Futures Blog

May 17th, 2023 by Esta Soler

The leading cause of death during pregnancy and immediately after birth in the United States? It’s not sepsis, hypertension, or hemorrhage. It’s homicide, often at the hands of a current or former partner. Couple that with our country’s appalling – and worsening – rate of maternal mortality, and you have a full-blown crisis that’s taking a terrible toll.

That’s why we’re working so hard, in so many ways, to improve maternal health in this country. That begins with our long-term, transformative work to show physicians, nurses, and other health care providers how to safely talk with their patients about domestic and sexual violence, and how to intervene effectively with those at risk.

Our Connected Parents, Connected Kids materials are helping home visitation and early childhood staff address domestic violence among their clients. Research from home visiting programs has shown that as many as half of low-income mothers visited have …

March 22nd, 2023 by Kiersten Stewart

In its budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2024, the Biden/Harris administration shared its vision and priorities for the nation. Consistent with President Biden’s longstanding commitment to preventing domestic and sexual violence and helping survivors heal, the budget would make major investments in programs that prevent violence and support both adult and child victims of abuse. In our view, the domestic and international investments the administration is proposing are badly needed and very wise. 

At Futures Without Violence, we are particularly pleased that the administration wants to make major investments in some of our top priorities, including the Violence Against Women Act, Family Violence Prevention and Services Act, and some vitally important prevention programs and housing supports for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking. Specifically, the budget includes:  

$ 1 billion for the Violence Against Women Act, including new funding for restorative justice programs. This is a $300

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March 15th, 2023 by Esta Soler

It’s Women’s History Month, a time to mark the progress women have made, and what’s still needed, to achieve a world where women and all people can live free from violence, with real opportunities to prosper and thrive. 

We have made much progress since FUTURES was launched 35 years ago, a time when women earned about 66 cents for every dollar a man earned, and domestic violence was still thought of by many as a “private matter.” FUTURES has worked since then to shape public policy’s response to violence, change social norms, advance economic security and opportunity for women, engage boys and men in violence prevention, and more.  

Often, progress is made incrementally. But we look for innovations that have the potential to be transformational. I want to share a few things we’re especially excited …

February 8th, 2023 by Tiffany Garner, Policy Advocate, Children and Health

When I worked as a counselor for children exposed to violence in my home state of North Carolina, there’s one phrase I heard again and again: “this is the way it is.”

It was at a time when young people were becoming accustomed to hearing gunshots, listening to news reports of shootings in their city, and seeing guns within their homes and were accepting this behavior as if it was the norm.

Unfortunately for victims of gun violence, that refrain is all too familiar. Gun violence may affect everyone differently, but child after child who I met said they were “feeling numb” to the violence they witnessed. In many ways they were taking their cues from the adults in their lives, from all of us, who seemingly have grown accustomed to the unacceptable gun violence all around us.…

January 18th, 2023 by Esta Soler

This week, we honor the life of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr., who made achieving economic justice a cornerstone of his calls to advance racial justice.

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Dr. King conceived of economic justice as “decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, [and] conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community.” He reminded us that you cannot achieve true equality without making economic opportunity available to all, including those traditionally locked out of the country’s prosperity.

At Futures Without Violence, economic justice has long been at the center of our work. We believe it’s not only the right thing to do, but is critical to achieve our vision of a world without violence.…