A Fresh Spirit for Domestic Violence Advocacy

I am Treviene Harris, a 7th-year doctoral candidate from the English department. For the last 12 months, I have been interested in exploring careers beyond the academy. This interest has led me to think deeply about the aspects of my academic work that I find most gratifying and fulfilling so that I can practically assess in what spaces my skills and interests might be useful. I think as humanists we all have personal investments in work that is social-justice oriented. Finding and doing meaningful work to this end was why I became interested in the summer immersive. Alongside that, I wanted the opportunity to develop concrete, transferrable skills that would 1) be valuable to non-academic employers and 2) allow me to refine or reimagine skills I already have.

For the Humanities Engage summer immersive, I am a grant writing intern at Fresh Spirit Wellness for Women (FSWW). FSWW is a domestic violence non-profit organization based in Houston, TX, that provides free counseling, therapy, case management, legal advocacy, and other support services for domestic violence survivors in and around the Houston area. FSWW has been in operation for about 23 years and, despite its name, services all victims of domestic violence, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation. It is run by a team of black women and employs a team of women of color who work in various capacities from crisis counselors, program managers, and legal aid advocates to interns who need to log required clinical counseling hours for their degrees. Recently, the organization has seen significant growth after being added to the Global Giving campaign crowd-funding platform, which provides exposure to the international donor community and thereby expands funding opportunities to secure future growth.

The main deliverable for my summer assignment will be to research and write a series of grants needed to fund operation costs for the organization as they try to add residential services to the crisis counseling and legal aid services that are already available to clients. That is, instead of diverting clients to other state or private run residential facilities, FSWW is seeking to make available their own facility so as not to “hand off” clients as they try to transition them into safer living conditions and circumstances. With the Covid-19 global pandemic, there has been a documented increase in the number of domestic violence incidents across the nation. As such, FSWW sees its overall expansion as necessary for continuing to provide its essential services to a client base that is mostly comprised of women of color. In addition to grant research and writing, I have also been assigned administrative tasks that have given me insights into the day to day business operations. I have done upkeep on FSWW’s case management software that is used to generate analytics on client demographic information, documented points of contact between clients and counselors, and maintained records in compliance with the VOCA (Victims Of Crime Act) Funder.

One of the most gratifying aspects of working with FSWW this summer has been seeing the impact of my work within a short time. As academics-in-training, we thrive in an environment where we manage one large project for a protracted period (we work on one project for 6 or more years!). In this context, we have the space (and the privilege) to sit with and work our way through one problem at the end of which we move to another long project (amidst other small projects: teaching, committee work, conferencing, etc.). With this type of conditioning where we get used to a kind of delayed gratification, it is satisfying to work in ways that allow you to see sooner rather than later what change your labor can engender. In the time of Covid-19, I find that especially sustaining because of how uncertainty has shaped what it means to get by from day to day. That is, as it becomes increasingly difficult to imagine the long-term, it consoles when in the short-term we can apprehend the significance of our work and experiences. In times of uncertainty, too, we ponder as humanists what we can do to make a difference when everything also feels unbearably urgent. Understandings of Covid-19 have oftentimes been couched in discourses of science and medicine. Excluded from these narratives are the effects on day to day lives that get upended during crises. I see the work of FSWW as attending with due care to life experiences that may seem peripheral to the main event. In the way the women who undertake this necessary work try to remain adaptable to an unfortunately rising need, I’m humbled to be a part of it in whatever small way I can.

Treviene Harris
English
July 28, 2020
 

For my reflections post-immersive, please see Grant Writing to Make a Difference: Helping in the Fight Against Domestic Violence.

Learn about all the Summer 2020 Immersive Fellows and their experiences with their host organizations.