Making Connections To End Domestic Violence
Technology can play a crucial role in helping to protect battered women and children.
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| Sheryl Cates is executive director of the National Domestic Violence Hotline, at 1-800-799-SAFE and TTY 1-800-799-3224. |
On any given day in America, three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends, and untold thousands are battered. Much of this violence is unseen and unreported – until it’s too late – because victims are afraid to seek help and do not know where to turn.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides a place for victims to turn for immediate, informed and confidential assistance. Founded in 1996, the Hotline took its millionth call last August. Today, it receives more than 500 calls a day and the volume of calls continues to rise.
Open around the clock, seven days a week, the Hotline has a bilingual staff that provides access to translators in 139 languages, and a TTY line for the hearing impaired. The advocates who answer the phones are trained in crisis intervention and linked with more than 5,000 shelters and other service providers across the nation, enabling the Hotline to connect abuse victims with sources of help in their own communities.
Although federal grants cover most of the Hotline’s operating expenses, funding has not kept pace with its growing needs, particularly for technology. Aging telecommunications and computer systems continue to hamper the Hotline’s efforts to help women, children and families in need. More than 30,000 calls went unanswered last year due to long hold times or busy signals.
The Hotline’s overburdened computer network occasionally slows to a crawl and corrupts the database that enables advocates to connect callers with local assistance. Because the Hotline’s PCs are too old to run today’s mapping software, locating a shelter near a caller’s hometown can be delayed while staff haul out paper maps.
To help solve these and other problems, Senator Joseph Biden, a leading supporter of efforts to prevent domestic violence, recently proposed “The Connections Campaign,” a partnership between industry and government to help the Hotline answer every call.
Technology and telephone companies – including Nortel Networks, IBM and Microsoft – have got the campaign off to a great start with donations of equipment, software and technical expertise.
On the public side of the partnership, Senator Biden has introduced the Domestic Violence Connections Campaign Act of 2004, which would authorize federal support for training to help Hotline advocates use new technologies most effectively.
Working together, Americans can put an end to the epidemic of domestic violence; we can ensure that no victim of abuse who reaches out for help is left holding a phone with a busy signal.
