Newsletter Table of Contents:

• From Our Director of Programs
• Confronting Inequities in Our Movement (below)
• Support Our Work and the Work of Domestic Violence Organizations
• Upcoming Events, Recent Webinars, and Resources
• Our Impact: The Partnership by the Numbers

In July, we made a statement exploring the ways the mainstream movement to end domestic violence has been exclusionary and complicit with white supremacy, contributing to oppression instead of actively trying to dismantle it. “White supremacy is baked into the domestic violence field. We’ve heard from too many Black people and people of color that they’ve faced pushback and backlash from predominantly white leadership for fear losing funding, political support, board members, and more. The Culturally Specific Collaborative was born out of this frustration.”

Two Members of the Culturally Specific Collaborative, which exists as a response to systemic oppression, wrote the fist blogs for our series: Confronting Inequities in the Movement. Constance Athayde recounted the ways an organization dodged her substantive cultural responsiveness efforts to support Indigenous survivors, and attempted to silence her. Her blog post is a testament to the fact that she cannot be silenced:

“As members of sodalities throughout many towns and cities we are all to be proponents of justice – racial, ethnic, economic, gender and all the components that we use to categorize our identities in the human race. Yet, we continue to encounter evidence to the contrary such as my most recent position,” said Constance. “The reasoning for high turn-over in the field cannot be limited to client work alone. Are our boards of directors and hiring managers genuinely interested in compiling a team of members that reflects those we claim to be advocating for or is to display minorities like ornaments on a christmas tree to be put on exhibit when needed?”

Alan* shares the divide between the movement’s reliance upon the criminal legal system and the harmful impacts on Communities of Color. He challenges hierarchical norms with specific strategies that elevate the voices of his colleagues doing work on the ground.

May Rico, who participated in the Partnership’s Cultural Responsiveness Organizational Self Assessment Tool, shares in her ongoing journey to becoming a white ally. She shows us how honesty can only emerge from vulnerability and admitting when we made mistakes. May provides important lessons about power sharing for white people in leadership positions.

The field is hungry for change, and the Partnership is committed to participating in conversations on equity and racial justice right alongside our Members. In June, our Prevention Peer Network webinar—the Intersection between Racial Equity and Preventing Relationship & Sexual Violence—brought together over 300 people. Tonjie Reese, Founder of eleven24, and Colsaria Henderson, MSW, Executive Director of Community Overcoming Relationship Abuse, joined Facilitator Alejandra Aguilar, Statewide Prevention Program Specialist at the Partnership. Colsaria issued a profound invitation to all of us in this movement: to use introspection, self-assessment, and deep listening to challenge our status quo. Watch the clip below:

For white people, it is necessary to understand how privilege functions in everyday life, and commit to the followership of Black, Native and Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). In our movement, there has been an inconsistent response to Black people being killed by law enforcement, and a failure to respond to the needs of Black, Native & Indigenous, and other staff of color.

The Aspiring White Allyship group is committed to ongoing self-accountability, especially as it pertains to White women in the field, and the development of real and concrete actions that stand against racism. The Aspiring White Allyship group is a result of a workshop that took place at the 2019 Shifting the Lens Conference, facilitated by Alejandra Aguilar and Kathy Moore. In the session, 30 White women participated and all were invited to continue the work beyond the session. Thirteen of the 30 women have continued meeting with Alejandra on a regular basis and are currently working on the development of a statewide project that attempts to develop & facilitate assessments and share tools & resources that will help hold White folks accountable, supporting the needs of BIPOC staff, and challenging the policies & practices across DV & SV orgs, centering on the mission of ending violence and upholding the values of intersectional cultural responsiveness & racial justice. This project has come from DV/SV field’s inconsistent response to Black people being killed by law enforcement and the lack of accountability in terms of how these organizations and the Coalitions have ignored, and in some cases even hurt, women of color in our field. The Partnership invites White women to join the Aspiring White Allyship Group, committing to learning and growing together, holding each other accountable and also invites Black women, Native & Indigenous women, Latinas, Asian & Pacific Islander women, and other women of color to join the Advisory Group that will hold the AWA group accountable and help provide feedback and guide their efforts.

How do we at the Partnership hold ourselves accountable? To ensure that our policy priorities center the survivors, families, and communities who have been harmed by systemic racism? We recently surveyed our Members on key issues as they relate to historically marginalized, underserved or unserved communities; and asked them to respond through a broader social justice lens that includes racial justice: economic justice, housing and homelessness, and addressing the criminal legal system. These results stood out:

• 87% of our surveyed Members stated that creating/supporting alternatives to law enforcement was important or extremely important.
• 100% said that access to affordable housing was important or extremely important.
• 95% said that income/employment instability due to COVID-19 was important or extremely important.

This shows us that it is vital to follow the lead of organizations that are reimagining crisis responses that feel safe for Black, Indigenous and Native, and People of Color. It creates an imperative to continue linking our efforts on economic justice and access to a range of housing options for survivors. And it underscores the need to prevent domestic violence before it occurs, as stated by Ana Blanco and the Partnership’s Marcella Maggio in this California Health Report article. They courageously shared their stories of survivorship in educational settings, and urged action on prevention.

However you are involved in this work, we are grateful to be connected to you in a larger WE. These are the issues we’re committed to fighting for, hand in hand with you.

*The author of this piece chose the pseudonym Alan to protect against retaliation.

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