Mapping & Advancing Survivor Racial & Economic Equity Project
The Mapping and Advancing Equity Project is a national project that builds the capacity of the domestic violence field to engage in systems change that addresses the racial and economic inequities facing survivors.
Launched in 2022, this project builds and supports the domestic violence field by:
- Equipping coalitions and advocates with data and tools to map their equity landscape and fuel advocacy.
- Engaging in discussions with the field about the impacts of system inequities locally and nationally, and developing advocacy and policy strategies for the field.
- Developing a co-created and survivor-defined National Policy Platform for Survivor Economic Equity to steer future collective advocacy.
Core Initiatives
Survivor Economic Equity Data Dashboard
An interactive online data tool to help advocates understand the state equity landscape and to fuel advocacy
Click to view
National Policy Platform for Survivor Economic Equity
A co-created agenda of policy priorities and belief statements to advance survivor equity
Coming soon!
Why Economic Equity?
Safety for survivors requires economic security. Abuse creates financial hardship, and poverty, in turn, restricts survivors’ options for safety. While anyone can experience abuse, not everyone can access the resources and support they need to be, get, and stay safe. Our services, systems, and policies control many safety-related resources, from housing, transportation, childcare, to direct cash assistance — keeping them out of reach of many. As a result, survivors from oppressed communities are disproportionately impacted.
In general, inequity is the set of unfair circumstances, created by policies and practices, that create unequal outcomes in life. For survivors, inequity looks like safety costing too much, a lack of generational wealth, no time to navigate service barriers, facing long-standing and built in exclusion or discrimination, and experiencing state violence that compounds other violence.
Click the infographic to download, and read more in our “Showing Up” report.
Our Approach
An equity approach to anti-violence work, therefore, seeks to change the policies and systems that create unequal access to the resources, supports, and opportunities needed for safety. Our approach in the Mapping & Advancing Equity Project includes:
- Values and Processes. First, view the values and processes created to set forth the spirit of the project, to serve as a guide to how we “do” the work, and to help CSAJ staff, partners, and project participants move in alignment with each other.
- Survivor Economic Equity Dashboard. An interactive online data tool to help advocates understand their state equity landscape and to fuel their advocacy.
- Collective Learning. Virtual gatherings with domestic violence advocates in the field aimed at expanding and understanding analysis of the equity landscape; establishing equity commitments; working towards systems and policy change, and building relationships and advocacy networks.
- Survivor Advocate Advisory Board (SAAB). A group of survivor-advocates who advise the project as a whole, participate in Collective Learning, and serve as co-creators of a National Policy Platform for Survivor Economic Equity.
- National Policy Platform for Survivor Economic Equity. A survivor advocate, co-created, national agenda for survivor equity with identified priority areas and belief statements. Developed via Collective Learning and the SAAB.
- Glossary. Click to view additional key terms, concepts, and processes helpful to understanding our work and this project.
Get Involved
Are you a policy or systems advocate, researcher, data analyst, or program leader shaping advocacy or programming efforts? Interested in organizing around an advocacy strategy or policy area or using data to shape your programming? We have training, resources, and individualized problem-solving assistance to support you, your programs, and your communities.
Core Resources
Continuing CSAJ’s commitment to equity, the Mapping Racial and Advancing Equity Project builds on lessons from the Racial & Economic Equity for Survivors (REEP) project, Accounting for Survivor Economic Security Atlas, and the Mapping Equity in Domestic Violence Advocacy at the State-Level. These critical pieces of work provided research, data, and stories that highlighted the systemic economic inequities survivors face.
This Service Provider Report shares first-cut key findings about survivors’ experiences of abuse, economic well-being, and financial help-seeking.
Data Collection & Exploratory Research on How Domestic Violence Coalitions Practice Economic & Racial Justice
In September 2017, REEP facilitated seven From Margins to Center Listening Sessions to facilitate dialogue across the field on…
The Economic Security for Survivors Atlas will be released in a series of three Map Books: Mapping, Navigating, and…
Special acknowledgment and
thanks to our project partners and advisors:
Camille Holmes
Kip Holley
Lisalyn Jacobs
ade Oni
Porscha Stiger
Collective Learning participants
and Survivor Advocate Advisory Board members
This project is supported by the Allstate Foundation
