Congress passed the Violence Against Women Act 20 years ago this month, and while the law has helped reduce incidents of domestic violence since, Rep. Rosa DeLauro noted during a visit to Ansonia the problem is still an epidemic that needs to be confronted aggressively.
One need only watch a news broadcast to see how widespread the scourge of domestic violence is, DeLauro noted — the revolting video of NFL running back Ray Rice punching his fiancee in an elevator made public last week is just the most recent example.
DeLauro marked the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Violence Against Women Act Sept. 12 at the offices of BHCare on East Main Street to highlight the local work done on behalf of domestic violence victims.
Roberta Cook, President and CEO of BHCare, said the group’s Umbrella Center for Domestic Violence Services provides services to more than 7,000 women and children, in the local area alone.
BHcare provides domestic violence services for Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Bethany, Branford, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, West Haven and Woodbridge.
In Ansonia, the police department and BHCare partnered three years ago using a grant from the Katharine Matthies Foundation to start a “Lethality Assessment Program” based on a research conducted at The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.
Click here for more information from a previous story.
The program, which has since expanded to Shelton, North Haven, and Guilford, trains police officers to assess a domestic violence victim’s risk for serious injury or death, and connect victims at risk to BHCare services via a 24-hour hotline.
And, Ansonia Police Chief Kevin Hale said, it works.
“The everyday benefit of that is getting victims into services immediately,” Hale said.
Say, for example, a woman is assaulted by a spouse or boyfriend at 2 a.m. on a Sunday.
In years past, police officers would hand the woman a business card and say they could call the next morning.
“Well, a lot can happen in those 24 to 36 hours,” Hale said. “Out of fear, out of sympathy, out of whatever reason, often they didn’t make the call … and then the cycle continues.”
Under the new program, if police believe a victim is in imminent danger, an officer will call an on-duty victim’s advocate to start services immediately.
“The chances of that victim staying with services and getting the help they need is much greater than just handing them a business card,” the chief said.
The UCDVS Crisis Hotline numbers are 203 – 736-9944 and 203 – 789-8104, and toll-free 888 – 774-2900.
Click here to learn more about BHCare’s Umbrella Center for Domestic Violence Services.
DeLauro thanked the front line workers at the Umbrella Center for doing what they do.
“You really make all the difference in the world,” she said. “You give people a new opportunity for life. For life.”
The congresswoman went on to condemn the culture which creates situations like the “staggering” assault of Rice on his fiancee in an elevator.
“This is a crime, and it happens all too often,” DeLauro said.
About a third of women have been physically abused by an intimate partner at some point in their lives, she said.
One in five has been raped.
“In 21st century America, right now, three women die every single day at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends,” DeLauro said.
And those statistics don’t count the many cases that go unreported, she noted.
“There’s a conspiracy of silence around the epidemic,” DeLauro said.
Article continues after document showing statewide statistics on domestic violence from 2013 from the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Voice Of A Victim
Friday’s press conference concluded with the harrowing testimony of a local victim of domestic violence, who detailed an account of an attack her husband perpetrated on her about four months ago.
The woman said she’d been married 17 years, and she and her husband’s relationship saw the ups and downs that any marriage does.
First he subjected her to derogatory remarks when she said something he didn’t like.
The pattern escalated to things like punching walls, then headbutting her, or getting in her face, the woman said, “even when I was pregnant or holding our baby.”
Things got worse.
“Four months ago we had an argument that I kept trying to walk away from. He didn’t like that,” the woman related, her voice breaking.
Her husband followed her around the house, getting angrier and angrier.
Eventually he got close enough to punch her in the head a half-dozen times, then grab the phone when she tried to dial 911.
She suffered a concussion, a hematoma and hemorrhaging in her eye, and still has headaches and nausea.
Even so, she said she was able to get services from the Umbrella Center, noting that many victims aren’t as lucky.
“Domestic violence is an epidemic and we have to break the cycle,” she said before asking those present to participate in a moment of silence “for people who never made it out of that situation.”
DeLauro hugged the woman and lauded her courage to speak out.
“There are no words,” DeLauro said after the woman related her account. “There just are no words. It’s wrong, and it has to end … You are not alone.”
The Umbrella Center for Domestic Violence Services will hold a vigil Oct. 1 at 6:30 p.m. on the Huntington Green in Shelton to remember domestic violence victims.
Click here for more information.
