INTERFAITH EVENT TO ADDRESS DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

The San Diego Regional Interfaith Coalition is hosting an event, “Family Violence: A Pandemic Within the Pandemic,” on Tuesday to address domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Advocates and experts in domestic violence have reported increases in calls to support hotlines since sheltering in place began in the U.S. in 2020. With the health guidelines urging people to limit outings, work from home, and shelter in place, victims of abuse have been trapped at home with their abusers all day, every day.

Isolating victims from friends, family and other forms of support is a main tool abusers use to control and harm their victims, according to Esta Soler, president and founder of Futures Without Violence, a health and social justice nonprofit.

Compounding this problem has been an increase in abusers using technology to further their harm, whether by surreptitiously installing monitoring applications on a partner’s phone, or through constant communication through texting and phone calls to further emotional abuse and threatening behavior.

Th SDRIC’S “Family Violence” discussion will feature guest speakers Rebecca Parker and Claudia Grasso. Parker is a theologian and coauthor of “Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us.” She’ll give the keynote address on “Spiritual Traditions and Family Violence: When Religion Hurts and When it Heals.” Grasso is deputy district attorney for San Diego and assistant chief of the family protection division.

A question-and-answer session with the audience will follow, and breakout discussions with local organizations will take place afterward.

“Family Violence” takes place from 10 a.m. to noon Tuesday. A $10 donation is requested, and advance registration is required.

To register with a donation, visit sandiegointerfaith.org/february-23-2021registration. To register without a donation, visit sandiegointerfaith.org/february-23-2021-registration2.