One country's plan to solve the world's hidden health crisis

Among the many restorative justice programs in the U.S., the Domestic Violence Safe Dialogue program was one of the few to arrange face-to-face dialogue between survivors and men who had violently abused women. This form of surrogate dialogue – the pairings are between strangers – helps two people who want to change but can't do it alone. After extensive preparation and led by a facilitator, the meeting gives survivors a way to hear they were not to blame for the harm done to them, and for the men to admit responsibility and help someone else in ways that traditional punitive justice often cannot.

The Cleveland Rape Crisis Center spent months deeply listening to their community before opening a new location in Shaker Square. The new location was decided upon as a direct response to the stated needs of the African-American community, who often face unique challenges in reporting and being treated for sexual assault. The center is funded by Ohio’s Victims of Crime Act program, and besides offering standard sexual assault services like counseling and case management, it also does community outreach beyond sexual violence.

Healing Hurt People, a hospital-based violence intervention program in Portland, embeds caseworkers in trauma center care teams to rapidly connect shooting victims and their families with counseling, housing assistance, job training, and emotional support. The program has been linked with Portland's decline in gun violence, though chronic funding instability continues to threaten its capacity and growth.

The Basic Rights Counsel Initiative provides free legal representation, emergency shelter, and psychological support to survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria's Cross River state. In a country where prosecutions can be hampered by ineffective or under-resourced institutions, the organization has filed 822 court cases and secured 30 arrests and convictions.

In Mongolia's capital city, more than 600 people who staff the kiosks where most residents get their drinking water have been trained to spot signs of domestic abuse. The Smart Triangle program aims to overcome low rates of reporting such crimes to the police in this patriarchal society by shifting the reporting burden to people well situated to observe a neighborhood's daily life. Other sorts of responses show stronger effects than bystander interventions like this. But the short training curriculum is not costly to produce and has helped some women.

The Violence Against Women Act was billed as a way to make a patriarchal society, and policing profession in particular, take domestic violence more seriously. It encouraged policies making arrest of alleged abusers mandatory, even to the point of punishing victims who refused to cooperate in prosecutions. This has backfired on many victims, especially women of color who distrust police and their punitive approaches to solving family problems. The law also prioritizes punitive approaches in its awarding of federal grants, thus denying victim aid to women who do not wish to cooperate with arrests.

Colorado’s Address Confidentiality Program (ACP) helps survivors of domestic violence and sexual abuse keep their physical addresses private. Registering to vote requires an address, which is part of the public record. The ACP program can also be used to enroll children in schools, on their driver’s licenses, and in court. ACP works with the postal service to create ghost addresses for survivors and it serves as the only place where the addresses are known. Four thousand people are currently using the service and up to 9,000 have used it since it began.

The Minsk-based organization Radislava runs a house for women and children who have experienced domestic abuse. In a culture and a country that have yet to protect survivors of abuse, this house runs on privacy and anonymity, for safety’s sake. Radislava does more than provide shelter – it also provides psychological and legal support and organizes advocacy events. Since its creation, the home has seen 70% of clients create new lives for themselves.

Human trafficking has become an increasingly prevalent problem, especially in states such as Florida that host a large tourist population. To better serve the victims, Miami-Dade County has created a trauma-focused court that directs adolescents to support services rather than prostitution charges.

Gillette, Wyoming is a small rural town that isn't connected to many resources, so that help for people who have experienced traumas can be difficult to access. With the implementation of the Gillette Abuse Refuge Foundation, however, that isolation is decreasing. Through digital connections dubbed as telemedicine, trauma survivors are able to connect with therapists to receive support and counseling sessions.