Twitter: @freefromorg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freefrom.org/
Primary geographic focus: Bay Area
Organization Type: Other, Research/Policy/Organizing
Tags: Children, Domestic Violence, Women
FreeFrom serves to make safety affordable for all survivors of domestic violence so that they can build lives free from violence for themselves and their children.
Without a way to rebuild financially, survivors typically won’t leave an abuser. If they do, they risk homelessness, losing custody of their children, or having to return to their abuser. Often, survivors will visit shelters several times but never actually be able to afford to leave for good or build safe lives for themselves and their children.
FreeFrom has three strategies for supporting survivors: help survivors to hold their abusers financially accountable, remove barriers that block survivors’ access to economic justice and stability, and help survivors gain economic independence through entrepreneurship.
FreeFrom’s goal is to pair survivors in every state with lawyers who can represent them in these civil suits. In addition, they equip lawyers with training, sample briefs, access to the latest social science research, and a network of expert witnesses so that they can provide the most effective legal representation possible in the most efficient way.
FreeFrom will push to make the civil justice system more accessible to survivors by advocating for legislative changes to increase the statute of limitations and relax the evidentiary burden placed on them.
FreeFrom’s goal is to help survivors start their own small businesses and cooperatives through incubator support – business planning, accounting training, legal help, strategic consulting – and startup grants. As these businesses grow, they are encouraged to hire survivors looking for employment. In doing so, FreeFrom hopes to create webs of survivor communities helping each other to achieve economic independence.
PRESS/RESEARCH MENTIONING/INVOLVING THIS SOURCE
News and AlertsWomen-led startup turns domestic abuse survivors into entrepreneurs
Olivia SolonGuardian
November 23, 2017
FreeFrom helps domestic abuse survivors become financially independent from their abusers.
This page last modified: Thu, February 23, 2023 -- 2:27 pm ET