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How a made-in-Canada distress signal may have helped save the life of a North Carolina teen

Ellen Mauro Mark Gollom

November 09, 2021 |

CBC |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Canada

Soaring rates of domestic violence due to coronavirus lockdowns led the Canadian Women’s Foundation to launch the “Signal for Help” campaign that created subtle hand gestures to indicate the need for help. The gestures consist of tucking your thumb into your open palm and covering it with the four other fingers, symbolizing being trapped. Videos by TikTok users showing the gestures, which can be done with one hand and are distinct from international sign languages, have gone viral. The gestures are credited with saving a missing Kentucky teenager, showing the power of social media to spread information.

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Women lawyers provide free legal support for SGBV Survivors in Oyo state by Agidigbo 88.7 FM Podcasts

Zainab Sanni

November 05, 2021 |

Agidigbo 88.7 FM |

Podcast |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: Nigeria, Oyo State

The International Federation of Women Lawyers provides free legal support for Sexual and Gender-based violence Survivors in Oyo state. Many women cannot afford a legal challenge against a rapist or other perpetrator of violence and the federation has provided services to tens of thousands of women over the past 30 years.

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How a Cincinnati domestic violence survivor got the help she needed to break the cycle

Cameron Knight

October 25, 2021 |

Cincinnati Enquirer |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Cincinnati, Ohio

Dvert is a partnership between Cincinnati police and Women Helping Women, a social services agency that puts domestic-violence survivors in touch with an advocate from the moment they report abuse. Advocates can provide for survivors' immediate needs, including childcare and safe shelter. They provide counseling and support to survivors throughout the prosecution of a case, should the survivor choose to pursue that remedy. More women have found the strength to pursue prosecutions, which advocates hope will ultimately keep more women safer than if they drop a complaint and reconcile with an abusive partner.

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Home was a nightmare, then home was prison. Finally home is now a refuge.

Marisa Endicott

October 21, 2021 |

Mother Jones |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Home Free is a small, transitional-housing program for women who served long prison sentences for crimes against or on behalf of their abusers. A population long neglected, the women are part of a community recovering from the trauma of prison and the trauma that put them there. Giving them autonomy, in ways typical re-entry programs do not, is key to their recovery. “Home Free is the culmination of a decades-long struggle by women to be seen and supported by a system that has condemned and ignored them.”

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Hello? This Is Colombia's Antimachismo Hotline.

Julie Turkewitz

October 18, 2021 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Colombia, Bogotá

Bogotá’s city government started the Calm Line to give men a way to connect by telephone with psychologists trained in therapeutic responses to the machismo that leads to gender-based violence. Despite doubts that Colombian men would use the service, the line fields about a dozen calls a day. "Fear, shame and confusion pervade many of the conversations," but also can lead to breakthroughs in understanding the attitudes that oppress women. That understanding is the first step toward cultural change, the Calm Line's supporters believe.

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When Abusers Keep Their Guns

Jennifer Gollan

October 09, 2021 |

Reveal |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

Starting in 1968, Congress has passed a series of laws, as have some states, stripping gun possession rights from people convicted of felonies or of domestic violence, or who are the subjects of restraining orders. But neither federal nor most state authorities do much to enforce the laws, relying instead on an honor system that often fails. Some places, like Washington's King County (Seattle), have done more to track who has guns they are barred from having. Thorough follow-up enables them to confiscate such guns in a process that can be less potentially violent than assumed.

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‘I Don't Want to Hit My Children. I Don't Want to Hit Anybody.'

Rachel Louise Snyder

October 01, 2021 |

The New York Times |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: England

The Respect Phoneline started in the UK in 2004 to give anonymous callers, usually men, a way to seek help for their violent impulses. Rather than putting the burden for resolving domestic violence on survivors and on the punitive tools of the criminal justice system, the hotline approach recognizes that people prone to abusing others are frustrated and unhappy and want to change but need help to figure out how. While the aftermath of anonymous phone counseling can't be tracked, the author observed the process helping many men change their thinking. Similar hotlines have started in multiple places.

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Maybe Cops Shouldn't Handle Domestic Violence Calls

Melissa Jeltsen

September 22, 2021 |

The Cut |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Moab, Utah

The case of Gabby Petito illustrates how decades-old laws meant to make police take domestic violence more seriously can backfire on the people who most need protection. Mandatory-arrest laws require police responding to a domestic-violence complaint to determine who is the primary aggressor, as a prelude to an arrest. In Petito's case, as in many, Moab, Utah, police deemed her the aggressor based on a cursory investigation, and possibly based on ingrained biases against women. This does nothing to get at the root of the problem and get people the help they need.

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He Beat Her Repeatedly. Family Court Tried to Give Him Joint Custody of Their Children.

Megan O'Matz

September 16, 2021 |

ProPublica |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a leader in the movement to treat fathers as equal caregivers and to prioritize shared custody in divorces. But this fathers' rights reform, combined with outmoded ideas about women who allege domestic violence, often forces domestic violence victims to maintain frequent communication with their abusers and to turn over their children to violent former spouses for visits. Although the shared-custody law does exempt cases of serious domestic violence, advocates say the law allows large exceptions, makes proving allegations too hard, and is overseen by courts dismissive of women's allegations.

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‘Every man was drinking': how much do bans on alcohol help women in India?

Preeti Jha

September 14, 2021 |

The Guardian |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: India, Bihar

The Bihar, India, state government banned drinking and selling alcohol in 2016 after women in the mostly rural state mounted protests blaming men's alcohol abuse for rampant violence against women. Hundreds of thousands of arrests, carrying severe penalties, resulted from the ban. Previous bans in Bihar and other states failed because of unpopularity and loopholes. This one has some evidence to suggest a 15% decline in drinking, but only a 4% decline in violence, while bootlegging and other crimes have increased. The prohibition protests have spread to other states.

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