Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence releases report

Deborah DeBare, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, speaks at the organization’s press conference at the Statehouse late last month. / COURTESY KRISTA D’AMICO
Deborah DeBare, executive director of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence, speaks at the organization’s press conference at the Statehouse late last month. / COURTESY KRISTA D’AMICO

PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence recently released a report, “Domestic Violence Homicides in Rhode Island, 2006-2015.” The state’s first such report summarizes key findings, provides homicide incident descriptions and issues recommendations to prevent future domestic violence homicides in Rhode Island. According to the report, from 2006 to 2015, 54 people lost their lives to domestic violence homicides in Rhode Island, in the course of 48 incidents. Between three and nine homicide incidents occurred each year.

Providence Business News spoke with Deborah DeBare, executive director of RICADV, only a few days after an employee in Kansas shot several people, some fatally, at his workplace. That attack occurred only a few hours after after he’d been served with a restraining order filed by a former girlfriend. Providence Business News asked DeBare: Is there a role for the business community to address domestic violence?

Domestic violence in the workplace
We do as much outreach as we can,” said DeBare, noting that companies here generally respond to RICADV’s outreach efforts only when there’s been a tragedy … when someone’s been murdered at or near a place of employment. “We’ve said, ‘Please don’t wait [until there’s a crisis].’”

In contrast to Massachusetts – where a nonprofit membership organization, Employers Against Domestic Violence offers resources to businesses and individuals – Rhode Island has no such (business-centric) formal organization, said DeBare, though RICADV offers model policies to and consults with employers. Verizon and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island are two local companies that are doing good work in this arena, said DeBare.

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Verizon’s engagement
In 2015, Verizon, with some 1,100 employees in Rhode Island, donated more than $50,000 to Rhode Island-based domestic violence agencies through HopeLine from Verizon (www.verizon.com/about/responsibility/hopeline), which connects survivors to resources and funds nonprofit organizations.

In addition, for the past six years, said Andrew Testa, Verizon’s PR manager, Northeast market, the company has worked with the office of Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin to host cellphone recycling drives, which benefit victims of domestic violence and RICADV. The company also awards domestic violence agencies across Rhode Island a “Kids in Need” grant to support their holiday gift programs.

Since developing a training curriculum in 2007 in partnership with New York City-based Safe Horizon, Verizon trains its managers to recognize and respond to signs of domestic violence as well as to refer employees to internal and external resources, said Testa. Once trained, managers are expected to periodically remind their teams of Verizon’s resources.

New employee orientations include information about HopeLine, and Verizon periodically holds events to raise awareness of domestic violence, said Testa, who added that Verizon’s intranet offers guidance for managers whose employees might be impacted by domestic violence. The company’s EAP is a resource for affected individuals, as is the V2V, an employee relief fund, which is supported by Verizon Foundation funds and employee donations. Employees severely impacted by domestic violence who need emergency financial assistance can apply for a grant from the V2V, said Testa.

When a Verizon employee, he said, “is experiencing domestic violence, part of our response involves developing an individualized safety plan to ensure the impacted employee’s safety in the workplace as well as the safety of coworkers and customers.” That safety plan may employ additional security at the employee’s work location, relocate the employee on an emergency basis, suppress employee contact information internally and provide an escort to and from the employee’s vehicle. In the event of an active restraining order, management and security officials at the employee’s work site are prepared to immediately engage local law enforcement, in the event that an abuser attempts to violate the order by coming to the work site.

At Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island
Although BCBSRI has no formal domestic violence policy for associates or managers, wrote Kyrie Perry, of BCBSRI’s public affairs office, it offers services through its EAP, and periodically trains managers about available services, including those addressing domestic violence. The company, with approximately 1,000 employees, can bring the EAP onsite to support employees, as needed, and a manager or human resources staff member can make a referral to the EAP for an employee whom they believe might be in danger. BCBSRI also contributes to RICADV and its member agencies to support those organizations’ efforts to build awareness of domestic violence, wrote Perry.

National data highlight the impact of domestic violence on the workplace
EADV’s website reports some startling, albeit dated, national statistics: 94 percent of corporate security directors surveyed identified domestic violence as a high security problem at their company (a 1995 article) and 47 percent of senior executives polled said that domestic violence has a harmful effect on the company’s productivity (a 1994 report).

Asked why there’s not more current research, Courtney Cahill, EADV’s president, said, “I don’t know… it takes time and money to do such a national study.” More current statistics, she added, might be available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or national employment data bases.

Clearly, domestic violence can negatively impact an employer and its bottom line: Violence at home has the potential to spill over into workplace violence, a battered employee is likely to incur increased health care expenses (to treat the victim’s physical and/or emotional wounds), and a battered employee is likely to be less productive and absent more often from work than others. The EADV, which offers information and resources to both employers and individuals, was instrumental in enacting legislation – covering public and private employers with 50 or more employees in Massachusetts – in 2014 that provides employment leave for victims and family members of abuse.

Here in Rhode Island, DeBare’s organization also works with companies that contract with employee assistance program providers, many of whom are not trained to identify or screen for domestic violence. “We provide specialized training for EAP programs,” said DeBare, who added that more than 70 percent of EAPs surveyed nationally reported having dealt with an employee who’s been stalked at work by an intimate partner. “Everyone should have tools [to address this issue].”

How does Rhode Island compare?
It’s difficult to compare Rhode Island’s domestic violence statistics with national or New England states’ statistics, said DeBare, although she believes that they are “no better and no worse” than others. Comparisons aren’t feasible, she explained, because the definition of domestic violence varies from state to state and federal data don’t include violence inflicted in dating relationships. “We’re proud that [Rhode Island has] one of the strongest laws in the country. Since 1988, [our domestic violence laws] include married and unmarried partners.”

The report contains key findings and recommendations
On Feb. 25, the RICADV held a press conference at the Statehouse to announce the report’s release, where DeBare, Kilmartin and relatives of those who were victims of domestic violence homicides spoke. “We have published this report in honor of the lives of those who were taken from us too soon at the hands of violent abusers, as well as the victims’ surviving family members and friends who must now cope with the aftermath of these tragedies. Our hearts are with the families and friends who have lost their loved ones,” said DeBare in a statement.

By analyzing the collective data from the 54 domestic homicide victims in the past decade, the RICADV identified trends and patterns that paint the big picture of domestic violence in Rhode Island. Domestic violence homicide is primarily – though not exclusively – an act of violence against women, and guns and domestic violence are a lethal combination.

Contrary to popular misconception, domestic violence crosses all socio-economic, racial and ethic groups; it’s a dangerous habit to make assumptions or rely on what’s in the media, DeBare said, in a phone conversation. National surveys, she added, indicate that 20 to 25 percent of women between 18 and 65 – regardless of their financial status, race or ethnic background – have experienced domestic violence.

The report also includes RICADV’s recommendations, based on best practices and evidence-substantiated ways, to prevent domestic violence homicides. Rhode Island should:
• Continue to invest in a coordinated community response to domestic violence and foster collaboration between and among law enforcement, courts and victim advocates.
• Implement dangerousness assessments and screen all domestic violence criminal cases for lethality risk factors.
• Enact legislation to prohibit convicted domestic violence perpetrators and perpetrators subject to domestic violence restraining orders from possessing guns.
• Enact legislation to strengthen the state’s current laws against stalking and consistently enforce protective orders.
• Take steps to stop domestic violence before it happens and establish a fund to support evidence-substantiated public health approaches to the primary prevention of domestic violence.

For more information, contact the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, a national organization founded by business leaders to lead the fight against domestic violence: www.caepv.org; Employers Against Domestic Violence: www.employersagainstdomesticviolence.org or the Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence at www.ricadv.org. To view the report “Domestic Violence Homicides in Rhode Island, 2006-2015” visit http://www.ricadv.org/en/what-we-do/policy/new-report-domestic-violence-homicides-in-rhode-island-2006-2015; request a hard copy, contact RICADV at (401) 467-9940. The RICADV’s suggested workplace policies are available by calling (401) 467-9940.

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