PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Elijah Polon Frank, Coordinator of Equity Initiatives at Urban Resource Institute (URI)
2:22:45
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178 sec
Elijah Polon Frank from Urban Resource Institute (URI) testified about the importance of financial empowerment for domestic violence survivors and the challenges they face, particularly regarding childcare access. He emphasized that childcare should be a means for survivors to achieve safety, not a barrier to employment and financial stability.
- URI's Economic Empowerment Program (EEP) supports survivors in achieving economic independence through work readiness programming and career counseling.
- Lack of accessible childcare is a major obstacle for survivors seeking employment, with issues around childcare voucher approval timelines and conditions.
- The EEP has a waitlist of over 100 people due to lack of staffing and is seeking funding to hire more staff and provide childcare support for survivors starting their careers.
Elijah Polon Frank
2:22:45
Good afternoon.
2:22:47
Thank you to the New York City Council, the the Committee on General Welfare, and the Committee on Women and General Equity for the opportunities to present the testimony.
2:22:57
My name is Elijah Polon Frank.
2:22:59
I'm the coordinator of equity initiatives at Urban Resources to its economic empowerment program.
2:23:04
URI's economic empowerment program supports families impacted by domestic violence and homelessness and their journeys to achieve economic independence and growth.
2:23:13
The EEP aims to achieve this goal through work readiness programming, survivor career counseling and job development support.
2:23:20
Financial empowerment for survivors of domestic violence is paramount to achieving safety for themselves and their families.
2:23:26
More than 98% of survivors of domestic violence also experienced financial abuse, presenting a barrier to their journeys of economic empowerment and independence.
2:23:36
The EEP program focuses on equipping these survivors for support to reenter the workforce and obtain employment that offered living wages.
2:23:43
However, one of the main obstacles that survivors experience is the lack of and inaccessibility of childcare.
2:23:49
This lack of childcare for survivors who are seeking employment often forces them to put their job opportunities and subsequent economic freedom on hold.
2:23:58
While social services such as HRA and ACS offer childcare vouchers, these vouchers are often conditional on the fact that survivors can prove that they are employed and can take up to 30 days to process.
2:24:09
I work with survivors who after months of searching for employment get a job offer.
2:24:14
Only to have to turn this offer down due to the fact that even if childcare is approved, they won't have the opportunity to place their children with a reliable provider by the time the job needs them to start working.
2:24:26
Other times, survivors have had to ask family members to take care of the children because they could not afford childcare when they start working with no guarantee that the childcare voucher will even be approved after 30 days.
2:24:37
In some cases, they are approved and the survivor can can continue working only to lose their job later because the voucher expired or is terminated, reversing the efforts they've made to achieve financial stability and independence.
2:24:49
Achieving employment and financial stability is the way that survivors achieve safety.
2:24:54
They should not have to worry that they will be unable to accept a job because it takes too long for their childcare vouchers to be approved and moreover maintain a job due to the fact that their childcare vouchers may be taken away for arbitrary reasons.
2:25:06
Child care should be the means of first survivors to achieve safety, not the barrier.
2:25:10
The EEP's goal is to support survivors on their journeys to financial empowerment and safety, but we currently have a wait list of over 100 people due to the lack of staffing positions available.
2:25:20
The EEP is seeking funding to hire more staff to serve more survivors who are in need of our services.
2:25:26
Further contributions would also give us the ability to provide for survivors who need childcare while they start their careers research for employment.
2:25:34
For survivors of domestic violence, financial empowerment is safety.
2:25:37
Employment is the key to financial stability, and survivors deserve safety above all else.
2:25:42
Thank you very much.
