of this should be it's a it's a moral issue and something that we should we should pay attention to survivors have low credit scores for reasons beyond their control Because of that, do you think that there's a legislative task there to prevent that from happening? I'm not you know, I'm not sure whether there's anything to prevent that from happening. I'm sure that there's maybe Some action that can be taken after the fact but that doesn't prevent it from happening I think financial literacy in general I think it's going to be helpful in that regard but But I do think that you know the rating agencies and so forth We put our heads together to find out if there's a way to rectify their credit scores due to this type of abuse Yeah, I think part of the work here will be able to If things are inappropriately on a credit score to work through that through the appropriate process to get the record You know cleared up and and firm but another proposal that's in the home act would focus on Having rental payments count toward your credit score. That's something that can count But it's something you proactively have to do as a renter So I think Senator on Hinsdale is really interested in trying to create a pilot around that We've been working with her on it And I think that for a lot of people is their biggest payment that they're making every month So to try to find a way for that to count toward their credit score I think would be a help across the board Thank you all very much