Economic Security for Survivors (ESS) Project
Continuing WOW's Commitment to Working with Special Populations
Project Description |
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Economic security and career literacy are often overlooked when providing urgent assistance to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking. Yet the long-term prospects for continued safety are greatly diminished without economic security. Survivors can fall victim to a broad spectrum of economic abuses and may experience financial implications that can have a lasting impact on their ability to heal, become self-sufficient and recoup economic losses.
As a result of violence, survivors may experience:
- Dependency on the abuser in order to satisfy basic needs
- Loss of employment
- Eviction and damaged tenant history
- Inability to pay off debt resulting in a bad credit score
- Loss or destruction of personal property
- Fraud or identity theft
- Inability to safely collect child support
Through the Economic Security for Survivors (ESS) Project, WOW is committed to providing training and technical assistance to those who assist surviviors on a daily basis. This project seeks to enhance victim services by providing strategies, tools and knowledge that can provide survivors with the resources they need to become economically secure.
Through a series of webinars, trainings, best practices and on-site technical assistance, WOW will strengthen victim service programs by:
- Equipping advocates with the information and resources they need to better counsel survivors in economic self-sufficiency and career planning
- Sharing tools to calculate cost of being economically secure (including the Basic Economic Security Tables and Self-Sufficiency Standard)
- Providing valuable information on green and nontraditional jobs for women
- Building linkages within the coordinated community response model to programs that can help survivors move on a pathway to economic security
For more information, please contact Sarah Gonzalez Bocinski at sbocinski@wowonline.org.