1. PASSAGEWAY HEALTH-LAW COLLABORATIVE Clients: 1600-1650 clients served annually (majority women). 150 clients served through HIV/AIDS health-law collaboration. 37% Hispanic/Latina, 23% African American, and approx. 30% Caucasian. Majority of domestic violence victims do not approach legal service centers for help and their legal needs go unidentified and unmet. Resources/ services: 15 staff attorneys and paralegals, five fellows, and approximately 150 student advocates annually. Capacity to provide legal services to low-income clients in areas of disability, family law, employment, housing, home ownership, consumer credit and bankruptcy, long-term financial and estate planning. Capacity to provide legal self-advocacy trainings for victims in areas such as housing, divorce, and estate planning. Needs: Training to identify DV problems in existing clients. Better access to social and health care services for LSC’s DV clients, who currently have unmet needs. Training needed to identify clients with domestic violence problems and to ensure clients have access to needed social and health services. Clients: 750-800 victims/survivors of domestic violence per year (over 99% women, 76% between ages of 20 and 49) 27% Hispanic/Latina, 30% Caucasian, 34% African American. 25% receiving treatment at BWH primarily for abuse-related injuries. 75% have terminal illnesses, disabilities, chronic or other health problems exacerbated by abuse. 35% unemployed, majority of remainder employed in low-income jobs. Poverty exacerbates impact of violence. Resources/ services: 4 full-time clinical social work advocates; social work and medical directors; 2 social work interns; technical assistance from medical/ healthcare experts. Free crisis intervention, safety planning and risk assessment, support groups and individual consultation, medical advocacy, intervention with outside services. Needs: 30% clients identified unmet need for legal services. Additional 30% identified unmet needs in areas that are markers for impending legal crises, including housing, employment, and disability needs. Training needed to enable BWH staff to identify clients’ legal problems at an early stage of advocacy and to preserve clients’ legal rights as they administer medical and social services. Comprehensive and holistic direct legal services for low income victims of domestic in areas of disability rights, employment law, benefits, child guardianship, estate planning, family law, housing, bankruptcy. Preventative and long-term legal planning beyond immediate crises presented at intake. Weekly on-site legal clinic at BWH to administer legal services in holistic health-law setting. Integrated and coordinated health-law client intake and assessment to ensure comprehensive care provided to victims. Empower victims of domestic violence through information, materials, and client self- advocacy trainings. Build capacity among LSC and BWH staff through coordinated health-law trainings to improve service capabilities and ensure comprehensive care to victims of DV. LEGAL SERVICES CENTER BRIGHAM AND WOMEN’S HOSPITAL PHLC

2. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STATISTICS 1-4 million American women annually are physically, sexually abused or threatened by an intimate partner. (DOJ 2001.) 37% of women in US who sought emergency room treatment for violence-related injuries did so as a result of domestic violence. (DOJ, 1998.) Of the 4.8 million intimate partner rapes and physical assaults perpetrated against women annually, approximately 552,000 will result in some form of medical treatment to the victim. (MA Governor’s Commission on DV, 2002.) In 1999, one out of twenty women aged 18-59 in Massachusetts reported experiencing physical violence, fear or control by an intimate partner within the past year. (MA Department of Public Health.) Advocates in the Boston area fielded 72,000 domestic violence and sexual assault hotline calls and referrals (26,000 clients) and provided 4,000 shelter intakes in 2003. (Jane Doe Inc.) Governor’s Commission on Domestic Violence called the situation in Massachusetts “bleak” and named the need for legal support as among the top unmet needs for domestic violence victims in the state (2002 report on Economic Impacts of Domestic Violence.) 1/3 of survivors in contact with domestic violence advocates in Massachusetts reported having a disability. (Jane Doe Inc.) Women ages 18-59 with disabilities were twice as likely to have experienced domestic abuse in the past year compared to women without disabilities. (National Violence Against Women Survey, 2000.) More than 50% of homeless families in the U.S. identified domestic violence as a primary cause of their homelessness. (US Conference of Mayors, 1999.) The health-related costs of rape, physical assault, stalking, and homicide by intimate partners in the U.S. exceed $5.8 billion each year. (Center for Disease Control, 2003.)