On Oct. 9, we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA). On that day in 1984, for the first time in history, federal resources were dedicated directly to domestic violence shelters, services and programs. Today, FVPSA supports nearly 1,600 shelters, 200 Tribes and Tribal organizations, and domestic violence coalitions in 56 states and territories. The FVPSA Program also funds the National Domestic Violence Hotline, and nine national resource centers and culturally-specific institutes. These programs provide a lifeline to millions of women, children and men each year. Just over 30 years ago, I was one of them.
In 1982, I remember standing on the porch of the Crisis Center in Manhattan, Kan., with my four-year-old son and five-year-old daughter, waiting to meet the domestic violence advocate who answered my call for help to escort us to a local shelter. A college student at the time, all that I brought with me was a backpack full of textbooks, and two paper bags holding our clothes. We walked through the shelter door and over the next few days, I talked with other survivors and learned that my story of abuse echoed their own. Hearing other women reveal the physical, psychological and emotional abuse they endured—how their husbands and boyfriends controlled them—helped me to finally understand that it wasn’t my fault. At that time, domestic violence was a hidden and private issue, and we did not have the research to show that more than one in three women are victims of violence by an intimate partner. Like many women in abusive relationships, I decided not to leave my husband, and to give my marriage another try. After a few days at the shelter, I returned home—but I was not the same person. Twelve months later, I decided to permanently leave my abusive partner. Living in a one-bedroom apartment, the kids and I started over, scraping together food stamps and TANF benefits to get by while I was still in school. One month after graduating, I applied for an opening as a domestic violence advocate at the Manhattan Crisis Center, and my life changed forever.
[For more of this story, written by Marylouise Kelley, go to http://www.acf.hhs.gov/blog/20...vention-services-act]
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