April 5, 2022

New Britain, CT – With tremendous admiration and appreciation, Prudence Crandall Center (PCC) announces the retirement of Board of Directors member Mary Healey, JD after 18 years of dedicated service to the organization.  Healey joined the Board in 2003 and helped lead the agency during a period of expansion and transformative change.  Drawing on her commitment to the local community and her extensive professional experience, including 10 years as the Consumer Counsel for the State of CT, Healey consistently delivered intellect, passion, and expertise to the PCC Board.

Taking the helm after the late Tony Garro, Healey dedicated her time and talent as the PCC Board President from 2009-2012.  As Board President, Healey set PCC on a path of growth and development, helping to open PCC’s ground-breaking supportive housing programs, which offers victims and their families a safe, stable, and affordable home after seeking shelter.  Reflecting on her time on the Board, Healey commented, “My service at PCC has been personally meaningful to me and my family.  I’ve been honored to be part of an agency that continues to be a leader in a critically important field where it truly saves and transforms lives.”

Among her many talents, Healey was an incredible relationship builder and fundraiser for PCC.  Healey helped shepherd PCC’s successful Bright Futures capital campaign in honor of the agency’s 40^th anniversary.  A tireless advocate for PCC, Healey forged incredible connections within the local community and built a dedicated base of supporters for the agency.  Looking towards the future, Healey expressed her unwavering commitment to the cause and the organization. “I know my family and I will continue to be part of the PCC family, supporting its work.  I encourage others to do so as well because this agency has had a tremendous impact over the past 50 years, but there is still much work to be done.”

Current PCC Board President Michelle Rosa remarked, “Never one to shy away from the tough questions, Mary encouraged fellow Board members to lead with their heart and make a positive impact.  Mary will truly be missed on the Board, but we appreciate her continued support as a PCC advocate in our community.”

During PCC’s most recent Annual Meeting, Board member and Bristol resident Dave Rackliffe (retired Chief Information Officer for Bristol Hospital) was elected Board Treasurer.  Rackliffe brings a wealth of experience to the position and looks forward to leading continued financial growth for the organization.  PCC thanks Lucia Chubet (Partner, Mugford & DiBella, LLC) for her dedication and leadership as outgoing Board Treasurer and is grateful for her continued commitment as a Board member engaging our Southington community.  Joining the Board this year are three new Board members who bring additional critical talent and expertise to the agency’s Board – Brandy Little (Travelers), Brenda Moore (Bristol Housing Authority), and Mary Smith-Floyd (City of New Britain Community Services).

PCC President & CEO, Barbara Damon, commented, “I am incredibly grateful to Mary and the rest of our Board for their leadership and commitment over the past two years, which were particularly challenging for our community and our agency.  Their diversity of skills and experiences, coupled with a passion for our mission, made the impossible possible during the pandemic and enables us to move forward.”

For more information, contact Sarah Hawkes at 860-259-3824 or shawkes@prudencecrandall.org

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Prudence Crandall Center was the first domestic violence program in our state and is the only program serving the communities of Bristol, Berlin, Burlington, Kensington, New Britain, Plainville, Plymouth, Southington and Terryville, with 28 units of supportive housing program open to survivors from throughout the state. Services include a 24-hour crisis hotline, emergency shelter, transitional and permanent supportive housing, court advocacy, counseling, and community education and prevention services. For additional information about Prudence Crandall Center or to donate, please visit www.prudencecrandall.org. To access the 24-hour hotline, call toll-free 888-774-2900. All services are free and confidential.

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As the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched on longer than any of us originally anticipated, the secondary effects of this global crisis continue to play out in communities and homes around the world, and here in Connecticut.

Much attention has rightfully been paid to the impact of the pandemic on various social and economic fronts including mental health, the education achievement gap, workforce problems and more. However, there is another widespread and dire area of concern that has gotten less attention. A shadow pandemic which plays out within our broader public health crisis that is having a particular impact on Connecticut children: domestic violence.

The impact is especially acute for children. For one, remote learning meant more time at home, often with adult family members either working from home or experiencing unemployment. Beyond that, the pandemic has caused fewer children to interact with a variety of systems intended to offer safety and support. When children are not in school, it prevents the ability of teachers and other professionals to notice irregularities in behavior that could be attributable to experiencing or witnessing abuse at home; in fact, the Connecticut Department of Children and Families has reported substantially fewer referrals from educators over the past year. Many social services that help children have also been moved to virtual rather than in-person contact, limiting access to some children who otherwise may have had access to those services.

Unfortunately, here in Connecticut there is currently zero state funding for the social service workers whose primary job function is helping children impacted by domestic violence: Connecticut’s child and family advocates. These advocates work at our state’s 18 domestic violence organizations, and utilize a number of trauma-informed, evidence-based and resiliency-driven approaches to their work. They support both children and nonoffending parents with critical services including counseling, coordinating basic needs, school or child care enrollment, scheduling transportation, and advocating for the child and nonoffending parent/survivor within the courts and our child welfare system.

It’s safe to say that many of us today are consumed with COVID—how not to get sick, how to get people vaccinated, how to keep kids safely in school, how to reopen businesses and how to recognize and treat mental health issues exacerbated by the pandemic.

What I have not heard spoken about in any meaningful way is domestic violence. In fact, the very steps that we have taken to prevent the spread of the virus—quarantines, stay-at-home orders, school closures, economic shutdowns and working remotely—have often created new occasions for abuse. Months of unpaid rent, mounting bills, increased consumption of alcohol, sickness and isolation have not only caused instances of abuse to escalate, but these same factors have contributed to the feeling of helplessness that many victims experience. In much of the world, shelters and legal services are limited or nonexistent. If they do exist, they are likely to be overstretched and under-resourced. In some parts of the world, the United Nations is calling this a “shadow pandemic.”

While men and boys suffer, women and girls are more often the victims, and LGBTQ and nonbinary people are at a heightened risk. Women in marginalized groups, such as refugees, are even more likely to feel helpless.

In the past, the number of domestic violence incidents in the United States was determined largely from police reports. More recent reliance on police call logs, domestic violence crime reports, emergency hotline registries, health records reports, court cases, calls to hotlines, occupancy in shelters and opinion surveys provide a more accurate picture. Last year, according to analysis released by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice (NCCCJ), every form of data relied upon showed overwhelming evidence of an increase in domestic violence after stay-at-home orders were issued. But because domestic violence often goes underreported due to fear, the sensitivity of the topic, and the shame that victims carry, the figures are considered underestimates, and the pandemic has made getting accurate data a challenge. Lockdowns have also trapped more survivors with their abusers, making it more difficult to report incidents or have others intervene, further contributing to this shadow pandemic.

Many of the instances of domestic violence occur in the presence of children. Quite often those outside of the family don’t know what is going on, and it is often difficult to know how best to intervene. And unfortunately, the reality is that in many cases, meaningful intervention occurs only after a child has endured direct and continued exposure to violence.

The effects on children who have witnessed domestic violence experience are far-reaching: insomnia, bed-wetting, verbal, motor and cognitive issues, depression, learning difficulties and aggressive, antisocial and self-harming behaviors. As if that were not enough, studies have found evidence of much higher rates of pro-violence attitudes, rigid stereotypical gender beliefs involving male privilege, bullying, animal abuse, assault and property destruction.

An adverse childhood experiences study led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified exposure to domestic violence as one of several adverse childhood experiences contributing to poor quality of life, premature death and risk factors for many of the most common causes of death in the United States. Obviously, children who experience physical and sexual abuse themselves are at the greatest risk for emotional and psychological problems. And while children develop coping strategies and other protective factors that may mitigate the worst impacts, I think we can all agree that it would be better to not have to rely on them.

There were early warning signs of this shadow pandemic, and those who were aware of the issue were asking for help. Initially, coronavirus relief packages offered programs targeting women, but very few of them covered domestic violence. Eventually, as many shifted to remote work, new measures were adopted to support victims of domestic violence. They included online services, the establishment of alert systems for reporting domestic violence at food stores and pharmacies, the provision of hotel accommodation where shelters are full, telemedicine for reproductive health care at home, economic support for domestic workers and low-income earners who have stopped working, extended paid leave for parents of children with disabilities, free childcare and temporary housing for poor women, “e-justice” services and psychological and legal counseling.

The pandemic was also an impetus for the police in some areas to try harder to reach women. Even in a time when there has been pressure to defund the police, some departments ramped up responses to hotline calls and WhatsApp and Facebook messages, platforms they previously had not prioritized.

But as the virus keeps resurging, so do the problems. Training new hires via Zoom has not been easy. Many courts are either closed or operating at reduced hours, and while many are adapting by switching to the use of new online technology to hear cases remotely, submitting necessary paperwork online has proved challenging, especially for those women with low socioeconomic status. Access to technology is often limited, and the opportunity for victims to safely make a phone call or use any other form of digital communication to report violence and seek help is particularly compromised if they share residence with a perpetrator. It’s too soon to know whether protection orders have been easily accessible and adequately adapted to the COVID-19 context including access to e-protection orders and e-emergency orders online and ex parte that could order a perpetrator to vacate the residence or prohibit the perpetrator from entering the residence or contacting the victim.

The Violence against Women Act, a landmark piece of legislation first made law in 1994, has been reauthorized a few times, most recently in 2013, but it expired in 2018, and while funding has been continued, provisions added at the instigation of advocates and survivors at each iteration have not been addressed. They are waiting in the wings to add provisions that would include greater access to emergency housing, addressing the ability of perpetrators to purchase firearms and providing services based on differing cultural norms and resources.

Media outlets have been helpful in raising public awareness about domestic violence in the context of COVID-19 and the importance of support for victims as a part of the national COVID-19 response. But regardless, as long as domestic violence remains the leading cause of physical injury to women—more than car accidents and muggings combined—much more attention is still needed. Domestic abuse should be understood as a cause and consequence of inequality, and abuse remains a choice by the abuser and cannot be excused by external factors, no matter what those circumstances may be.

We should acknowledge that victims continue to feel shame, not unlike many victims of sexual assault, as though somehow they contributed to their situation or encouraged it. As a society, we have an opportunity and responsibility to inject resiliency through academic, emotional and social support. We must all grapple with whether there are ways we might more effectively intervene within our families, schools, and communities to initiate help and healing. The numbers reported are underestimates and the increase we see is very likely the floor, not the ceiling.

So as we come back from our holiday celebrations, a little fatter and ever grateful for everything we enjoy, whether we do go back to stay-at-home orders or continue our recovery, let each of us think not just about how the pandemic has impacted home schooling, billable hours, remote jury trials and depositions. Domestic violence is pernicious and insidious; it cuts across all demographics; it has negative long term consequences for the children who witness it and devastating effects on those who experience it directly. It’s not too late to make addressing this shadow pandemic part of everyone’s New Year’s resolution.

Joette Katz is a partner at Shipman & Goodwin in Hartford, where she focuses her practice on business litigation. She is a former Connecticut Supreme Court justice and commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Children and Families. She currently co-chairs the Connecticut Law Tribune Editorial Board.