Legal Services of the Hudson Valley expands services to better serve domestic violence survivors

WHITE PLAINS, NY… October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month and serves as a time to bring attention to the issue, raise support for victims and survivors, and encourage efforts to decrease the prevalence of this type of violence in our communities.

In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley (LSHV) is proud to announce that it is launching two new programs that will enable our staff to better serve domestic violence survivors throughout the Hudson Valley. These new projects include:

• Peekskill Remote Temporary Order of Protection Pilot Project: LSHV was selected by the New York State Office of Court Administration to participate in a pilot project that enables victims of domestic violence to remotely obtain a temporary order of protection using Skype or some other similar technology. Through this project, victims of domestic violence will be able to come to LSHV’s Peekskill Office, meet with an attorney who will draft and electronically file a petition, and then Skype with the Court to conduct the ex parte hearing. This Project will assist victims who cannot travel to Family Court in White Plains (which takes over two hours on public transportation from Peekskill), may be afraid to go to court, and/or do not have childcare or money to be able to leave their kids for several hours to file an order of protection in person in White Plains Family Court.
• Rockland County: LSHV received $75,000 from Senator Carlucci to provide domestic violence legal services to victims in Rockland County. As such, LSHV has a dedicated attorney handling these cases and since May 2017, LSHV has provided legal services to approximately 30 domestic violence survivors as a result of this funding. The Rockland Office has also recently launched a collaborative with Rockland County Family Court and the Center for Safety and Change whereby LSHV is on-site at Family Court one day per week to assist victims in drafting and filing family petitions as well as representing them in the ex parte hearing for a temporary order of protection.

These new programs are essential tools to help victims of domestic violence throughout the Hudson Valley. While progress has been made, more than 25% of women nationally report they have been physically abused by an intimate partner at some point in their lifetime. In addition to physical violence, abuse can also be inflicted through economic and psychological means. The issue is more serious for those in poverty: economically disadvantaged women are more than twice as likely to be victims of domestic violence as non-economically disadvantaged women.

Domestic violence often spirals into other issues that result in serious consequences for a family. For example, an abused mother may escape the violence by fleeing the home with her children, but have no financial resources or guarantee of safety, thus the family becomes homeless. Children who witness abuse and experience instability experience problems in school, which can limit their ability to become economically self-sufficient in the future. This family may become dependent on social services to provide for their basic human needs, increasing pressure on taxpayers and government at the local, county, state, and national levels. Research shows that access to legal services for victims of domestic violence is the single most effective intervention for stopping the abuse and stabilizing the family. That is where Legal Services of the Hudson Valley (LSHV) comes in.

LSHV’s Domestic Violence Unit works with survivors of domestic violence in civil legal proceedings in local family courts, including matters related to family offense, custody, visitation, child support and divorce proceedings. Domestic violence and other family conflict is traumatic to children as well as adults. To address domestic abuse from the perspective of the entire family, our advocacy services include referrals to a network of community service providers, including shelters and counselors equipped to meet the needs of both survivors and witnesses.

In 2016, LSHV handled 2,320 cases for survivors of domestic violence, impacting 3,491 household members under the age of 18 years old.

For more information about LSHV, please visit its website www.lshv.org.

Photo: LSHV Attorney Elizabeth Corwin (right) with former client Amy.