Even in the Hamptons… Overcoming Community Stereotypes to Address Domestic Violence

This blog posting stems from a Needs Assessment and Strategic Plan undertaken in 2011 by , and a partnership of community leaders and stakeholders.  This partnership included a cross-section of the community that draws strength, expertise, and active participation from individuals representing all corners and sectors of the communities on suburban-rural eastern Long Island.  Participation included representations  from local police, town governments, educators, clergy, business owners, parents, domestic violence victims, and other stakeholders, The Retreat – a nonprofit and the region’s only comprehensive domestic violence services organization – undertook both primary and secondary research.  The Long Island Community Foundation, whose grant fuels Coalition activities including data collection/analysis, is a division of The New York Community Trust.              

The Hamptons: multi-million-dollar beachfront mansions; lavish parties thrown by and for the rich and famous; national media focused on aesthetically beautiful gods and goddesses living the American Dream without a care in the world.  Right?  This is an honest description of only one face of the celebrated area commonly referred to as The Hamptons, situated on eastern Long Island.  Far less visible, less ‘sexy,’ less glamorous, less entertaining, and more real… there exists another face, cowering in the shadows. The Hamptons serves as a symbol of other perceived affluent communities around the country. 

For thousands of residents of Eastern Long Island, this other visage—shared equally by the very affluent, ‘working ’ middle class residents, and the many who live here in pockets of economic despair that crisscross the landscape—is the battered face struggling for survival amidst epic and escalating domestic violence, sexual abuse, dating violence, and family violence.      

Individuals in Suffolk County, have experienced some of the highest exposure to domestic violence in New York.  A comparison published by the NY State Division of Criminal Justice Services (2003) indicates that while domestic violence reports across suburban/rural NY State were averaging approximately 114 reported incidents per 10,000 residents, such incidents were being reported here in suburban/rural Suffolk County at the staggering rate of 242 per 10,000 residents[i].  Although that comparative study was released nearly a decade ago, the impact of exposure to such violence by children and adolescents who have now become adults, has had lingering effects, including heightened risk that family members will model the behavior they witnessed growing up, and that the cycle of violence and victimization will continue.  Local experts in the field of mental health and domestic violence prevention concur.

The activities, cooperation, and strategic plan that have emerged from the recently formed partnership is highly aligned with New York State’s call for collaborative and innovative action.  By focusing at the community level here for the first time, and by engaging representatives from police departments, clergy, schools, media, and other services such as substance use treatment centers and social service providers, this  partnership has been focusing many minds and much experience toward addressing and reducing incidents of domestic violence in an area where stereotypes and other distractions have eclipsed the problem for a long time. 

Based on the its work – including generating a cross-community discussion and reviewing data from multiple sources – with a mind toward identifying specific service gaps, risk factors, and protective factors associated with domestic violence in our communities, the Retreat offers to eastern Long Island and other regions in the U.S. that may face similar characteristics or dynamics the following ten strategic recommendations:

  1.  Act at the Community Level / Gather Perspectives and Data from Multiple Sectors

• Establish a clear understanding of the problem of domestic violence – and potential solutions – at the local level by creating a strong community collaboration and a strong partnership across organizations and individuals who bring unique perspectives due to their different roles. 
• Establish and constantly solicit input and data from community stakeholders.  This process enables critical information to come to the surface and eliminates an unhealthy reliance on assumptions and stereotypes.  It enables the recognition of accurate trends related to prevalence, symptoms, needs, demand, barriers to service, and the seeds of many potential solutions.
• Use institutional mechanisms such as task forces, coalitions, work groups, workshops, and networking events to create both structure and regularity to the in-person sharing of information, perspective, accountability, planning, and action-implementation.

  2.  Identify Community ‘Gatekeepers’ toward whom Abuse Victims Feel Strong Trust

• Based on conversations among community stakeholders, identify and create a list of individuals (categorized by role, profession, affiliation, geography, and/or even name) who are or may be trusted by women who have been abused.  We found that many women who would not share with police or social workers their experience of being abused… were likely at some point to turn in confidence and trust to particular others in the community such as their pastor, rabbi, hairdresser, esthetician, or community cultural leader.   We also discovered that many people on this list of trusted community gatekeepers were under- or uninformed and under-equipped to know what to do when receiving such information.  This leads to our next recommendation.

  3.  Train Identified Community ‘Gatekeepers’ to Address Domestic Violence

• Train the gatekeepers who have been identified: 
• Through the mechanism of the coalition, taskforce, or other community-level vehicle established, reach out to the identified trusted gatekeepers in the community with educational information, a domestic violence resource guide for their reference, and invitations to receive training on this important community and personal matter.
• By engaging your community’s domestic violence services expert organization(s), train and equip as many community gatekeepers as possible with facts and resource referrals.

  4. Dedicate Resources toward Building Awareness about Available DV Services

• Allocate public and philanthropic funds as well as volunteer efforts and paid staff to spread awareness about domestic violence services that are available to community residents.
• Educate the public directly through traditional media and emerging media, such as facebook and twitter.
• Educate complementary service providers so that they can make confident referrals.
•  Develop and distribute a resource guide to community leaders, public officials, other service providers, and representatives within each sector.  [Our local study revealed that even after 20 years of being a presence in the community, our community’s local domestic violence services provider was still not high enough in the awareness of local residents and organizations.]

  5. Add Domestic Violence Education to School Curriculums

• Insist on adding DV education to school curriculums.  [Currently, our region’s children receive  in-school sex education as well as information on: how to keep their bodies healthy, nutrition, math, science, social studies, physical education, and the dangers of substance abuse.  But our children don’t get in-school education on identifying, nurturing, and cultivating healthy relationships or on the definition of domestic abuse, stalking, bullying, or dating violence.  Local schools often do not teach children about the dangers of engaging in unhealthy relationships.] 
• Rely on evidence-based curricula that can be adapted into schools. 
• Start program elements and education delivery in 3rd grade and go through 12th grade. 
• Define what a healthy relationship looks like.  (Cover topics that include: bullying and dating, sexual abuse, domestic/family violence, verbal and emotional abuse, harassing, and date rape).

  6. Invest in Diversity and Cultural Competency

• Strive for and take steps to achieve cultural competency.  Cultural competency is very important when aiming to reduce domestic violence in regions that contain minority groups and individuals.  [The Hamptons, for example, has large numbers of Latino families, including many undocumented Spanish-speaking immigrants who are terrified of reporting domestic violence due to fears of deportation of themselves or loved family members.]
• Overcome mistrust, founded fears, and unfounded fears by actively promoting diversity among service delivery personnel and volunteers.  Perform outreach via people who culturally reflect and directly understand the concerns of the minority groups and individuals they are approaching.    
• Provide outreach, education, messaging, and service in the appropriate language(s). Language barriers cannot be under-estimated. 

  7. Attract and Dedicate Resources toward Transitional and Affordable Housing

• Allocate public and philanthropic funds toward the establishment of transitional housing and affordable housing. 
• Use the community group and connections with community-minded financial resources to advocate strongly for literally concrete action and successful capital campaigns in this area.  [Our study showed that in many cases, women and children chose or were forced to return to live with their abuser after the allowed 90 days of emergency domestic violence shelter because no transitional or affordable housing options exist in the area.] 

  8. Engage Men as Active Leaders in the Movement Against Domestic Violence

• Engage local men in the prevention process.
• Recognize that men who have substance abuse and alcoholism issues are more likely to abuse women than men who do not.  Prepare special awareness-building education for such men.
• Inspire men who engender healthy living and relationship habits to mentor other men, teens, and boys.  Also inspire such men to partner with women regularly toward a community solution.

  9. Commit Resources and Support to a Dedicated Domestic Violence Organization

• Especially in remote, rural areas, it is important to have or build a Domestic Violence service organization dedicated to the cause of addressing domestic violence both proactively (prevention) and responsively (shelter, counseling, legal advocacy, referral to medical care).   Domestic violence-focused agencies can provide aspects of service privacy and confidentiality that multi-purpose organizations (such as hospitals, social service departments, etc.) cannot provide.
• Include hallmarks of a DV service organization such as unmarked buildings (for safety and privacy), staff oaths to protect the location of facilities, and staff oaths to protect client privacy.
• Where possible, locate the central DV facility outside of and at a distance from the small town(s) to create more comfort, more anonymity, and more safety from abusers for the clients.

  10. Build and Nurture Reciprocal Referral Relationships with Distant DV Facilities

• As a means to maximize opportunity for safety, privacy, and confidentiality for some domestic violence victims/survivors, especially in small towns and rural areas, it is important to build relationships with other domestic violence service agencies and shelters near and far, so that endangered clients can be harbored in (a) location(s) that is/are far removed from immediate threats from the abuser(s) when desirable or necessary to enhance client safety. 
• Consider reciprocal referral relationships with shelters and service organizations out of state 

[i] “Comparison of Domestic Violence Reporting and Arrest Rates in New York State: Analysis of the 1997 and 2000 Domestic Incident Statistical Databases” by Adriana Fernandez-Lanier, PhD, Deborah J. Chard-Wierschem, PhD and Donna Hall, PhD ; As retrieved 2/24/2011 at: http://criminaljustice.state.ny.us/crimnet/ojsa/domviol_rinr/table4a.htm.  June 2003.

ADDITIONAL WORKS CONSULTED

 “New York State Domestic Violence Advisory Council Transition Report 2010” by New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence as retrieved at http://www.opdv.state.ny.us/statistics/reports/advcotransrpt/advcotransrpt.pdf on 5/8/2011.

[New York] Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence web site: http://www.opdv.state.ny.us/statistics/nydata/index.html

“New York State Domestic Violence Dashboard Project 2009 Data” http://www.opdv.state.ny.us/statistics/nydata/2009/nys2009data.pdf

Email sent from NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services (dcjsStats@dcjs.state.ny.us) on 5/17/11