Within the DV movement, our dedication to that first and most elemental step—ensuring that there is a route toward safety—is reflected in our decades long commitment to building and protecting emergency shelter capacity. Yet today, some communities are implementing new service models less reliant on emergency shelter as survivors’ primary gateway to domestic violence advocacy and aimed instead at being more responsive to the specific needs of each survivor. And some shelters are closing their doors. Is this a sign that we are losing ground—or that we are becoming more flexible?
A change from the traditional communal living shelters, which are important and cherished programs, is gut-wrenching for many of us. However, in many ways it’s our success that has brought us to this important juncture as a movement and opened the way to a re-envisioning of the work ahead. Having created more avenues to basic safety in many communities, we can turn our focus to developing new approaches to assisting survivors who are still isolated from help or who need resources other than emergency services.
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