You Deserve to Be Safe And More

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - You deserve to be safe—and safety is just the baseline of what we deserve in relationships.

We all deserve to:

• Receive encouragement in pursuing our educational and career goals
• Go home to an environment where we can decompress, be comfortable, and be supported
• Maintain ongoing connections with friends and family
• Feel free and confident in expressing our thoughts, dreams and opinions to our partners

Domestic violence is a series of behaviors that attempt to control one's partner, so if you ask someone in an abusive relationship, they'll say these concepts are missing from their life.

And when survivors face multiple oppressions, the struggle of an abusive relationship is compounded. Jacquie Marroquin, the Partnership's Capacity-Building Program Manager, offers an analogy to illustrate this concept.

"[There's] this layering effect," Marroquin said. "It's almost like you take one sheet and put it over a person, and that's the issue of domestic violence. Look[ing] through one sheet and try[ing] to make your way across the room to whatever it is you need to do can be difficult."

"But you add to that the layer of being an undocumented immigrant in a place where there's lots of anti-immigrant sentiment... You add to that…another sheet—someone who doesn't speak English...You [can] have five or ten sheets on top of you, and all of a sudden, you can't breathe, you can't move, you can't see."

8,300,000 Californians experience rape, physical violence, and/or stalking in their lifetimes.

They feel the weight of these sheets. And they all deserve our support.

At the Partnership, we believe that achieving safety is just the beginning of that support. And in order to turn the tide on domestic violence, we need to listen to and believe survivors' experiences, provide trauma-informed services, and support their agency and choices on how to heal and move forward.

Domestic violence programs in California are doing this work incredibly well. With limited resources, they support as many survivors as possible. In fact, in just one day in 2015, programs served 5,177 children and adults.

There were still 1,091 survivors who could not be served due to limited resources. Adding to the fact that domestic violence programs in California also act as prevention advocates, it's easy to see the tremendous benefit they provide to their communities. What can you do to ensure that these programs continue to do this important work? Here are just a few options:

• Tell your elected representative that you support domestic violence prevention: sign this petition for AB 1399, an important bill that would create a voluntary tax contribution benefiting domestic violence organizations.
• Support domestic and sexual violence prevention by purchasing a specialized license plate for your car!
• Make a difference in your community – volunteer or donate to your local domestic violence program.

With the smart investment of prevention, we can get ahead of the crisis of domestic violence so that young people and future generations won't have to face abusive relationships.

We can truly get to that place beyond safety and achieve healthy relationships. Besides increasing funding for prevention work, we can also encourage education leaders in California to support young Californians as they begin to form their first relationships in middle and high school.

Remember, because domestic violence is a learned behavior, schools can reinforce healthy relationship skills early to make a significant impact.

You can help make this a reality -- Contact your local middle- and high-school school boards and encourage them to strengthen efforts to prevent teen dating violence.

Because domestic violence is a learned behavior, schools can reinforce healthy relationship skills early to make a significant impact. You can help make this a reality:

• Contact your local middle- and high-school school boards and encourage them to strengthen efforts to prevent teen dating violence.

At the Partnership, we are tenacious about the public policy, capacity building, and communications strategies that make prevention and intervention possible. You can join our mighty movement of over 1,000 advocates, organizations, and allies, and help us end domestic violence. The first requirement to reaching one's full potential is safety—and together, we can create a California that also prioritizes what comes after safety: healthy, respectful, equitable relationships. For more information about the Partnership and our role in the You Deserve to Be Safe Campaign, visit our website.