Newsletter: July 2003: Making Safety Accessible

The Alliance has partnered with Bronx Independent Living Services (BILS) to promote accessibility to rape crisis centers for people with disabilities. This May, at the annual New York State Rape Crisis Center Grantee Meeting in Albany, BILS offered a workshop about increasing the options available to people with disabilities who are victims of sexual assault by making providers more accessible. The workshop was facilitated by Linda Ostreicher, Training and Technical Assistance Specialist and Patricia Sayles-Rose, Crime Victims Program Coordinator, both employees of BILS.

In the next two years, BILS plans to raise awareness and create changes in services offered to all survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence in NYC by providing education and technical assistance to shelters and other providers on how to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

BILS is currently the only project in New York State to be awarded a grant under the US Department of Justice's Education and Technical Assistance Program to End Violence Against Women with Disabilities. BILS attributes this success to its 20 year history of providing independent living services for people with disabilities, plus more than a decade of serving crime victims with disabilities, particularly survivors of domestic violence.

"We see this grant as a wonderful way to bring all the players to the table," says Bobbi Linn, founding Executive Director of BILS. "This will also allow women with disabilities to feel positive support and provide a link to the larger domestic and sexual assault communities."

In its program, called "Making Safety Accessible," BILS works with four partner agencies to make them models of accessibility for providers throughout the city. BILS will be organizing citywide, cross-system meetings of health, social service, disability, and criminal justice agencies, to coordinate their responses to the needs of people with disabilities regarding domestic violence and sexual assault.

BILS' partner agencies are eager to make their services more accessible to people with disabilities. Sister Mary Nerney, Director of Edwin Gould Services for Children, looks forward to being able to better respond to the needs of women with disabilities.

"When a battered woman faces assault charges, our goal is to support her," she says. "This will teach us to recognize when a disability might be complicating her situation, and we'll know what she needs to navigate the criminal justice system."

Palladia, Inc., formerly called the Project Return Foundation, serves people dealing with homelessness, HIV disease, substance abuse, mental illness, and/or domestic violence. "We know how to serve people with the disabilities we're already familiar with," explains Palladia's President, Jane Velez. "But we also know there are women out there with other disabilities who won't think of calling us because our facilities might not be fully accessible to them. We want to stop that from happening."

BILS' other partners in Making Safety Accessible are Sanctuary for Families' program in the Bronx for battered women who are not staying at a shelter; and the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, which works to end rape and sexual abuse and improve support available to survivors of this form of violence.

Harriet Lessel, Executive Director of the Alliance, welcomes the program's focus on systems change. "It fits our mission of bringing together different sectors to integrate their services for survivors of sexual assault. Working together on accessibility will open up more points of entry into the service system, and make sure that once survivors ask for help, they get the help they need."

BILS currently provides non-residential services throughout New York City to victims of domestic violence and other crimes with disabilities. If you or someone you know needs assistance, please call (Voice) 718-515-2800 or (TTY) 718-515-0778, Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm

Lisa Stein is a Director at Bronx Independent Living Services. [more]

← previous article | next article →