YWCA Greenwich has served the local community for over 100 years, functioning as a community center and offering a variety of services, including domestic violence.
And now the YWCA is expanding their services to include sexual violence, including sexual assault.
But if you’re not one of the women who have taken advantage of these services, you might not know that they have not included sexual assault.
If you’re scratching your head to imagine domestic violence and sexual assault don’t overlap, you’re not alone.
“It is not intuitive, but on the federal and state level, domestic violence and sexual assault agencies are funded separately,” President and CEO Mary Lee Kiernan explained.
With the YWCA’s new Harmony Project, which launches on July 1, women who have come to rely on them during some of the most challenging times of their lives, will not be turned away if they need sexual assault services.
The YWCA Greenwich will become the fifth agency to provide the spectrum of services include domestic violence, sexual violence and sexual assault services. We’ll be the fifth. The other four agencies are in Danbury, Bridgeport, Waterbury and Torrington.
Kiernan said the Harmony Project actually dovetails nicely with the YWCA’s mission to eliminate racism, empower women and girls, and promote peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all.
“All forms of violence – whether workplace harassment, sexual assault or domestic abuse – create the biggest barriers to the advancement or empowerment of women in this country and the world,” Kiernan said. “All forms of violence are an enormous barrier to women. That’s one of the reasons we’re adding this set of services to what we do.”
“Half of all domestic violence situations involve sexual assault,” said Meredith Gold, who is the Director of Domestic Abuse Services at the YWCA.
“We are perfectly positioned to do this in the community. We already deal with sexual assault in the context of domestic violence,” Gold added. “And we already have the relationships with public and private schools, Greenwich Police, Greenwich Hospital and other social service providers, so we’re uniquely positioned.”
Ms Gold said the expanded services will remove a barrier.
“You can’t bifurcate victims,” Gold said. “We have clients already involved with our services, so if sexual violence becomes an area they’re seeking support, they don’t understand why we can’t help them here too.”
“It’s much better for victims if we can provide this comprehensive set of services instead of them going to several different places,” Kiernan agreed.
And until this expansion, when the YWCA does refer a client to another agency there is no way to even know if the client actually follows through.
“It’s been really challenging to turn people away who already trust us and have a relationship with us,” Gold added.
“Sexual violence involves sexual assault, harassment, child sexual abuse and incest, human trafficking and sexual exploitation,” Kiernan said. “There is a tremendous impact of sexual violence at the individual, family and community levels. And so, now collectively, all of the efforts and initiatives and services will be known as the Harmony Project of YWCA Greenwich.”
With sexual violence already in their purview the YWCA has responded to their clients’ needs as they emerge and change over time.
They offer domestic violence and sexual violence services, a hotline, multilingual services, crisis intervention shelter, financial literacy coaching, individual and group counseling for adults, teens and children, as well as general victim advocacy and support. All services are confidential and free of charge.
“When we recognized that legal services were a barrier to our clients we launched our civil legal clinic in 2018,” Kiernan said. “When we realized our clients needed help post-abuse, we developed our sustainability services like housing advocacy and financial empowerment. This is what we do: We recognize where there is a need and grow to meet it.”
The YWCA’s violence prevention programs will also fall under the Harmony umbrella, as will their training institute featuring professional trainings for other service providers, including medical, legal, law enforcement and educators.
Their efforts include public awareness, education and community building with events featuring speakers like Drea Kelly, the former wife of R.Kelly who captivated a large audience last week. Other examples of awareness efforts are Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October, Teen Dating Violence Month in February, and of course April is Sexual Assault Awareness month.
“We’re very excited about the rebranding under the Harmony Project, which is much more accurate in describing the full scope of the work we’re doing as a comprehensive response to interpersonal violence in Greenwich.”
“Once we normalize the conversation about sexual assault and other forms of sexual violence, then more victims are going to come forward, they’re going to recognize what happened to them and seek help,” Gold said. “That’s why having an advocate and provider is so important.”
For funding of their expanded efforts, the YWCA will rely on individual donations and institutional funding, including donations from foundations or corporations.
Last December, after President Biden signed into law the “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023,” the YWCA Greenwich learned they would receive a grant for $100,000 to help design new program space to house sexual assault services. The spending had been requested by Connecticut Senators, Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal.
The 24/7 Crisis Hotline for services and support for safe relationships is (203) 622-0003.
The YWCA Greenwich is located at 259 East Putnam Avenue in Greenwich.