Expand and enhance capacity and infrastructure of the National Domestic Violence Hotline to provide crisis intervention support to survivors of technology-facilitated abuse

The National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) is the only 24/7 hotline providing crisis intervention and prevention services via phone, chat, and text to anyone in the U.S. and its territories, aged 13 and up, impacted by relationship abuse. The Hotline proposes to utilize OVC funding to expand capacity and infrastructure to provide crisis intervention support using trauma-informed, culturally, and linguistically appropriate, survivor-centered approaches that protect the safety and confidentiality of victims and survivors of domestic violence (DV). This goal will be accomplished through expanding direct services staff, enhancing training and data collection, collaboration with field experts and organizations who serve marginalized communities, and a comprehensive public awareness campaign.  

The Hotline is one of the leading collectors of real-life survivor experiences, data, and trends. To collect new data related to the emerging issue of technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) and to learn the impact of this type of abuse on survivors, The Hotline proposes to enhance data systems and processes to include new TFGBV terms, data fields, and resources. The Hotline will hire a record number of advocates to provide live services to those seeking help and will ensure advocates are trained on the issue of TFGBV, supporting survivors experiencing this type of abuse, and the impact on marginalized communities. Throughout the project, The Hotline will collaborate with the National Hotline Consortium and organizations who support communities that have been historically marginalized to ensure our work is comprehensive and intersectional. To gain a deeper understanding of survivor experiences and to share learnings made possible by expanded data collection capabilities, The Hotline will host listening sessions and roundtable discussions with the Consortium, OVC, and stakeholders in the DV field. The work made possible by this award will be publicized via a comprehensive awareness campaign on TFGBV. 

The Hotline will subaward a portion of funds to Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services to leverage their expertise on how TFGBV is impacting the Deaf/DeafBlind community, enable enhancements on TFGBV to their services website (thedeafhotline.org), and collaborate on the TFGBV public awareness campaign.  

Expected outcomes include increased access to 24/7 crisis services for survivors and victims of DV; greater access to TFGBV education and safety information; data collection and information sharing on TFGBV; and collaboration with partners across the DV field, as well as those who serve historically marginalized communities, to enable improved service provision for victims and survivors.