Catholic Charities recently was approved for a renewal of a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women to continue its program to help immigrant survivors of domestic violence.
Commonly referred to as the “VAWA” (Violence Against Women Act) program, services are provided through the two Catholic Charities Immigration Services offices in Little Rock and Springdale. The award is for $446,714 over the next two years.
What is the purpose of the vawa program?
The federal Legal Assistance for Victims Grant Program is intended to increase the availability of civil and criminal legal assistance to adult and youth survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, stalking or sexual assault who need help in legal matters after that abuse or violence.
In the case of the immigrant survivors served by the VAWA program, these legal issues become even more complex. Inherent in the abuse of immigrant survivors is for the abuser not to petition legal documents on behalf of the survivor and therefore place her in an undocumented status. Abusers often threaten the survivor with deportation if she chooses to leave him.
Abusers will also use children as leverage. If the children do not have legal status, he will threaten to deport only the children, or only the mother, creating a very real potential for mother/child separation. In some cases, some of the children in the family have legal status while others do not. The abuser then will sometimes threaten the mother with having to choose among her own children.
The violence and trauma experienced by some of the survivors served by the Catholic Charities program is hard to fathom. Survivors have experienced abuse ranging from being forced into marriages to strangers, being locked in rooms with no contact to the outside world, rape and sexual assault, starvation, strangulation and stabbing. The children caught in the middle of domestic violence situations often also endure similar severe physical, sexual and emotional abuse.
In the most tragic cases, Catholic Charities has dealt with incidents of murder in which the father kills the mother, leaving the children to become wards of the state if no family members are able to take legal custody.
How does the VAWA program help?
The Catholic Charities VAWA program helps survivors determine their eligibility for immigration relief and helps them pursue those options. By attaining legal status, survivors are empowered to escape their abusers, financially support their families and break the cycle of violence.
Though Catholic Charities Immigration Services has been assisting immigrant survivors of domestic violence as early as 2000 under the Violence Against Women Act, it wasn’t until 2004 that Sheila Gomez, director of Catholic Charities at that time, applied for LAV grant funds in collaboration with Arkansas Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and the VAWA program was officially established.
With those funds, two full-time VAWA immigration specialist positions were created at the offices in Little Rock and Springdale, and educational programming was provided to the immigrant community and to domestic violence service providers. In 2006, Catholic Charities re-applied and was again awarded LAV grant funds. This time adding the Center for Arkansas Legal Services as a collaborator to address survivors’ needs for affordable civil legal representation in matters of child support, child custody, legal separation and orders of protection.
The Catholic Charities’ VAWA program has consistently been endorsed in Washington by U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Sen. Mark Pryor.
One of the new goals of the 2008-2010 grant cycle is to create a comprehensive resource booklet in Spanish and Vietnamese. The resource booklet will contain a volunteer interpreter list, safety plan, fact sheets relating to domestic violence and pertinent legal processes, and other key resources available to immigrant survivors of domestic violence. The resource booklet will be distributed to immigrant survivors, shelters and other service providers.
Also new this grant cycle is the emphasis on training law enforcement and court officials, health department workers and clergy. In this way, survivors’ situations may be dealt with holistically rather than simply being viewed as a matter for Immigration Customs and Enforcement.
While the grant covers nearly all the administrative expenses, there is still a tremendous need for direct assistance to meet the basic needs of survivors. Housing (often involving complete relocation), food, transportation, clothing and counseling are all integral parts of providing total safety and security for survivors of domestic violence. If you would like to help by making a donation to the Catholic Charities VAWA program, contact Rebecca Spencer at (501) 664-0340 ext. 355.
