No Place For Discrimination: These Traditional Leaders Are Standing Up For SGBV Survivors In Their Communities

People call CMSD’s Rapid Response Team when crises occur to mobilize support services to help students and staff dealing with trauma or mental health crises. The Team has more than 200 staff members, including counselors, psychologists and nurses stationed in schools, as well as partnerships with outside mental health agencies that work within the school district. The Team has provided support on 950 different occasions including students struggling with suicidal thoughts, grief counseling and reports of students experiencing physical or sexual abuse at home.

Casa Mía provides housing and support services for pregnant women and new mothers struggling with addiction. The program is run out of an old house and is currently home to nine women. Staff at Casa Mía provide mental health care, recovery resources and work to destigmatize substance abuse to prevent mothers from losing their children to the foster care system.

The Seattle Public Library system partners with local organizations like the Downtown Emergency Service Center to provide library patrons with clothes and food and referrals to services like domestic violence help and housing or shelter recommendations. The library also has four “social service librarians” who are equipped to help patrons and are allowed to carry and administer Narcan. Over the last five months, the downtown branch has provided emergency supplies (like hand warmers, food, and water) to 420 people and has made 280 referrals to other resources.

This Ability Trust is a nonprofit working to help women and girls with disabilities facing violence. Their Mama Siri program is a toll-free phone service that people with disabilities can call for information and help with things like reporting violence to the police and getting to a safe space.

MenCare is a 15-class course in Rwanda that teaches men about fatherhood, caregiving, and gender roles. A study that evaluated the course found that men who participated in the program were half as likely to use violence against women.

Community Health Workers in Richmond County work to reduce barriers - including employment, education, smoking, food security or housing - that may contribute to the likelihood of infant mortality. Using the Community HUB Pathways Model to minimize significant sources of stress in a woman’s life, they are helping drive down infant mortality rates in Ohio, particularly for women and babies of color.

The recent revival of feminism, in tandem with increased awareness about violence and sexual abuse, and combined with the power of social media to organize activist groups, is helping various advocacy groups address the serious issues faced by women and minorities, specifically Latina women, in the Los Angeles area. Organizations from anti-gentrification cycling groups to rape crisis hotline dispatchers are combining resources to combat violence against women, provide more comprehensive legal and human services, help victims get a new start, and change the culture of abuse for good.

Domestic violence victims often suffer in silence and do not have encouragement to find help. San Luis Obispo in California has created a program RISE that trains primary care physicians to identify signs of domestic abuse and collaborates with clinics to treat and rehabilitate victims. The Affordable Care Act provides coverage for domestic violence screenings, offering financial incentives to help get victims the help that they need.

Playgrounds that are accessible for children with special needs can be difficult to find. NPR launched a national crowd-sourced guide called Playgrounds for Everyone, which invited individuals to add playgrounds that are accessible. After the launch, nearly 400 playgrounds have been added to the already 1200 playgrounds on the map that will help families find public places for their children to play.

In Kern County, where pregnancy-related mortality rates are more than double the California average and Black mothers face life-threatening complications at nearly three times the rate of white women, community doulas are working to bridge the gap between patients and the medical system. Since California expanded Medi-Cal coverage to include doula services in January 2023, more than 1,400 doulas have enrolled statewide, with active training pipelines building the workforce locally.