National Domestic Violence Hotline
 |
 |
|
Family violence wasn't news to Bill Clinton. He had seen his step-father beat up his mother. He was aware that there are more than 4 million victims of domestic violence in the United States every year. As part of his 1994 Crime bill, President Clinton established the Violence Against Women Act, which contained a provision to create a national domestic violence hotline. When the Department of Health and Human Services went looking for a well-organized agency to give a $1 million start-up grant to implement the hotline, they chose the Texas Council on Family Violence, a leader among statewide coalitions. Based in Austin, Texas, the Texas Council had supported battered women's shelters and other domestic violence programs since 1978. 
For nearly two years before the bill was introduced, Ellen Rubenstein Fisher (UT MSSW '74), the associate director of the Texas Council, had been working with her colleagues to create a domestic violence hotline. "The idea was very appealing to me because the need was so great," says Fisher, a social worker with two decades of professional experience in the field of family violence. "We were already doing a feasibility study for a proposed hotline when President Clinton signed the bill." HHS granted $1 million in federal funds to the Texas Council, with an additional $400,000 in annual funding to maintain the service for five years. The Texas Council raised $250,000 on its own to supplement the funding. 
The National Domestic Violence Hotline opened in February 1996 with a speech by President Clinton in the Lincoln Room of the White House, followed by a press conference. In his remarks the President recognized Ellen Fisher and the Texas Council on Family Violence for their crucial efforts in establishing the hotline. The project received an additional boost in May 1997 when Vice President Al Gore and the Postmaster General launched a campaign that printed the hotline phone number (1-800-799-7233) on the back of the 29-cent stamp booklet. Located and staffed in Austin, the hotline utilizes 48 incoming lines, including three for the hearing impaired. It operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Spanish speakers are part of the hotline team, and translators are available in 140 other languages. 
Many victims of domestic violence do not know how to access services and face a variety of obstacles when seeking help. These obstacles include pervasive myths and stereotypes about domestic violence and a lack of knowledge about legal options and counseling. The first step to ending the violence often begins with a telephone call. When a caller phones the National Domestic Violence Hotline, she speaks to a trained professional with access to a national database that contains information on emergency shelters, legal advocacy, social services, and other programs in the caller's community. From the outset the hotline has been an overwhelming success. UT School of Social Work's Professor David Austin maintains that the NDVH "is a more coordinated, responsive, far-reaching service for victims of domestic violence than has ever existed nationwide." 
But officials had not anticipated the volume of calls--10,000 a month, many from women who had never sought help before. "This has been both exhilarating and terrifying," says Ellen Fisher. "The calls suggest that domestic abuse has been significantly underreported." Fisher served as executive director of the hotline until October 1997. She is proud that the program drew the attention and support of several national leaders. First lady Hillary Clinton visited the Austin home office and spoke with Fisher about the importance of the service. When Donna Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services, scheduled an appearance at the hotline, she listened to phone calls and spoke with the staff about the significance of their work. 
"Planning and opening the National Domestic Violence Hotline was a wonderful, exhausting, and extremely rewarding experience," says Fisher. "I am fortunate to have used my skills to create a service that has helped over 300,000 callers since it began. The hotline is a testament to women and children throughout our country who struggle to escape domestic and sexual violence, and to those who are trying to end this violence in local communities everywhere." Fisher credits two of her University of Texas social work professors in the early '70s, David Austin and Jim Payne, for "profoundly influencing me" to become a community activist. A proposal Fisher wrote in Jim Payne's class led to the creation of Austin's Rape Crisis Center. 
"They came from real-world experience. They taught me that social work should be personal and interactive--and that activism can improve a neighborhood or an entire community," Fisher says. "They believed that we can all make a difference." Ellen Fisher is now the coordinator of the Insure.a.Kid Program, an outreach effort designed to enroll families with insurance. The program is funded by Michael and Susan Dell.
|
||
 |
 |