PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Catherine Trapani, Assistant Vice President for Public Policy at Volunteers of America-Greater New York
2:40:26
·
4 min
Catherine Trapani from Volunteers of America-Greater New York provided testimony on domestic violence shelters and services. She addressed questions about time limits for asylum seekers in DV shelters, highlighted their organization's work in screening for traumatic brain injury among survivors, and emphasized the need for enhanced services and data collection.
- Clarified that asylum seekers in DV shelters are not subject to time limits
- Discussed their pioneering work in screening for traumatic brain injury among DV survivors
- Emphasized the need for aligning DHS and DV shelter systems and expanding access to community-based DV services
Catherine Trapani
2:40:26
Good afternoon.
2:40:28
Sorry, I'm and try to move closer.
2:40:29
Thank you so much.
2:40:31
My name is Catherine Chapani.
2:40:32
I'm the assistant vice president for public policy at volunteers of America, Greater New York.
2:40:37
We operate 6 emergency domestic violence shelters, 1 tier 2 shall Walter and several other facilities on the DHS side of the shop for families with children as well as single adults.
2:40:48
I will submit written testimony with more details from from our teams on the ground with things that we want the council to know as well as comments on the legislation, but I wanna just briefly use this time to touch on some things that have come up today.
2:41:00
So the first thing, Cherry Ale, you had been asking questions about whether or not persons from hertz or asylum seekers are subject to time limits on the DV side.
2:41:10
They're not.
2:41:11
So I am pleased to tell you that we operate 2 shelter no.
2:41:15
3 shelters for asylum seekers that will soon be subject to time limits, and we are proactive actively screening anyone there to see if they're survivors, to try to move them over to vacancies in our BTV portfolio so that they can stay in the care of volunteers of America and not have to have even shorter time frames.
2:41:32
And we are encouraging all of our sort of partners out there to do that proactive DV screening so that if we can take them in because they we weirdly do have vacancies on the DV side, that that'll be a more stable place.
2:41:45
So I just wanted to assure you that that is we're attempting to make that happen because we're thinking along the same lines.
2:41:51
The other thing that I think is unique to our shelter programs is that we try to offer enhanced services to survivors, particularly those that are impacted by traumatic brain injury or brain trauma, around 2 thirds of survivors that are in our shelters that we have done a first in nation screening protocol that has identified symptoms of traumatic brain injury.
2:42:11
And we know that survivors very often have suffered in injuries to the head or the neck that are consistent with brain trauma, but very often it goes undiagnosed and is is mistaken for other behavioral health issues because the symptoms can really be very similar.
2:42:27
So for example, you know, feeling scattered, fatigues, anxious, those kinds of things, people will think that that's a mental health issue when in fact there might be a physical cause.
2:42:35
And so we have really pioneered this model to do the proactive screening and then adjust our programmatic offerings like workforce development and other things to make accommodations for persons with TBI so that they can thrive and be successful when they transition into the community.
2:42:52
And so majority leader, Fidias, has a bill intro 29 that would expand that's training on TVIs for first responders to DV, so more people can do that.
2:43:01
Now it's not the subject of today's hearing, but it feels very relevant because the long term stability of survivors really depends on our ability to identify what their service needs are, both while they're in shell and when they transitioned to housing.
2:43:13
So I just wanted to make sure that we had a chance to kinda touch on that.
2:43:16
But in my written testimony, you're gonna find some recommendations on how to enhance services to survivors both on the DV Shelf sir side, which centers around some of the recommendations of my colleagues, such as eliminating arbitrary time limits by supporting the cruise oilman's SQL bill up in Albany, implementing the DV safe act to increase access to single survivors, which we've talked a lot about and that on the DHS side, just really owning and recognizing that those DHS shelters that even we operate are not equipped with the same survivor centered care that you can get on the DV shelter.
2:43:50
So really aligning and rightsizing the systems are super critical.
2:43:54
And then expanding access to community based DV services to accommodate persons that are transitioning out of shelter or who have been placed in a DHS shelter for lack of space so that people can have seamless access to A lot of the existing networks of FJCs and non rest providers that we heard about from the administration this morning are focused on persons in emergency situations.
2:44:17
And so for things like aftercare or long term stability services, it just doesn't feel like the fit are accessible, so there's just a gap that we hope can get filled.
2:44:27
So just want to thank you for holding this hearing.
2:44:30
Thank you for your attention to data.
2:44:31
Near and dear to my heart, I ran the statistics for advocacy program New Destiny for 9 years before my career changed.
2:44:38
So appreciate you, have some notes in the written, and certainly look forward to keep working with both of you on these important issues.
2:44:44
So thanks.
