Advocacy

Goals of Advocacy

Safety planning is a critical goal of domestic violence advocates when working with battered women. Safety planning commonly refers to a discussion between an advocate and a battered woman about her partner's physical, mental, emotional, and/or sexual violence, as well as a plan for her to maximize her safety. Safety planning involves critical thinking on the part of the survivor with the advocate to determine which strategies will help her best find safety for herself and, if she is a mother, her children.

Another important goal of advocacy is maintaining the battered woman's agency, or autonomy. This goal is best achieved with woman-defined advocacy. Woman-defined advocacy builds on the belief that the battered woman begins safety planning after her first response to batterer-generated and life-generated risks, and continually builds on those earlier safety plans. It shows respect for the survivor, and allows her to be the decision maker, set priorities, and decide which services and resources she needs.

Restoration and the provision of resources is another goal of advocacy. Survivors of domestic violence are likely to have a wide variety of needs, including legal assistance, housing, counseling, employment, education, and child care needs. The advocate should assist survivors in acquiring resources to fill those needs in a way that ensures survivors' full participation in their restoration. It is important to note that criminal justice intervention may not always be a top priority for survivors of domestic violence. Advocacy services appear most successful when the advocacy organization provides a comprehensive response to the survivor's self-defined needs and wants.

Another goal of advocacy is the pursuit of justice for individual battered women and their families and [Page 13]for battered women as a group. Initially, justice for a battered woman means that she, and her family if she has one, are safe from further abuse, and that she has kept her agency or autonomy in determining the actions that promote that safety. Justice also means that the battered woman is restored and that the perpetrator has been held accountable. Restoration and accountability might be achieved through the legal system, or they might be achieved through another means within a particular community. Justice for survivors of abuse also implies that the woman's economic needs are met, and she will not be economically reliant on her batterer should she separate from him.

Seeking justice also requires advocates to seek systemic change on behalf of all battered women. Advocates seek system changes when the same injustices are experienced time and time again by battered women and their families.

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