Allan Appel Photo
Volunteers Tanaysia Jefferson and Paola Serrecchia greeted guests at the kick-off fundraiser at BAR.
When a woman leaves a domestic violence situation, on average she will have from ten to 30 appointments that need to be kept in the follow-up to a decision. Legal appointments. Child care appointments. Therapy for herself and the child …
Almost all are in different locations. Almost all can involve time-consuming public transportation. At each new interview, the victim has to re-tell her painful story.
Result: Often she gives up, exhausted, and succumbs to returning to an unsafe situation. That’s why on average, a woman temporarily leaves an abusive partner seven times before she leaves for good.
That situation was described at an event Thursday night in a backroom at BAR on Crown Street.
The event was held to raise money for a new institution aimed at changing that situation: the HOPE Family Justice Center (HFJC) of Greater New Haven, a multi-disciplinary, one-stop-shop for victims of domestic violence, with services all under one roof.
It opens next month in temporary headquarters at 316 Dixwell Ave. A regional agency called BHcare Umbrella for Domestic Violence Services is putting it together.
The center will operate a nationally accepted “best practices” model. It will offer a single place where the state’s attorney’s office, psychologists, police, therapists, legal aid lawyers, and women’s advocates can have representatives under the same roof helping a person in a stressed situation without adding more stress of disconcerting and difficult travel.
About a hundred such centers operate nationwide, including one in Bridgeport.
The New Haven center will be a program of BHcare’s Umbrella Center for Domestic Violence Services, one of the state Department of Health’s designated mental health authorities. It already has staffing in place. The police department has been helping to organize the project; a recently retired top cop, Julie Johnson, is spearheading it.
Up to 40 percent of BHcare’s 6,200 annual clients coming from New Haven— and most without automobiles — advocates argued persuasively that it makes sense to have a center near to downtown, on the major bus routes, near the courthouse, lawyers, and the Yale Child Study Center.
Organizers are still raising the $150,000 needed for costs including annual rent. That’s why 100 people — friends, beneficiaries, lawyers, advocates, cops including New Haven Police Chief Anthony Campbell — were on hand to launch the kick-off fundraiser with pizza and toasting at BAR Thursday night.
Retired Police Capt. Johnson and Esperina Stubblefield, who directs BHcare’s Umbrella Center for Domestic Violence Services, will lead the staffing of the new centralized facility.
Johnson, left, and BHcare’s Barbara Bellucci.
The center, which has been in the works for two years, will have its soft opening on Nov. 13 at the temporary 316 Dixwell spot.Then, assuming fundraising proceeds as hoped, a full launch will take place in March at a to-be-determined downtown rental location.
As people enjoyed BAR’s signature salads and pizzas, they read placards displayed around the room, one of which stated that in 2017 New Haven police officers responded to 4,217 domestic violence calls for service. The department reported 2,058 domesetic violence-related arrests.
“Too often we make an arrest and tell them to get out of the relationship, but we don’t have the tools” immediately at hand to provide them, Chief Campbell said.
Campbell addresses BAR crowd.
Campbell made the case that domestic violence unleashes profound ripple effects in a whole community: “The kids who don’t go to school, the grandpaents, the teachers, the officers who see the carnage.”
The center, he said, “will improve the health of the whole community.”
Julie Johnson said the original hope was for the recent city budget to include the $150,000 for the center, which is the brainchild of the Greater New Haven Domestic Violence Task Force. Though the money did not come through, Johnson said, the city has contributed in other ways, including providing the temporary inaugural location at city-owned 316 Dixwell.
Johson and Stubblefield said the center will have 9.5 full-time-equivalent staff positions filled by BHcare employees. Operations will be funded primarily by money from the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence and from a three-year federal Department of Justice (DOJ) grant.
Those interested in donating, volunteering, or being part of the HOPE Family Justice Center can contact Esperina Stubblefield at BHcare.
After the Nov. 13 soft opening, appointments will be available on Tuesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to noon. The phone number to arrange an appointment is 203 – 736-2601, extension 1338.