Willow Domestic Violence Center is one of several community organizations that partner with University of Rochester’s Center for Community Engagement. It is one of 40 organizations that participated in the Center for Community Engagement’s annual Community Engagement Fair this year. It was the largest community organization turnout that the fair has ever seen!
Willow provides a wide array of resources for survivors of domestic violence in the Rochester area. Their goal is to rehabilitate survivors and transition them to a safer situation (if the survivor chooses to do so.) They aim to serve as the primary point of contact for domestic violence survivors and their families. The survivors that Willow provides for consist of women, children, men, and people of all genders and sexual orientations, but predominantly, women. While anybody can be a survivor of domestic violence and abuse, this issue disproportionately impacts the lives of women. This is indicative by the fact that women make up the majority of calls into Willow’s 24-hour hotline and mobile services. Because domestic violence is primarily a women’s issue, what better time to cover this serious topic than Women’s History Month, a time when we focus on the considerable diverse obstacles women have faced throughout history and still face today?
We chose to cover this pressing issue for Women’s History Month and are grateful to have a connection with this amazing organization as well as a Rochester Youth Year Vista located there. Rochester Youth Year (also known as RYY) is one of many programs run by the Center for Community Engagement. RYY is an opportunity for recent college graduates from across the U.S. to spend a year engaged with a Rochester community organization. RYY Vistas support their organization’s staff in designing and carrying out new policies, with a focus on sustainability, so that they can create positive change that lasts, even after their service ends. The RYY Vista member who is spending her year with Willow, Erika Schnieble, is a University of Rochester alum and a lifelong Rochester local. We are so lucky that we got the opportunity to interview her about the inner workings of Willow!
First, Erika spoke about her individual role at Willow. She said that she feels it is an ideal time to be working for the organization, especially in her specific role, because Willow has recently begun an expansion of services to accommodate a more diverse array of survivor needs. A large part of Erika’s job is devoted to promoting this expansion. Her official role at Willow is called Community Engagement Development and Outreach. Essentially, she interacts with community stakeholders and donors in addition to reaching out to survivors. She does marketing and promotion for the organization to make community members (who could very well be battling abuse and violence at home) aware that help is available. There are many methods that Erika uses to promote Willow but she mainly manages tabling, fundraising, and donor events. For example, at a holiday event, she worked as a liaison between Willow’s donors and the families that Willow supports.
Oftentimes Erika ends up initially connecting survivors to Willow. This is because she has received several casual admissions at tabling events. While she interacts with survivors on a level that introduces them to the organization, it is the counselors at Willow that work more in depth with them. Just like with any workplace, many roles and skill sets go into making the organization possible.
The other part of Erika’s job, besides promotion, consists of data collection which involves composing data reports to help enable further expansion and possible reforms. This administrative work is vital to Willow so that they can identify trends and decide if new or reformed resources should be implemented based on their findings. This data also allows the organization to decide on a continued course of action for their promotional methods, i.e., if they could benefit from new approaches, should they implement more of a specific kind of promotion, what methods draw in the most clients, what makes survivors feel most comfortable to reach out, etc.
For example, through Erika’s data retrieval, Willow has discovered that their hotline calls have recently spiked and survivors have been reporting more intense violence than in the past. In contrast, they found that police calls in the area are down. Willow is working to interpret the context of this data. There are a lot of questions that Willow is left asking: Has domestic violence in the area really become more prevalent? Or is it that more survivors are empowered to speak out? Are Willow’s promotional and educational campaigns making survivors more comfortable coming out of the woodwork? Why are police calls down? Because of this, presented alongside the higher hotline call volume, is there the same amount of domestic violence but more people contacting Willow as opposed to the police? If the amount or intensity of these occurrences has changed, is there a reason why? It may be impossible to ever know the answers to all of these questions because there are many cases of domestic violence that never get reported.
As previously stated, Willow provides a plethora of resources to survivors. On the front lines, Willow offers a 24/7 hotline for those in domestic abuse situations. The hotline is not only for calls, but can also receive texts. On their website, Willow provides a secure live chat as well. Mobile services are also available, these services play the same role as the hotline and live chat but are used in more emergent situations when someone may not have a phone or needs an ambulance. All resources will be linked below this post.
Willow offers an emergency shelter for survivors and their families, with capacity for children and pets. The goal is to eventually move these families, if necessary, to housing through their Supportive Housing program. Willow provides and owns permanent housing, separate from their emergency shelter, for survivors and their families to move into a home free from abuse.
After being initially connected with Willow, a survivor can be set up with a counselor from the counseling center whose goal is to provide support and give the survivor space to talk. From there, they can determine possible next steps for the individual. Willow, as an organization, always allows their clients to maintain autonomy throughout their recovery process. The goal is for the survivor to make their own decisions and maintain whatever amount of agency they still have. Willow lays out available options for their clients, but ultimately, the individual will decide their own course of action or lack thereof. The organization will never take complete control of any individual’s plan because that would be counterintuitive and create more anguish for the person they are aiming to help.
Lastly, a recent development at Willow is their legal services. Willow’s current legal services are the Family Justice Center and the court advocacy program. Willow’s Family Justice Center supports both clients and staff within Willow with legal counsel and educates them about possible plans of action. The Family Justice Center also teams up with Bivona Child Advocacy
when necessary. Bivona Child Advocacy’s mission is to support children facing abuse. They work with partners such as; Child Protective Services, law enforcement, investigators, prosecutors, medical professionals, therapists, advocates, and volunteers.
The court advocacy program at the family court acts as a buffer to institutional and legal obstacles that survivors may face. Survivors who are members of marginalized communities, such as LGBTQIA and minority communities, are especially vulnerable when it comes to the legal system.
Willow is a local cooperative that provides support for survivors of domestic violence and they continue to expand upon their services. In addition to their crisis-related outreach, they do the essential work of prevention education. These educational workshops and trainings are held in a variety of settings such as; workplaces, club meetings, and schools. These events primarily focus on teen dating violence. Prevention education is essential because, with this knowledge, people can spot warning signs not only in the relationships of others, but in their own relationships, and reach out before the situation devolves further into severe violence and even homicide.
We often hear only about physical abuse, which is an extremely significant issue, but emotional, verbal, financial, and sexual abuse also exist. Abuse of all forms, even physical, often go completely unnoticed. These relationships are much more prevalent than we would like to believe and can be hiding in plain sight. That is what makes this a relevant issue to get educated about and educate others on. Abuse can occur in any type of relationship; romantic, familial, or even platonic. Abuse also happens to people of all genders and sexual orientations, even straight and gay men. Willow’s work is vital to our Rochester community and Erika’s contributions are vital to Willow.
Available resources:
Willow Domestic Violence Center Website/Secure Live Chat
Willow’s 24-Hour Hotline: (585) 222-7233
Willow’s 24-Hour Text Line: (585) 348-7233
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233
Bivona Phone Number: (585) 935-7800
NYS Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-342-3720
written by Lily Bencivenga, CCE Operations and Communications