ReZoom

Region #2: Portland, OR

The American Domestic Violence Crisis Line (ADVCL) serves Americans who have been abused in foreign countries. The founder, Paula Lucas, fled another country with her three children after enduring 12 years of domestic abuse. After experiencing the lack of services for her and her children both abroad and after she returned home, she decided to help others in similar situations. The organization believes the best human relationships are characterized by mutual respect, open communication and individual empowerment. ADVCL's vision is to make sure women are treated with respect, dignity and compassion. The group has helped an estimated 1,000 families since 2001.

Winning Regional Essay

"The American Domestic Violence Crisis Line, (ADVCL), 866-USWOMEN, operates the only international toll free domestic violence hotline serving abused American women and children living in foreign countries. The line is currently toll free from 175 countries. Our target population is the estimated six to seven million American civilians and military living in foreign countries. Officially, 4.2 million civilians are registered with American Embassies along with all of the military personnel and their families."

"To give a perspective of the size of the civilian population we serve, if the number of Americans registered with embassies were placed in one state, it would be the 25th most populous state in the nation. Although no statistics exist for abuse in this population, applying abuse statistics in the USA to our target population, an estimated 57,000 women and 45,000 children are abused annually. ADVCL began crisis line operations in April 2001 just two years after Paula Lucas, Founder and Executive Director, finally escaped a foreign country with her three children to flee 12 years of domestic violence and child abuse. Frustrated at the absence of services for her and her children while overseas, and shocked at the legal obstacles she encountered upon her return home to be able to keep her American children in their own country, Paula was determined that other American women & children would not need to suffer the same fate. Paula first founded the non-profit organization as an online resource for abused Americans living in foreign countries in September 1999."

"At that time, she and her children were still homeless themselves, living in a domestic violence shelter. Since 2001, the organization's crisis line advocates have served an estimated 1,000 families on the crisis line, providing crisis intervention, domestic violence advocacy, case management, safety planning, information & referral. Also since 2001, the organization has provided danger to safety trans-national relocation to 26 families back to the USA, paid 13 legal retainers to enable battered mothers to file for custody of their children in the USA, provided professional counseling to 19 abuse survivors and placed three families into a one-year transitional housing program. In 2006 alone, crisis advocates received 1,158 crisis calls and emails, providing services to 248 families in 47 countries. Collectively volunteer advocates volunteered 3,849 hours on the crisis line in 2006. The crisis line currently operates continuously from 9 a.m. Monday PST through Friday 11 p.m. PST."

"The American Domestic Violence Crisis Line, ADVCL, is dedicated to serve the American civilian and military population living in foreign countries. This presents a unique funding dilemma as most grants are population and/or geographically specific within the USA."

"The millions of Americans living in foreign countries do not have representation on Capitol Hill. Imagine states like Colorado, South Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana or Alabama with no representation in Washington. How would those states fund social services?"

"This is what ADVCL faces daily. These is little hope of securing government funding until American citizens living overseas have representation for their interests on Capitol Hill."

If They Won the $100,000 National Award ...

"If ADVCL won the $100,000.00, we would divide the funds to have the most impact to enable us to expand the services and effectiveness of the organization and develop additional funding streams to stabilize operations and ensure long term viability. This would include a matrix of outreach, education and training, hiring of an additional crisis line advocate, support of the international toll free crisis line and capacity building."

$20,000.00 to worldwide outreach efforts
"The women and children we serve are scattered all over the world, not in one geographical area, which would make outreach efforts much easier. In 2005, we produced 4,000 outreach brochures and sent them around the world to American Embassies, expatriate women's groups, faith-based organizations and American schools. Our most effective partners in this effort were the American Embassies and the Federation of American Women's Clubs Overseas, (FAWCO). We need to expand that effort again in 2007 to cast an even wider net to reach more victims in need."

"With these funds, we would produce 100,000 domestic violence safety cards. Eighty percent of these would be distributed to American Embassies and FAWCO clubs to give to abuse victims when they seek help. These cards would include all of the information necessary to contact ADVCL. We would coordinate these efforts with the Overseas Citizens Bureau, US Department of State and FAWCO headquarters to assist with distribution to minimize costs of shipping."

"Twenty percent of these would be distributed to domestic violence shelters in the USA as many American victims flee back home trans-nationally and go into local shelters. These local shelters are unaware of our services and the expertise we can offer these victims in terms of assisting them with filing for custody of their children in the USA and navigating the complicated international treaties that can work against them when they flee back home."

"The most efficient way to distribute these within the USA is through the State Domestic Violence Coalitions. Each year state domestic violence coalitions hold annual conferences and information packets are distributed at the beginning of the conference. As it is not financially feasible for an ADVCL staff person to attend each of the 50 conferences, we would identify a point person in each of the 50 coalitions that we will send our information to, who will then ensure ADVCL's information is given to each attendee. Follow-up by phone and fax would be conducted following each conference."

"This would also include the hiring of a part-time outreach coordinator, 10 hours per week, to direct the project. In addition, two volunteers at five hours per week would be allocated to support the project for a total of 20 hours per week over one year."

$20,000.00 on education and training
"We would conduct a half-day training seminar to the Overseas Citizens Bureau and Office of Children's Issues both within the US Department of State in Washington DC as they are the entities that are in direct contact with American Embassies overseas when victims report domestic violence and child abuse. The budget for the Washington DC trip would be $2,000 including airfare, accommodation, out of pocket expenses and staff time."

"We would also select six geographical regions at a budget of $3,000 each and present to American Embassies and FAWCO clubs. Geographical selection would be based upon the American expatriate populations, greatest outreach potential, (greatest number of Embassies and FAWCO clubs in the area), maximization of impact and the linguistic skills of ADVCL staff/volunteers selected to conduct trainings. (ADVCL staff and volunteers collectively speak Spanish, French, German, Farsi, Arabic, Polish and Urdu.) In 2006, ADVCL staff members attended the FAWCO conference in Berlin, Germany. They met with Embassy staff in Berlin and Warsaw. This face to face contact proved invaluable in the level of cooperation between the organization and those entities."

$25,000.00 to hire an additional domestic violence advocate
"We have seen an increase in demand of services of over 30 percent in the first four months of 2007 compared to 2006. This money would enable us to hire a full time advocate for the swing shift 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. Volunteers would continue to provide support for the advocate during the swing shift, and would continue to staff the crisis line from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday through Friday. (ADVCL uses a remote access forwarding system so volunteers can answer their crisis calls from home.) While ADVCL volunteers provide numerous services including crisis line advocacy, for consistency, a staff person available during these hours would increase the efficiency and availability of the crisis line."

$10,000.00 to help pay for crisis line operations
"Toll charges on the crisis line are between $1 to $4 per minute depending on which country the victim is calling from. The toll charges are a huge expense for the organization with no dedicated funding available."

$25,000.00 for capacity building
"We would hire a half-time development and fundraising person to identify and develop new funding sources for the organization. With the increase in outreach efforts we would have a proportional increase in demand for services. New funding streams must be secured to ensure long term viability of the organization after the $100,000 is expended."

"We believe the $100,000 distributed as outlined above, will be the most effective use of the funds. Thank you for voting for us!"

Mission Statement

American Domestic Violence Crisis Line helps American women overseas make informed decisions about the abuse in their lives and in the lives of their children through intervention and education. American Domestic Violence Crisis Line provides hope to these victims and offers extensive support services and programs necessary for the women to establish violence-free and economically feasible lives when they make the decision to return to the United States with their children.