Enhance your Organization’s Economic Focus
Advocacy organizations can support the economic empowerment of domestic abuse survivors within their own programs and within their communities.
- Collaborate with financial institutions to develop emergency assistance funds, individual development account programs, or micro–business development programs for survivors in your community.
- Ask a financial professional to present a talk on how to access income or child tax credits.
- Hold focus groups with survivors and advocates to discuss economic barriers to survivors of domestic abuse.
- Build a task force of anti–poverty organizations, civic associations and financial institutions to discuss how to support the economic advancement of domestic abuse survivors, people of low income and those who live in poverty.
- Collaborate with financial institutions to host a community education event to discuss community–based economic empowerment programs.
- Collaborate with local social services organizations to ensure that they:
- Have privacy policies in place
- Offer safety options for survivors
- Are responsive to the needs of survivors
- Provide referrals when working with survivors of domestic abuse
National resources/community support
More than 2,000 anti–domestic abuse organizations engage in advocacy to increase the economic well–being of survivors of domestic abuse in the United States. These advocacy organizations work on the local, state and national levels to improve access to health care, affordable housing, livable–wage jobs, economic security, education, training and childcare. These organizations are committed to ensuring that survivors participate in and influence public policy debates over issues that affect their lives.
This may include:
- Organizing labor unions
- Creating job training and employment opportunities
- Developing micro–enterprise/small business/self–employment/development
- Creating and developing assets
- Offering financial literacy and economic–empowerment programs