This month, we caught up with Fab: a volunteer who recently completed our 40-hour training, and brings her warmth and love for San Francisco to everything she does. To learn more about volunteering and how you can get involved in La Casa’s work, contact our Education & Volunteer Manager at comed@lacasa.org.
Self-care, often misconstrued as a luxury, takes on a profound significance for survivors of domestic violence. It becomes a transformative act of survival, resistance, and healing. In the face of chronic stress, trauma, and isolation, survivors often find little space for their own needs. However, self-care in this context becomes revolutionary, a means to reclaim control over one’s body, boundaries, time, and voice, instilling a sense of empowerment and hope.
Immigrant survivors, like anyone, may experience a variety of forms of intimate partner violence: such as physical, emotional, sexual, financial, spiritual, threats, and coercion. However, they also face unique and compounding risks. Language barriers, lack of culturally responsive services, and unfamiliarity with U.S. legal systems make it harder to seek help. Survivors may worry they won’t be believed because they don’t speak English fluently. They may fear that leaving an abusive partner will mean losing their children, their housing, or their chance at staying in the country. Many do not know their rights, and even in moments of extreme danger, feel they must choose between silence and exposure
Mental health challenges go far beyond routine stress, and this is particularly true for survivors of domestic violence (DV). Did you know that 20% of DV survivors develop mental health conditions as a result of their trauma? In this context, Mental Health Awareness Month offers an opportunity to understand how DV impacts mental health.
When we talk about helping domestic violence survivors, it’s easy to think first about shelters, police reports, or court systems. And while those are important, they’re only part of the bigger picture. At La Casa de las Madres, we operate under the Empowerment Model, which shifts the focus: it’s all about giving survivors the power to reclaim their lives—in their own way and on their own terms.
In 1976, a coalition of San Francisco women—many of whom had experienced domestic violence first hand—recognized the dire lack of resources available to survivors. At the time, emergency shelters for women fleeing abuse were virtually nonexistent, and the legal, medical, and political systems largely ignored the issue. Women who left abusive partners faced the terrifying reality of homelessness, financial insecurity, and, often, further violence.
