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Coronavirus Pandemic, NYS Acts to Contain Coronavirus, Women;s Issues, Rights

NYS Advances Domestic Violence Task Force Recommendations to Overhaul, reimagine System to Empower Survivors In Light of Covid-19 Challenges

Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa has issued a report to Governor Cuomo outlining the COVID-19 Domestic Violence Task Force’s initial recommendations to reimagine New York’s approach to services for domestic violence survivors. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa has issued a report to Governor Cuomo outlining the COVID-19 Domestic Violence Task Force’s initial recommendations to reimagine New York’s approach to services for domestic violence survivors. Governor Cuomo has accepted these recommendations in full and is directing the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence, along with other sister agencies of the Office of Children and Family Services, the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, the Office of Victim Services, the Division of Criminal Justice Services and the Department of Health, to use these recommendations to update and improve domestic violence services in New York State.

The recommendations identified by the Task Force recognize that the needs of domestic violence survivors vary greatly and there are different tools needed to allow each survivor maximum control over their situation including: mobile advocacy, flexible funding and housing choice. The recommendations offered by the Task Force are ready to be quickly implemented, cutting red tape and prioritizing cultural competency to better meet survivors where they are, give them what they need and set a foundation for continued innovation. The Task Force’s full report is available here.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a drastic increase in the number of reported domestic violence cases in the state, leaving many survivors trapped at home with their abusers without access to help or resources,” Governor Cuomo said. “New York has been working to modernize our systems and the way we deliver services to survivors, and the recommendations made by the task force will help address this alarming spike in domestic violence incidents while building our systems and processes back better than they were before. I thank all the task force members for their work on this issue and for their dedication to ending domestic and gender based violence.”

“Domestic violence has been a pervasive problem in our society, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the situation and exposed the limitations of our traditional systems and methods,” Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor and Chair of the New York State Council on Women and Girls, said.”Since the uptick in domestic violence incidents during the pandemic, New York has taken aggressive actions to find new and innovative solutions to safely reach domestic violence survivors and provide critical, life-saving services. These recommendations build on our efforts and will help to transform and reimagine the way we provide services by giving survivors of domestic violence choice in their future and control of their decisions.”

 Recommendation One: Using New Technologies to Reach More Survivors

The Task Force recommends that the Governor direct the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence to partner with national technical assistance providers to enhance knowledge around the use of technology to reach more survivors, including those in traditionally underserved populations and young people who may be impacted by intimate partner violence. 

The Task Force also recommends that state agencies support programs in purchasing mobile devices and supporting technological infrastructure with federal funding related to the pandemic.

The Task Force also recommends that OPDV permanently incorporate a chat and text component into the functionality of the NYS Domestic and Sexual Violence Hotline.

Recommendation Two: Providing Flexible Funding to Meet the Diverse Needs of Survivors

The Task Force recommends that state agencies provide funding for local programs that can be used to support survivors’ safety, housing stability, transportation or other needs. In tandem with the mobile advocacy strategy, the state should allow programs to use funds to conduct community-based mobile advocacy, with an emphasis on housing stability, economic empowerment, and safety planning, to enable survivors to remain safe and stably housed in the community, if possible. Support provided by local programs should have more flexible parameters, should meet survivors’ needs as quickly as possible and should be available until the survivor feels safe. Further, the state should continue its commitment to partnering with the philanthropic and advocacy community, collaborating to leverage support, fill in the gaps where existing funds fall short and foster further innovation.

Recommendation Three: Providing More Housing Navigation Services

The Task Force recommends that state agencies connect providers to diverse housing-related funding streams to support a housing navigator system. Navigators will work with survivors to help them access available resources and support for housing beyond shelter and work with domestic violence advocates to help them better understand and assist with their clients’ needs around housing.

Additionally, domestic violence programs should designate a portion of one staff member’s salary to be used for housing navigation services, and community-based resources should incorporate this information into their resource database in order to fully support those victims. The role of the housing navigator would be to “bridge the gap” between domestic violence services and housing providers in order to ensure that the housing needs of domestic violence survivors are met.

Recommendation Four: Removing the Requirement that Domestic Violence Victims File a Police Report in Order to Access Victims of Crime Act Funding

The Task Force recommends that the Governor issue an executive order to remove the requirement that domestic violence victims file a police report in order to access the Victims of Crime Act funding. Many domestic violence survivors may be unable or unwilling to file a police report against their abuser, and expanding access to this funding while the state of emergency remains in effect will allow survivors to navigate the COVID-19 crisis with crucial financial support to seek safety.

Recommendation Five: Addressing the Needs of Black, Indigenous and People of Color Survivors of Gender-Based Violence

The Task Force recommends that the Council on Women and Girls establish a standing committee to prioritize and coordinate the creation of culturally competent service delivery designed to address the needs of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) survivors of gender-based violence. The committee will operate under a shared understanding of the impact of systemic racism on BIPOC survivors, and apply an intersectional lens to also consider sexuality, gender identity, age, disability, immigration status, and other identities and experiences in its work. The committee should meet bi-monthly to create an action plan for implementing these elements of service delivery across agencies, including comprehensive prevention strategies, improved language access and culturally competent outreach.

The Task Force also recommends that the state launch a paid and earned media campaign to promote prevention in a culturally competent way and reach specific populations across New York State.

Recommendation Six: Normalizing Domestic Violence Screening During Tele-Health Visits

The Task Force recommends that the Governor direct OPDV and the Department of Health to create guidelines for best practices in identifying and responding to intimate partner violence via tele-health. DOH and the Department of Financial Services should explore the rapid deployment of Medicaid (and commercial) payment mechanisms for intimate partner violence screening and response through telehealth, and OPDV should develop and provide training, technical assistance and appropriate literature to healthcare providers to encourage safe screening for domestic violence and appropriate responses when domestic violence is suspected or identified during tele-health visits.

Recommendation Seven: Coordinating a Program to Promote the Need for Representation of Immigrant Victims

The Task Force recommends that the Governor direct OPDV to coordinate a program with the New York State Bar Association and other bar associations and legal services providers to facilitate training and promote the need for representation of immigrant victims by large law firms through their pro bono programs.

Recommendation Eight: Launching a Public Awareness Campaign to Highlight Financial Abuse

The Task Force recommends that OPDV expands the functions of its existing text and chat line to serve as a conduit to address the various forms of financial abuse experienced by domestic violence survivors.

The Task Force also recommends the establishment of a pilot project with local domestic service providers to identify victims whose credit has been ruined as a result of their abuse and work to repair and rebuild their financial standing.

Recommendation Nine: Launching a New Prevention Initiative Specifically Directed at Educating Men About Domestic Violence

The Task Force recommends that OPDV exercises its oversight authority for abusive partner interventions programs in New York State and directs it to launch a new prevention initiative specifically directed at men, emphasizing the connection between domestic violence and harm to children.

Recommendation Ten: Setting the Stage for Future Progress

The recommendations offered in this report represent just a small fraction of the many ideas and best practices offered by the members of the Task Force over the course of their work. Among the long-term strategies to be further explored are policies around court innovation, ways to address the connection between child abuse and domestic violence, robust prevention programs, and more comprehensive data collection practices. While the Task Force will no longer formally convene, its members have generously offered to continue serving as resources for the state as it develops these long-term plans.

About the New York State COVID-19 Domestic Violence Task Force

In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, data reported by law enforcement and domestic violence service providers pointed to an increase in domestic violence, with the New York State Domestic & Sexual Violence Hotline recording a 33 percent increase in calls for April 2020 compared to April 2019, and shelter occupancy rates upstate rising to 78 percent in April 2020, versus 59 percent in April 2019.

Since the pandemic began and the NYS PAUSE order went into effect, the state’s Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and all relevant state agencies have been working diligently to reach domestic violence survivors and connect them with information about services and support. OPDV also implemented a new, confidential text line and chat program for survivors across the state. The creation of the Task Force built on that work, convening 27 experienced and knowledgeable advocates, service providers and thought leaders from across the country to meet virtually, share their expertise and create written proposals.

Members of the COVID-19 Domestic Violence Task Force include:

  • Scott Berkowitz – Founder and President, Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN)
  • Alejandra Y. Castillo, Esq. – CEO, YWCA USA
  • Karma Cottman – Executive Director, Ujima, Inc: The National Center on Violence Against Women in the Black Community
  • Nathaniel M. Fields – President and CEO, Urban Resource Institute (URI)
  • Ruth M. Glenn – President and CEO, National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV)
  • Peg Hacskaylo – Founder and CEO, National Alliance for Safe Housing (NASH)
  • Jim Henderson – Probation and Domestic Violence Expert, Battered Women’s Justice Project
  • Grace Huang, JD – Policy Director, Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence
  • Tandra R. LaGrone – Executive Director, In Our Own Voices
  • Cindi Leive – Senior Fellow, USC-Annenberg School of Journalism and Communications
  • Tonya Lovelace, MA – CEO, Women of Color Network Inc (WOCN)
  • David Mandel – Executive Director, Safe & Together Institute
  • Karol V. Mason – President, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
  • Joan S. Meier – Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School and Director, National Family Violence Law Center at GW
  • Connie Neal – Executive Director, New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NYSCADV)
  • Ana L. Oliveira – President and CEO, The New York Women’s Foundation
  • Leslye Orloff – Director, National Immigrant Women’s Advocacy Project at American University Washington College of Law
  • Farzana Safiullah – CEO, National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV)
  • Lynn Hecht Schafran, JD – Legal Director and Director, National Judicial Education Program at Legal Momentum, The Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund
  • Lucy Rain Simpson – Executive Director, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center (NIWRC)
  • Joe Torre – Co-Founder and Chairman, The Safe at Home Foundation and Special Advisor to Major League Baseball (MLB)
  • Patricia Tototzintle – CEO, Casa de Esperanza/National Latin@ Network for Healthy Families and Community
  • Deborah D. Tucker, MPA – President, National Center on Domestic & Sexual Violence (NCDSV)
  • Deborah J. Vagins – President and CEO, National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV)
  • Troy Vincent – Executive Vice President of Football Operations, NFL and National Advocate to End Domestic Violence
  • Carole Warshaw, M.D. – Director, National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma & Mental Health
  • Joanne Zannoni – Executive Director, New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NYSCASA)
News & Photo Features

Cuomo Lays Out Ambitious Progressive Justice Agenda for 3rd Term, Draws Contrast With Federal Government Failures

Governor Andrew Cuomo delivering his inaugural address at Ellis Island: “I don’t fault our federal government for causing the underlying fear and frustration, but I fault them for something worse. I fault them for a failure of leadership and government malfeasance. I fault them, I fault them for manipulating and using the fear and deepening the divisions for their own political purpose.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

By Karen Rubin, News & Photo Features

In an inaugural address worthy of a president, Andrew Cuomo, sworn in for his third term as Governor of New York State, pledged to fulfill an ambitious, progressive Justice Agenda: voting reform, strengthening gun laws, protecting health care, legalizing marijuana and reforming the criminal justice system. The venue was key to his message: the great hall at Ellis Island where millions of impoverished immigrants, the forebears of so many New Yorkers, escaped poverty and persecution to pursue the American Dream, and standing as the greatest symbol of difference with the federal administration.

The setting was relevant, as well, because the shutdown of the federal government, forced by Trump’s demand for billions of dollars to build a wall across the length of the southern border with Mexico, has caused a cascading series of closures at national parks and monuments, but New York State is paying to keep the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island open, and he used it as a symbol of what the state stands for and would strive for, and as a parable for the different approaches to leadership and governance.

Hallowed Ground: New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo gives his third inaugural address in the great hall of Ellis Island, where millions of immigrants passed through in pursuit of the American Dream © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“Let New York say that the federal government may shut itself down, but it will never extinguish the Statue of Liberty’s torch. It will never erase the words of her poem. They will never close our harbor. They will never close our hearts. They will never close this hall of dreamers. They will never disrespect the legacy they left,” he declared.

 “When they write the history books about this time and place, I believe they will record this period as one of global and national unrest. A time that saw thousands of new immigrants reaching for our borders in search of hope. A time that saw troubled, frightened, American citizens frustrated by economic stagnation and a deteriorating democracy, have grave new doubts about where our country is headed. 

“There is now a fundamental questioning of the viability of the American promise. A covenant that created our nation’s founding 242 years ago and reached full flower right here in this Great Hall for our ancestors yearning to breathe free, illuminated by the torch of our great Lady in the Harbor. A land that would work with you to lift you up to reach new heights, as high as your wings and work could carry you, with individual freedom and equal rights for all. An American promise grounded on the theory that we would work together.

“This sacred compact has held firm through the centuries, through world wars, internal dissension, and economic depressions. Through it all, we overcame, we rallied as one, and we built the strongest nation on the globe. There is no other nation that can threaten us. America’s only threat is from within: it is the growing division amongst us. The threat is when we see ourselves as black or white, foreign or native born, instead of as Americans. As Christians or Jews or Muslims, gay or straight, instead of as Americans. That, my friends, is truly frightening.

“And that is the threat that we face today. As our nation once confronted a great economic depression, we now confront a great social depression. People’s frustration is turning to fear and the fear is turning to anger and the anger is turning to division. It is impossible to overstate how dangerous, how malignant this condition is. It is like a cancer that is spreading throughout our society, a disease that causes one cell in the body politic to attack other cells, to turn one against one another.”

He added, “It may surprise you, but I don’t fault our federal government for causing the underlying fear and frustration, but I fault them for something worse. I fault them for a failure of leadership and government malfeasance. I fault them, I fault them for manipulating and using the fear and deepening the divisions for their own political purpose.”

He said, “The hard, but true path is to confront and actually solve the problem. The easy, but false path is to use the anger to blame someone else, and the easiest target to blame is always the people who are different. And this federal government has sought to demonize our differences and make our diversity our greatest weakness, rather than our greatest strength. We always knew, we always knew that the concept of E Pluribus Unum, forging one people from many different origins would be difficult, we knew it.”

In setting out his progressive agenda and to counter the skepticism that it could be accomplished, Cuomo noted that now that both houses of the Legislature are Democratic, “I feel liberated. I felt like I was fighting with one arm tied behind my back. And we will not repeat mistakes of the past. We know hollow campaign rhetoric and false political posturing only aggravates the frustration…

“New Yorkers know the difference between rhetoric and results. We either perform by delivering real solutions that restore hope and progress in people’s lives or we fail. It is that simple. Either the government works or the government doesn’t work. Either the government delivers or the government delivers. And if we don’t deliver, we fail. But, in New York failure is not an option, my friends.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo is sworn into his third term by Justice Janet DiFiore, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Cuomo, who has in his prior two terms done bold things on the scale of Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he was New York State governor, in fact, invoked FDR, saying, “Just as FDR turned the frustration of the economic depression into a movement that passed the New Deal, let New Yorkers’ frustration of the social depression to pass a new justice agenda – advancing social racial and economic justice – and let us address our issues, our very real issues with a progressive agenda – not a regressive agenda – an agenda that moves us up, forward and united, not down, backwards and divided.”

He laid out an ambitious agenda: “Within my first 100 days, I will propose to the new Democratic Legislature the most progressive agenda this state has ever seen, period.

“From voting reforms, to Roe v. Wade for New York, to protecting a woman’s right to choose. To better gun laws, to healthcare protection, to legalizing marijuana, to protecting the labor movement, to a green new deal, to real criminal justice reform – we will make history and New York will move forward. Not by building a wall, my friends, but by building new bridges, and building new airports, and creating new middle class jobs and an economic future for the next generation and showing us how good we can be at our best when we are together.”

Cuomo declared, “We will get it done. And it won’t just be what New York got done at this defining moment, but how we did it. The way we’re going to do it is by bringing people together. Democrats and Republicans. Upstate and downstate. Young and old. All of us together because we believe, in New York, that we can be a people truly guided by our better angels. Because New York believes that our interconnection and interdependence come from our essential goodness.

“It is New York’s duty, it is New York’s destiny, it is New York’s legacy to bring the light to lead the way through the darkness and I pledge to the people of the State of New York, that’s what we will do together.”

The setting was relevant, as well, because the shutdown of the federal government has caused a cascading series of closures at national parks and monuments, but New York State is paying to keep the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island open.

Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue, in giving the invocation, evoked memory of arriving in the United States from Austria in 1947 as a refugee of the Holocaust. Speaking about the four pillars of freedom – to worship, speech, freedom from want and fear, he called on leaders to fight “to restore freedom from fear for all Americans.” © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

One after another of the state leaders sworn into office – Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Attorney General Latisha James – referred to immigrants and their own origins, coming from humble circumstances.

Governor Cuomo reemphasized the point: “we believe the promise that attracted 5000 people a day to come from across the globe to this sacred place, through this portal on Ellis Island, that this is not a faded memory of yesterday, but rather a shining beacon for a better tomorrow. 

“Ellis Island remains the place where Maud McKoy arrived from the poor island of Jamaica. Whose son was educated in New York public schools, and rose to become the United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.

“It is the place where Rose and Joseph Amster, Jewish immigrants from Austria arrived, whose Brooklyn-born granddaughter would become Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsberg.

“This is the place, and this is the promise that made America, America. And no one can ever forget that. It doesn’t matter how high one is raised, or what office one’s occupying. Never forget where you came from, and never forget or deny this place. Because this is the place where Richard Cawley arrived fleeing starvation in Ireland, and whose grandson is now Vice President Mike Pence.”

“This is the harbor where Frederick Trump [Drumpf] arrived from Germany, and whose grandson would become President of the United States. Don’t you tell me Ellis Island isn’t real, and true, and the promise it made America lives today, because it does,” he said in the only part of his address in which he referred to Trump by name.

Referring to his father, Mario Cuomo, who passed away on January 1 four years ago, he said, “he would implore us all each and every one to stand against the tide to fight back and that New York should lead by example by the power of our example and lift up New York to show the nation the way forward, show them the better way. And he would be right.”

Here are more highlights from the event:

Letitia James, the first woman and first black to hold the office of Attorney General in New York State, is sworn in my Reverend Anthony L. Trufant, Senior Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church.  “We stand today on hallowed ground… where refugees came looking for a brighter future under the torch of liberty,” and pledged to fight for justice for all against the powerful. “I believe the law is the greatest equalizer, the force against government inertia and entrenched interests.”  © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who has spent 32 years in state public service, is administered the oath of office by Jenny Rivera, Associate Judge of the NYS Court of Appeals. DiNapoli pledged to continue his campaign for transparency and accountability, and to fulfill his responsibility to the 1.1 million New Yorkers vested in the state’s pension system © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Kathleen C. Hochul is administered the oath of office of Lieutenant Governor by Paul Feinman, Associate Judge of the NYS Court of Appeals © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul pointed to the “unprecedented social and economic progress of the last four years. We will build on that foundation” and reaffirmed her belief in the “power of public service to make sure tomorrows are better than yesterdays.” She reflected on her grandmother who came through Ellis Island to the United States 90 years ago as an impoverished woman from Ireland who became a domestic servant. “She achieved the ideal for her children, who built companies, became educators, served in the military and whose granddaughter became a member of Congress and Lt. Governor. She pledged to draw upon her grandmother’s strength to fight for women’s pay equity, child care, combat sexual assault. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
More than a dozen green energy activists arrive to send message to Cuomo and cabinet as they board the ferry to Ellis Island for Cuomo’s inauguration; two Trump 2020 supporters also showed up © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

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