When people think about helping survivors of domestic violence (DV), the first image that often comes to mind is a shelter: a safe place to escape immediate harm. But for survivors, the meaning of safety extends far beyond the emergency phase. True safety involves rebuilding a life that is free from fear, control, and isolation — a process that takes time, patience, and continuous support. This work is essential for protecting not only survivors but entire communities in a wider political climate that stokes violence rather than promoting public safety.
What Survivors Need to Feel Safe as They Begin to Rebuild Their Lives
Escaping an abusive relationship is just the beginning. Survivors must also learn how to feel secure again in their own bodies, homes, jobs, and communities. Regaining a sense of emotional safety and normalcy after abuse requires addressing long-term emotional and psychological trauma in addition to physical security. Recovery programs that incorporate trauma-informed care provide survivors with the emotional support and healing environment they need to rebuild confidence, regain independence, and learn to trust others again.
Many survivors who have left an abusive relationship also face a host of new challenges, which often include financial instability, housing insecurity, parenting challenges, and ongoing threats from abusers. In order to rebuild their lives, they need sustained holistic support.
Holistic DV services integrate emotional, physical, legal, and economic empowerment, recognizing that all aspects of a survivor’s life are interconnected. Holistic long-term care includes access to mental health services, legal counseling, housing assistance, meals, job training, parenting classes, crisis support, and other practical survivor resources.
Ultimately, creating real safety for a DV survivor means making sure that when they leave their abuser, they can not only survive but also successfully rebuild every aspect of their lives for a healthier and happier future. In order to make this possible, they need legislative support and action from their communities to form a wider safety net.
How Current Political Rhetoric and Policy Decisions Undermine Safety for Survivors and Communities
Unfortunately, the national conversation around domestic violence and related issues have taken a troubling turn. Uninformed political rhetoric has minimized or normalized violence against women and marginalized communities, making it harder for survivors to feel safe or be taken seriously.
Speech That NormalizesViolence Against Vulnerable Groups
Recent political speeches have questioned why crimes such as domestic violence are counted in national crime statistics. Such remarks reflect a broader pattern of dismissing the seriousness of gender-based violence and devaluing the experiences of those who endure it.
Analysis of rhetorically irresponsible media ecosystems found that influential figures regularly use language that normalizes violence or frames it as a justified political action. Some of this rhetoric has resonated with extremist movements that view violence as a legitimate tool, while simultaneously characterizing cities with opposing political leadership as unsafe. Additionally, crime data, including domestic violence statistics, has been distorted to support narratives rather than serve public safety goals.
These tactics:
- • Deliberately undermine existing legal definitions of crime
- • Politicize survivors’ pain
- • Weaken their trust in institutions meant to protect them
- • Reinforce the silence and shame that keep survivors from seeking help
- • Implicitly exonerate abusers and normalize abuse nationwide
- • Gaslight Americans — much as an abusive partner might do — into believing that those advocating for vulnerable groups, such as DV survivors, are themselves threats.
This rhetoric endangers women, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, and other marginalized populations, communities that are already at elevated risk of domestic abuse.
Federal Funding Threats to DV Nonprofits and Sanctuary Cities
Unfortunately, harmful speech has been accompanied by threatening policy actions. The current White House administration’s recent attempts to impose stricter conditions and funding cuts on Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) grants threaten to disrupt essential services for survivors. Federal courts have blocked many of these restrictions, ruling that they would unlawfully prevent grantees from operating and slash life-saving support to marginalized survivors.
Meanwhile, broader cuts to federal grants for sanctuary cities directly impact jurisdictions where nonprofits serving immigrant and low-income survivors are often located. These cuts endanger programs that provide shelter, legal advocacy, and protective services.
Threats to Civil Liberties and Democratic Engagement
Recent instances or attempts at National Guard deployment in sanctuary cities have raised serious concerns about overreach, particularly when used to intimidate peaceful demonstrators or exert control over local jurisdictions with different political leadership.
This misuse of military resources not only escalates tensions but also makes entire communities feel unsafe, potentially endangering protesters, bystanders and residents. Such actions undermine civic engagement and mirror the same patterns of control and intimidation found in abusive relationships.
Creating a Truly Safe Society
Safety is not a partisan issue: it’s a human right. Safety means living without fear and anxiety, a fact that is true not only for survivors of partner abuse but every community in the nation. To protect the American people and democracy itself, we must cultivate a civic environment that rejects all forms of violence, whether domestic, political, or ideological.
A powerful way to do this is to support organizations committed to serving DV survivors and other vulnerable or disenfranchised groups. It means holding public figures accountable when their words or actions perpetuate harm. And it means recognizing that DV doesn’t exist in a vacuum; it’s part of a broader culture that must be challenged and changed.
True safety for survivors — and Americans as a whole — will never come from a short-term intervention. It comes from a sustained societal commitment to compassion, justice, and equality, values that must guide our political discourse as much as our personal relationships.
If you’d like to help DV survivors and communities in the cities most adversely impacted by political extremism, consider offering your support to Connections for Abused Women and their Children (CAWC) in Chicago. Its mission is to empower DV survivors and their children with the skills they need to live a life that is free of fear, and in so doing, to build safer American communities.
Support Survivor and Community Safety Now With CAWC
At CAWC, we believe that everyone has a right to a life free from abuse and violence. Our mission to end DV in all demographics is rooted in education, service, and advocacy. In addition to working toward broader social change, we provide empowerment-based and trauma-informed support in the form of shelter, counseling, and advocacy for individuals and their children affected by intimate partner violence.
If you or someone you know is actively experiencing the impacts of abuse or sexual violence, don’t hesitate to call our 24-hour hotline at 773-278-4566. For nonemergency support, reach out through our contact form today.
Despite these uncertain times, you have the power to help us protect more survivors and children. You can change the life of a DV survivor or a child who witnessed DV for the better by donating to CAWC today or by supporting our work in other ways.