Public policy is essential to changing the conditions that can lead to violence and providing an effective response once it has occurred. We are committed to advancing solutions that promote safety and healing with a holistic approach. The Partnership has been instrumental in the passage, enactment, implementation and enforcement of strong, comprehensive legislation and public policies. Our work focuses on the following issue areas:
- Funding Survivor Services and Prevention Efforts
- Prevention
- Housing & Homelessness
- Economic Justice
- Addressing the Criminal Legal System
- Advocacy At the Intersections
To get a full scope of our current priorities, please see our complete 2025 – 2026 Policy Agenda.
Questions about our policy work? Please contact the Policy Team at policy@cpedv.org.
Current Work:
Here are the issues we are currently working on and how you can support our policy advocacy.
Stabilizing Crime Victim Services Funding
Federal funding for victim services through the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) has declined dramatically over many years, and state action continues to be needed to prevent domestic violence service providers and other victim services from experiencing devastating across-the-board cuts to their funding that would directly impact survivors’ ability to access the safety and healing they need and deserve.
The Partnership is leading a statewide coalition to advance a budget request for backfill funding in 2025. Nearly 250 organizations representing service providers, district attorneys, local government, and other stakeholders have added their support to this request.
Strengthening Survivors’ Access to CalWORKs
AB 969 (Celeste Rodriguez) will reduce barriers experienced by survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and stalking when applying for and accessing CalWORKs. The bill empowers survivors to successfully request and receive accommodations for CalWORKs program requirements, protecting their families from losing vital benefits while they recover from the abuse.
Strengthening Immigration Protections
Every survivor deserves to be able to access the services they need, without fear because of their immigration status. For this to be possible, safe spaces such as domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers, homeless shelters, and courthouses must remain safe and free of threats. SB 841 (Susan Rubio) will establish protocols for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enter these sensitive areas and needed certainty for advocates and staff to protect their clients. This bill will only grant entry to ICE personnel with approval from the director of the facility and if a written statement of purpose and a valid judicial warrant are presented with valid ICE identification. Moreover, it will limit ICE’s activities to those areas where clients are not present.
Members can contact the policy@cpedv.org to track our bill progress.
Housing Opportunities Mean Everything (HOME) Cohort
About the Cohort
The HOME Cohort was founded in 2019 with support from the Women’s Foundation California to bring together organizations from throughout California to improve the safety and economic security of Californians who are experiencing homelessness due to domestic violence.
The HOME Cohort currently includes:
- The California Partnership to End Domestic Violence (the Partnership)
- Black Women for Wellness (Los Angeles)
- Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse (CORA, San Mateo)
- Community United Against Violence (CUAV, San Francisco)
- Empower Tehama (Red Bluff)
- Family Violence Law Center (Oakland)
- Healthy Alternatives to Violent Environments (HAVEN, Modesto)
- Human Options (Irvine)
- Jenesse Center (Los Angeles)
- Rainbow Services, Ltd. (San Pedro)
- Strong Hearted Native Women’s Coalition (Valley Center)
For more information about the cohort and its work, email home@cpedv.org.
Housing Resources
Toolkit for Victim Service Providers: Improving Outcomes for Survivors Experiencing Homelessness
Domestic violence and homelessness are deeply connected issues, and many domestic violence organizations work with their cities, counties, and Continuums of Care to ensure that survivors are appropriately included within local homelessness responses. This work is certainly not without its challenges, especially for programs who are just getting started in navigating these systems or struggling to overcome longstanding barriers.
To assist domestic violence agencies with better understanding their Continuums of Care (CoC) systems and how to engage with them more effectively, the HOME Cohort has developed a toolkit. This toolkit has resources and information domestic violence Programs can use to navigate the process of initiating and/or strengthening partnerships with their local Continuums of Care. While the toolkit focuses on the CoCs, these concepts are also applicable to the work with other local entities who may be administering homelessness funding.
+Click here to access the toolkit!
California Survivors’ Housing Rights Lease Addendum
This addendum was created by the HOME Cohort with input from housing and domestic violence service providers, state and national experts, legal advocates, and technical assistance providers working at the intersection of homeless and domestic violence. It can be added to any California tenant lease to explain the legal protections available to survivors residing in the state. Click here to access the addendum in English and click here to access the addendum in Spanish. (updated October 2024) If you require the addendum in any additional languages, please email home@cpedv.org.
Cohort 2022 Webinar Series
The HOME Cohort hosted a series of lunchtime conversations in February and March 2022 to support advocates in improving their practice and bolstering their capacity to work on housing and homelessness advocacy for survivors. Contact home@cpedv.org for the slides and recordings of these sessions.
Session Descriptions:
- From the Ground, Up: HOME Cohort’s Survivor Housing Lease Addendum: Members of the HOME Cohort’s Advocacy Working Group shared the California survivor housing rights lease addendum (available in English and Spanish).
- Overview of a New Toolkit to Support Domestic Violence Advocates in Engaging With Their Continuums of Care: The HOME Cohort has developed a toolkit for DV Programs to use as a guide for navigating the process of initiating and/or strengthening partnerships with local CoCs to improve outcomes for survivors experiencing homelessness.
- Can We Talk? Changing the Narrative Around DV & Homelessness: Based on data compiled from a long term-project with Berkeley Media Studies Group & the HOME Cohort, this webinar helps advocates, agencies and community members change the narrative about the intersection of domestic violence and homelessness, and get inspired to craft stronger messaging with the goal of shifting public narrative around survivor homelessness.
- I’m Here For It: Building Partnerships Between Cities and CBOs: This workshop explored different avenues community-based organizations (CBOs) can utilize to build and strengthen partnerships with their City to better serve survivors.
- Use Your Data to Access More Funding for Your Housing Programs: Learn how to use data you already collect to highlight the ways homelessness and housing insecurity impacts survivors and learn how to effectively demonstrate how your organization’s work addresses survivors’ housing needs and how that work fits into the overall system for addressing homelessness.
