Center’s mission has grown with its scope
DVCC marks four decades of helping people escape desperate situations, and educating the community
When the Domestic Violence Crisis Center was founded in 1980, its mission was simply survival for women.
Patricia C. Phillips — the DVCC’s founder — accomplished that goal 40 years ago by any means necessary.
“She would pick someone up in the middle of the night in her station wagon with her two children in their pajamas,” said Executive Director Suzanne Adam.
“She would drive them to Bridgeport, to Norwalk — she would get them to safety.”
Phillips’ work encapsulates what the DVCC’s mission looked like during its infancy, when the understanding of domestic violence was much different than it is today. Back then, domestic violence was understood to be a private affair.
“In the 1980s, police offi
cers didn’t always go out to a domestic violence dispute because it was a family affair, a family problem,” said Adam.
Now, the DVCC works alongside the police to connect victims with the care that they need. Entering into partnerships with police departments in Stamford and Norwalk — which the center did in the early 2010s — is one of the many ways it has grown in the decades it has been in existence.
Helping clients navigate financial abuse and manipulation was another.
Kimberly Donovan, the DVCC’s housing and financial advocacy manager, sees finances as one of the most insidious vehicles for abuse. Sometimes, it can happen in secret.
“One of my first cases, I’ll never forget it, there was a woman that had $20,000 in credit card debt, that she had no idea about,” said Donovan. “The abuser just took her Social Security number and opened up credit cards.”
Financial abuse happens in other ways, too. Donovan said sometimes a victim might not know the PIN number to a joint account, to prevent her from accessing money. Or a victim might be kept out of financial decisions that impact the family.
Donovan works primarily with clients to create financial plans; she ensures that victims know their credit scores and where important financial documents can be accessed to help them regain agency in their lives.
Her work is an example of how the center’s mission has grown in sophistication over the past 40 years.
Agency is a big part of the work Legal Services Manager Lauren Moreno does for the DVCC, especially during court appearances. Moreno communicates with the Department of Family Services and local police to advocate for victims and their safety, and helps them navigate a legal system that can seem overwhelming to new participants, particularly those who have suffered trauma.
“We basically are the victim’s voice when all these decisions are made at the arraignment,” said Moreno.
Now, as the agency enters its 40th year in lower Fairfield County, Adam said the DVCC strives to ensure that every person in the communities it serves — which include Stamford, Norwalk, Darien, New Canaan, Weston, Westport and Wilton — understands there is help ready for them.
“We’re here to meet you — this community — where you’re at. We’re also here to help our community to grow in awareness and education and inform one another so we really can support one another,” said Adam.
The DVCC’s connections in its communities has served it well during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, a time when victims may be stuck at home with an abuser, unable to escape for long enough to call the center’s hotline. “What we found at the beginning of the pandemic was not an increase of new services or new clients reaching out to us, but an increase of those already connected to us, an increase in counseling and advocacy,” said Adam.
Some clients have called from bathrooms. Others reached the DVCC by pretending that they were speaking to a child’s teacher.
No matter the method, the experience showed agency leaders what they knew already from research and history: Those exposed to resources will use them, and making victims and potential victims aware of nearby domestic violence services is essential to keeping them safe.
The Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence’s 2017 Lethality Assessment Program report found that when domestic violence advocates were connected with victims at the time of a crisis, rates of homicide decreased.
“Victims were not there when something worse happened,” said Adam. “They were taken out of the situation or informed about safety choices that could help.”
Awareness about the problem in general has grown tremendously over the past 40 years.
After headlines appeared about the potential impact of the pandemic on domestic violence sufferers, Adam said she was fielding phone calls left and right from community members concerned for the DVCC and the people it serves. “People were coming out of the woodwork and asking, ‘Are the people you help OK?’” said Adam.
She thinks that would not have happened a decade ago.
“We really are just hitting the tip of the iceberg, of our ability to ride this wave of new awareness to create safer communities,” said Adam. “Not only for our kids or our community down in lower Fairfield County, but across the state of Connecticut and this nation.”