Monserrate Announces Funds To Combat Domestic Violence
BY JOHN TOSCANO

"By working with our local libraries, schools and cultural groups, we ensure that all women have access to the support they need in a safe, trusted environment."

Targeting domestic violence in the growing immigrant communities in Queens, City Councilmember Hiram Monserrate secured $100,000 for grants to two local organizations.

The grants, $50,000 each, went to the Urban Justice Domestic Violence Project and Latin Women in Action. Both are involved in the issue in Northwest Queens. The funds came from a $4 million grant for fighting domestic violence citywide which the council proposed and approved in the 2006-07 city budget.

Joining with survivors of domestic violence and local domestic violence prevention groups to announce the grants, Monserrate (D-Corona) stated: "Today we begin the countdown to the end of domestic violence in our families and communities. I am proud to stand united with our community leaders and service providers in a coordinated campaign to target our resources how and where women need them most.

"By working with our local libraries schools and cultural groups, we ensure that all women have access to the support they need in a safe, trusted environment."

Monserrate noted that the city councilsupported Domestic Violence and Empowerment (DOVE) initiative was created to target services to high-incidence areas and empower the most vulnerable communities by strengthening neighborhood based services and developing community appropriate solutions, "which is especially important in a diverse city where victims can face specific barriers to service, such as foreign-born survivors of domestic violence who may have language barriers or concerns about immigration status," Monserrate said.

Monserrate explained that Latin Women in Action and the Urban Justice Domestic Violence Project work with many local cultural organizations in communities known for diversity such as Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Lefrak City and Woodside. These areas contain many communitybased non-profit groups that provide culturally relevant and multilingual services to immigrants and families from Central and Latin America and East and South Asia.

Both groups, he said, are involved in establishing referral networks through existing and non-threatening public and civic organizations that women already frequent, such as libraries and schools. The programs will then provide direct education and support through local and easily accessible forums on how to prevent and end domestic violence.

Monserrate said the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) have said domestic violence accounted for about 30 percent of all homicides among New York City women and that the city Domestic Violence Hotline has received an average of about 400 calls a day.

Further attesting to the seriousness of the domestic violence problems, Monserrate said, are specific factors cited by experts, such as economic vulnerability, immigration status, social isolation and language barriers which prevent the most vulnerable groups from receiving critical domestic violence services, reporting abuse or seeking police protection.