Underserved Populations

We want to have members of the underserved populations join the Committee, as well as those providing services to them, and those with expertise in issues affecting them. So far, we have identified the following underserved populations (feel free to suggest others, and to share your thoughts on how best to describe or identify them):

1. Women of color

2. Survivors with Limited English Proficiency

3. Members of the farmworker community

4. Members of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Questioning community

5. Spouses and partners of military personnel

6. Spouses and partners of members of law enforcement

7. Undocumented individuals from foreign countries and members of Indigenous Populations

8. Children in households experiencing domestic violence or sexual assault

9. Women with disabilities

10. Women from countries with a cultural bias toward male dominance

11. The elderly

12. Women in insular communities

13. Women who are economically disadvantaged

14. Native Americans

To apply to join, or to send comments and suggestions, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

Report -- Meeting of the UPC Committee - Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

 The Committee met at the CIL, and addressed a variety of issues, summarized below:

  Need for Outreach and Education - 
The UPC Committee discussed the need to increase membership. Possible solutions:

• Identify schedule of meetings of other organizations serving members of underserved populations and attend their meetings to let them know about the UPC Blog and Committee goals. Invite them to join the UPC Committee.

• Participate in events in the community and share literature and information. Seek to have Committee members added as speakers at community events.

• Get websites to add a link to the Committee's Blog (www.underservedpopulationscommittee.org)

• We created subcommittees -- each underserved population will have a subcommittee, and will develop goals and means of achieving the goals. If you are interested in joining a subcommittee, let us know by contacting Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or by phone, at 305-896-3000.

•  Education and Outreach Campaigns --  We will develop specific campaigns to enhance awareness of the Committee -- Suggested Campaigns include:

 The Prejudice Has Consequences Campaign:
This campaign will educate members of the community about how attitudes and prejudices result in violence against individuals who are members of underserved populations, and will seek to identify ways to raise consciousness about cultural sensitivity, myths and stereotypes, hate crimes, and language concerns.Please let us know if you are interested in getting involved with this campaign.

The Ambassador Campaign:
Often, those seeking to provide services to members of underserved population are uncertain about how best to address their needs, and often fee uncomfortable about language, social customs, and other features of the culture of the underserved population. This Campaign seeks to identify members of the various underserved populations and utilize their life experience and expertise to educate others and build bridges. Training in public speaking will be offered.Please let us know if you are interested in getting involved with this campaign.

The Speakers Bureau Campaign:
This Campaign seeks to identify speakers interested in educating others about the matters of concern to the particular underserved population, and seeks to provide speakers to other groups to enhance their understanding of the population. This Campaign also seeks to identify individuals with subject matter expertise to share their ideas with Committee members, DVSAC, and groups interested in learning from them. Please let us know if you are interested in getting involved with this campaign

Committee meetings will be held every month, at the CIL of South Florida, located at 6660 Biscayne Blvd., in Miami, Limited parking is available on-site. Call Marc at 305-896-3000 with any questions, ideas, or concerns or write to the Committee at mdubin@pobox.com..You may also participate by phone, by calling 800-204-5502 - The participation code is 938460#.


Visit this Blog (www.underservedpopulationscommittee.org) for updates, or add your name and email address to our listerv, by writing to Marc at mdubin@pobox.com..

 The Underserved Populations Committee is a project of the DVSAC (Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Council) of Miami Dade County.



To apply to join, or to send comments and suggestions, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

Sexual Violence and Native American Women

Study:

"34% of American Indian women reported experiencing an attempted or completed

rape in their lifetime, compared with 18.8%of African American women, 17.7% of white women, and 6.8% of Asian American women ([29]Tjaden & Thoennes, 2006). Population specific research suggests that American Indians are reticent to report their victimization ([30]Wahab & Olson, 2004). 

Estimates of underreporting suggest 70% of sexual assaults of American Indians go unreported [31]Wahab & Olson, 2004). Reasons include fear of white agencies'racism, fear of being ostracized by family and friends, guilt,

shame, and not knowing in which jurisdiction to report the crime ([32]Wahab &

 Olson, 2004)."

To apply to join, or to send comments and suggestions, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

Groundbreaking study finds pervasive discrimination against transgender people

Groundbreaking study finds pervasive discrimination against transgender people

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE) released a comprehensive new report yesterday, “Injustice at Every Turn,” revealing the depth of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people in a wide range of areas, including education, health care, employment, and housing.    Based on responses from over 6,450 participants, the report is the first large-scale national study of discrimination against transgender and gender non-conforming people. The results are astonishing and alarming: 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide, compared to only 1.6% of the general population. Respondents were twice as likely to be unemployed as the population as a whole.  One in five respondents experienced homelessness because of their gender identity or expression. Respondents were nearly four times more likely to live in extreme poverty, with household income of less than $10,000. Yet, despite these hardships, transgender and gender non-conforming persons persevere. Over 78% reported feeling more comfortable at work and their performance improving after transitioning, despite the same levels of harassment in the workplace. No one should be out of a job, living in poverty, or faced with sub-par health care simply because of their gender identity or expression. The scope of the problem is clear.  It's up to all of us to work towards a solution. Learn more about the survey, and visit endtransdiscrimination.org to get involved and take action.

To apply to join, or to send comments and suggestions, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

Report about women veterans

"The purpose of this Brief is to describe the number and characteristics of women veterans in the United States and California. This information is excerpted from the CRB Report, California’s Women Veterans: The Challenges and Needs of Those Who Served, August 2009. The full report is available at http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/09/09-009.pdf.

To apply to join, or to send comments and suggestions, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

Sexual Assault Left Out of Military’s PTSD Reform

 From July, 2010:
On Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced reforms to the rules for claiming veterans’ benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder. The White House says the move will ease the burden of proof that veterans face when trying to prove the mental wounds of war. But the new regulations are silent on the suffering of women who have experienced sexual trauma in the military.
The new rules essentially give vets a greater benefit of the doubt by simplifying the process for proving a PTSD claim, as long as a VA-approved psychologist or psychiatrist affirms that it is “consistent with the places, types, and circumstances of the Veteran’s service.”

But the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN), an advocacy group for current and former military women, has warned that the new criteria do not apply equally to the process of proving sexual assault related to military service.
Despite study after study showing that military sexual trauma (MST) is both widespread and underreported in all branches of the military, the VA has been accused of ignoring many cases of sexual harassment, rape and other sexual crimes that fall outside the conventional categories of combat injuries. The new PTSD regulations thus offer little comfort to the traumatized victims of sexual abuse, who already struggle with stigma, shame and fear.
Anuradha K. Bhagwati, a former Marine captain and executive director of SWAN, recently testified before Congress:

Filing for disability compensation for MST is universally considered a traumatic, agonizing, and cruel experience. Many survivors describe the process of re-writing one’s personal narrative for a VA claim as just as traumatic as the original rape or harassment. VBA claims officers nationwide have proven themselves entirely inept when dealing with MST claims. Claims are routinely rejected, even with sufficient evidence of a stressor and a corroborating diagnosis from a VA health provider. Many survivors’ claims are rejected because of VBA’s lack of knowledge about sexual violence…
Current VBA policy is forcing women and men with insufficient evidence of their assault and harassment to suffer in silence and shame, to numb their pain through use of substances, and to take or attempt to take their own lives.

Going forward, the service women who will be affected by the new VA policy are disproportionately women of color. As Colorlines reported back in 2008, women of color in the military may struggle against racial barriers within their own ranks; when sexual assault or abuse enters the picture, inequalities in access to VA services could be psychologically crippling.
Bhagwati argued in a New York Times roundtable last week, “The V.A.’s double standard when it comes to survivors of sexual trauma is shameful. We’ve got nothing to celebrate until all sources of P.T.S.D. are considered equal.”
The debate will likely continue as Congress weighs the COMBAT PTSD Act, which would further ease the claims process by enabling vets to rely on evidence provided by private mental health workers rather than just VA-approved clinicians, who may be biased in their diagnosis, or inaccessible to veterans living in underserved communities.

For now, it looks like survivors of military sexual trauma will continue to face discrimination when they come forward, whether to seek justice or just to receive basic mental health care. Their silent struggle for equity shows that for all the talk about soldiers being equal when they wear the uniform, race and gender still color the military experience in unspoken ways.
Photo: SWAN

To apply to join, or to send comments and suggestions, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

Males Can't Be "Forcibly Raped"-- According to the FBI

In a belated stroke of political expediency, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and company have replaced the "forcible rape" term in their still-problematic "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act" with "rape" so that it covers all forms of it. Maybe the FBI should consider following suit.
The top law enforcement agency in the land uses this term in its Uniform Crime Report (UCR) to tally up how many violent (as opposed to, say, statutory) rapes have occurred nationwide. But according to this FBI FAQ on the matter, the UCR excludes male victims. (And I swear on a stack of various religious texts that the only editing I've done here is deleting broken links):
For UCR reporting purposes, can a male be raped?
No. The UCR Program defines forcible rape as "The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will." In addition, "By definition, sexual attacks on males are excluded from the rape category and must be classified as assaults or other sex offenses depending...
Click here to read the entire article...

See http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/02/in_a_belated_stroke_of.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+racewireblog+%28ColorLines%29





To apply to join, or to send comments and suggestions, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

DOJ Grant Opportunity:Education, Training and Enhanced Services to End Violence Against and Abuse of Women With Disabilities

 

Sponsor: Violence Against Women Office/Department of Justice

Program Number: 66106

Title: Education, Training and Enhanced Services to End Violence Against and Abuse of Women With Disabilities                                                                                                                                                        

E-mail: ovw.disabilities@usdoj.gov

Web Site: http://www07.grants.gov/search/search.do;jsessionid=dTddNJLQy1TQ1tnxz60CMCHG1G4Nxzpl2BbVhDXq2rS0cSQ2gPSp!601943564?oppId=67913&mode=VIEW

Program URL: http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/docs/women-disabilities.pdf

SYNOPSIS:  The Disability Education Grants program will provide

education and technical assistance in the form of training,

consultations, and information to organizations and programs that

provide services to individuals with disabilities and to domestic

violence programs providing shelter or related assistance.  Examples

of organizations that may receive education and assistance include:

Disability-related service organizations; Domestic violence programs

(including shelters); Sexual assault programs (including rape crisis

centers); Independent Living Centers; and Faith- and community-based

organizations (which include services that are utilized by persons

with disabilities, but are not disability specific services, such as

libraries, public transportation, job training programs).

Deadline(s): 03/03/2011

                  03/17/2011

DEADLINE NOTE

Optional Letters of Intent to apply are due March 3, 2011.  All

applicants should register online with Grants.gov by March 3, 2011.

All applications are due by March 17, 2011.

To apply to join, or to send comments and suggestions, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act)

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Affordable Care Act) includes the most significant improvements to the quality and safety of long-term care in the last 20 years and the most comprehensive federal effort ever to fight elder abuse. These important provisions will improve the lives of millions of seniors and people with disabilities who receive longterm care services, either in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes, or in their own homes.

The health reform law includes three sections aimed at improving the lives of seniors and people with disabilities. Each of these sections would have been considered landmark legislation if enacted on its own. The first, the Elder Justice Act, seeks to combat crimes committed against older people, including financial exploitation and physical and mental abuse. Its companion, the Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act, goes a long way toward ensuring that the people who provide care to our seniors and people with disabilities
provide a safe environment and do not abuse or neglect them. And, finally, the Nursing Home Transparency and Improvement Act will increase transparency and accountability in nursing homes so people will have the information they need to evaluate and compare facilities.

Protecting Vulnerable Seniors and People with Disabilities From Abuse and Exploitation

Through the Elder Justice Act provisions of the Affordable Care Act, for the first time, there will now be a dedicated source of federal funding for Adult Protective Services offices—state agencies that provide services to abused, neglected, or exploited seniors and people with disabilities. These offices provide a range of services to vulnerable adults, from investigating claims of neglect to legal intervention. Some states restrict services to seniors only, while others offer services to all adults over 18 years of age. Over the next four years, the law authorizes $400 million in new funds for Adult Protective Services agencies to investigate
cases of neglect, abuse, or exploitation. The law also authorizes $100 million additional dollars for states to set up programs to test different ways to improve Adult Protective Services.

To apply to join, or to send comments and suggestions, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

Report: "Injustice on Our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry,"

 The report, "Injustice on Our Plates: Immigrant Women in the U.S. Food Industry," compiles the experiences of 150 immigrant women who came from Mexico or other Latin American countries to work in the food industry, both in fields and in factories, across the United States. The picture it paints is grim. Women, who make up nearly a quarter of U.S. farmworkers, face the same indignities that immigrant men face -- and then some.


To apply to join, or to send comments and suggestions, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

State law changes regarding dating violence

"...The Barwick-Ruschak Act, effective Oct. 1, 2008, is the latest law to empower dating-violence victims. In the past, those cases were not treated as domestic-violence cases. The law was named after University of Central Florida students Tiffany Barwick and Michael Ruschak, who in 2007 were fatally gunned down by Barwick's estranged boyfriend, Andrew Allred, in Oviedo.

The law extends to victims of dating violence the same type of protection victims of domestic violence have. Those include referral to a local domestic-violence center; the ability to file a criminal complaint with the state attorney; a police report of the alleged dating-violence incident regardless of whether or not an arrest is made; and assurance that the perpetrator will be held in custody until a first appearance in court.

Those protections previously applied only to married couples or unmarried couples who had children in common.


In order to receive those protections, however, a romantic dating relationship must have been established between a victim and the alleged perpetrator for at least six months. ...

A new law, effective this year, requires Florida school districts to include dating violence in health education curriculums and makes resources available to students who are victims of dating violence."


See full article --


To apply to join, or to send comments and suggestions, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

Invitation to apply to join the Underserved Populations Committee

Please consider participating in a new project designed to enhance services to underserved populations confronting domestic violence and sexual assault, a project based in Miami-Dade, Florida – the Underserved Populations Committee of DVSAC (the Domestic Violence Sexual Assault Council).

DVSAC’s website is located at http://www.dvsacmiami.org/, and the Underserved Population Committee’s Blog is located at http://underservedpopulationscommitteeblog.blogspot.com/.

According to the DVSAC website:

“The Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Council of Greater Miami (DVSAC) is the result of a community-based effort that began in 2001. This process produced the Miami-Dade County Domestic Violence Report Assessment of Gaps in Services, which was published on December 15, 2003. The primary recommendation of the DV Report was creation of a multidisciplinary community-based Council to provide an ongoing forum for discussion, collaboration, and resolution to systemic issues….”

The Underserved Population Committee (UPC) was recently created to give voice to survivors and organizations serving survivors whose needs have often been marginalized, and is an effort to identify and enhance services to these communities. I have the honor and privilege to serve as Chair of the Underserved Populations Committee and as Co-Chair of DVSAC.

At our recent inaugural meeting, we identified a variety of underserved communities – we welcome suggestions about this, including how best to describe them, websites of interest, individuals to invite, and organizations to invite.

While membership to the DVSAC is limited to those working in Miami-Dade County, I am opening up membership in the UPC Committee nationwide. Monthly meetings will be held, and can be attended by conference call. See http://underservedpopulationscommitteeblog.blogspot.com/p/committee-meetings.html

The next meeting of the Committee is scheduled to take place on Thursday, March 3rd, from 10 am - 12 noon. See http://underservedpopulationscommitteeblog.blogspot.com/p/committee-meetings.html If you plan to participate, please let me know, and please fill out and return the membership form. See http://underservedpopulationscommitteeblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/application-to-join-upc-committee.html

The conference call information is as follows: 800-204-5502 Pin 938460#

We want to have members of the underserved populations join the Committee, as well as those providing services to them, and those with expertise in issues affecting them. So far, we have identified the following underserved populations (feel free to suggest others, and to share your thoughts on how best to describe or identify them):

1. Women of color

2. Survivors with Limited English Proficiency

3. Members of the farmworker community

4. Members of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, and Questioning community

5. Spouses and partners of military personnel

6. Spouses and partners of members of law enforcement

7. Undocumented individuals from foreign countries and members of Indigenous Populations

8. Children in households experiencing domestic violence or sexual assault

9. Women with disabilities

10. Women from countries with a cultural bias toward male dominance

11. The elderly

12. Women in insular communities

13. Women who are economically disadvantaged

14. Native Americans

I want to tap into your expertise and experience. Please let me know if you are interested in joining, or in helping us in any way. Guest speakers and suggestions would be particularly welcome, as would brochures and technical assistance.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

Marc

Marc Dubin, Esq.

Co-Chair, DVSAC of Greater Miami

Chair, Underserved Populations Response Committee, DVSAC

http://www.dvsacmiami.org/

www.dvsacblog.org

http://underservedpopulationscommitteeblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/application-to-join-upc-committee.html

mdubin@pobox.com

305-896-3000 (mobile)

fax: 877-731-3030

To apply to join, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.

U.S. DOJ -- First Estimates of Crime Against People with Disabilities

The U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has issued the first estimates of crime against people with disabilities.

Using 2007 National Crime Victimization Survey data, BJS estimates that about one third (34%) of the crimes against persons with or without a disability in 2007 were serious violent crimes (rape/sexual assault, robbery, or aggravated assault). Persons with disabilities were victims of about 47,000 rapes, 79,000 robberies, 114,000 aggravated assaults, and 476,000 simple assaults.

Other findings include:

The rate of nonfatal violent crimes against people with disabilities was 1.5 times higher than the rate for people without disabilities.

Rates of rape and sexual assault were more than twice those for people without disabilities.

Youth with a disability ages 12 to 19 experienced violence at nearly twice the rate as those without a disability.

People with cognitive disabilities had a higher risk of violent victimization than persons with any other type of disability.

People with multiple disabilities accounted for about 56% of all violent crime victimizations against those with any disability.

Nearly 1 in 5 violent crime victims with a disability believed that they became a victim because of their disability.

Similar percentages of victims of violent crime with disabilities (58%) and without disabilities (60%) resisted their attackers.

Police did not respond to about 23% of reported violent crimes against people with disabilities, compared to about 10% of reported violent crimes against victims without disabilities.

The Crime Victims with Disabilities Awareness Act (Public Law 105-301), 1998, required the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to measure the victimization of people with disabilities.

For more information, read the Department of Justice press release: First National Study on Crime Against People with Disabilities

Read the text-only version of the report: Crime Against People with Disabilities

Read the PDF version of the report: Crime Against People with Disabilities (PDF file)

To apply to join, contact Marc Dubin, Esq., Chair, at mdubin@pobox.com or at 305 896 3000.