Senate Resolution No. 773

BY: Senator SALAZAR

MEMORIALIZING Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to proclaim
May 11, 2021, as Domestic Violence Awareness and
Prevention Day in the State of New York

WHEREAS, As part of executing its mission, the New York State
Coalition Against Domestic Violence seeks to create and support the
social change necessary to prevent and confront all forms of domestic
violence and to ensure the availability and accessibility of innovative
and effective supports and services for all domestic violence survivors
and their families; and

WHEREAS, The Coalition's principles and practices prioritize the
safety, needs and concerns of domestic violence survivors, provide
support and encouragement for the participation of survivors in the
struggle to eradicate personal and institutional violence against them,
and recognize that communities must work together to dismantle
oppression, end systemic racism, and uproot the inequities that foster
violence; and

WHEREAS, Domestic violence is a pattern of coercive behavior and
tactics used by someone against their intimate partner in an attempt to
gain or maintain power and control, and types of abuse can include
physical, sexual, psychological, technological and economic abuse; and

WHEREAS, Domestic violence is not limited to specific groups based
on race, socioeconomic status, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation,
ethnicity, age, religious affiliation or social location, but rather is
perpetrated by abusers from all social groups; and

WHEREAS, Approximately one in three women and one in four men in the
United States have experienced some form of physical violence by an
intimate partner; and

WHEREAS, On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape,
physical violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the United
States -- more than 12 million women and men over the course of a year;
and

WHEREAS, Domestic violence survivors experience a host of health-
and mental health-related consequences at far greater rates than their
counterparts who have not been abused; and

WHEREAS, New York State consistently has the greatest demand for
domestic violence support services in the country with 8,313 survivors
requesting services on just one day in 2020, and 1,921 unfulfilled
service requests because domestic violence service providers did not
have the resources to provide such services; and

WHEREAS, The NYS Office of Children and Family Services reported
that more than 53,300 survivors of domestic violence and their children
received services from residential, non-residential, and transitional
housing programs licensed by OCFS, and more than 312,700 hotline calls

were received by domestic violence programs across the State in 2019;
and

WHEREAS, According to the NYS Division of Criminal Justice Services,
there were 65 intimate partner homicides in New York State in 2019, a 10
percent increase from the year before; and

WHEREAS, Only approximately one-quarter of all physical assaults,
one-fifth of all rapes, and one-half of all stalking incidents
perpetrated against women by intimate partners are reported to the
police; and

WHEREAS, The economic burden of domestic violence in the United
States is nearly $3.6 trillion over victims' lifetimes, based on 43
million U.S. adults with victimization history, including $2.1 trillion
in medical costs, $1.3 trillion in lost productivity among victims and
perpetrators, $73 billion in criminal justice activities and $62 billion
in other costs; and

WHEREAS, The cost of a single homicide is estimated at $17.25
million when considering medical care, lost future earnings, other
related public programming and services, and property damage and other
losses; and

WHEREAS, Researchers estimate that between 3.3 million and 10
million children are exposed to adult domestic violence each year, and
children who witness domestic violence suffer many adverse outcomes
during their childhood that can extend into their adult years, including
chronic disease, substance use and chemical dependency, dropping out of
school, and employment and relationship challenges; and

WHEREAS, Primary prevention strategies address the root causes and
conditions that make domestic violence possible, and public health
research has shown that implementing prevention activities at multiple
levels on the social ecology scale - individual, relationship,
community, and societal - will lead to lasting social change; and

WHEREAS, Primary prevention is focused on establishing gender
equality, cultivating and promoting healthy relationship behaviors, and
changing conditions in our communities and culture to stop domestic
violence before it starts; and

WHEREAS, Primary prevention education and awareness campaigns and
strategies have the potential to increase the identification of
domestic, dating and sexual violence, ensure appropriate and consistent
responses from helping professionals and the general public, and act as
a powerful catalyst to change social and community norms that foster
healthy relationship behaviors promoting respect and equity; and

WHEREAS, Domestic violence advocates consistently provide
comprehensive and compassionate life-saving services, advocacy, and
support to survivors of domestic violence despite being historically
undervalued for the work that they do; and

WHEREAS, As essential, frontline workers, New York's domestic
violence advocates transitioned quickly during the COVID-19 Pandemic to
provide remote advocacy services, re-direct funding for the purchase of
Pandemic-related supplies and new technologies, re-train staff and

modify emergency shelter facilities and protocols to comply with health
regulations for isolation and quarantine, to ensure the continuity of
services for all domestic violence survivors; and

WHEREAS, New York State needs to continually and significantly
invest in New York's domestic violence service delivery system in order
to meet the rising demand for services and to continue progress toward
ending domestic violence once and for all; now therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
memorialize Governor Andrew M. Cuomo to proclaim May 11, 2021, as
Domestic Violence Awareness and Prevention Day in the State of New York;
and be it further

RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo, Governor of the State of
New York; and the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.