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District Wide Policy on Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking

THE AFRO — January marks the 15th annual National Stalking Awareness Month.

Published

7 years ago

January 20, 2019

By George Kevin Jordan

January marks the 15th annual National Stalking Awareness Month, but D.C.has been ahead of the pack with a District wide policy on Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Stalking released at the beginning of the year.

“With this policy, we are talking another step to ensure that D.C. Government is a place where all employees feel supported and safe,” Mayor Bowser said in a statement. “By implementing this policy and being more intentional with our guidelines and resources, we can better work together to assist and support victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking.”

According to information from the Stalking Prevention Awareness and Resource Center, (SPARC) an average of 6-7.5 million people are stalked nationally each year. About 1 in 8 employed stalking victims lose time from work as a result of their victimization and more than half lose 5 days of work or more, the data showed.

Though SPARC representatives would not comment on legislation and policy in D.C., they provided this statement:

“Stalking is a pattern of behavior directed at a specific person that causes fear. Many stalking victims experience being followed, approached and/or threatened – including through technology. Stalking is a terrifying and psychologically harmful crime in its own right as well as a predictor of serious violence: in 85% of cases where an intimate partner (i.e., boyfriend or spouse) attempted to murder his partner, stalking preceded the attack.”

D.C.’s policy unpacked workplace-specific signs of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking, and provides victims with protections against employer discrimination or retaliation. The plan also called for a workplace safety plan, designating agency points of contact for victims, and mandates confidentiality and other protections, according to the Mayor’s office.

The policy was crafted with the help of the D.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence (DCCADV), a local organization.

“They sent a draft on what they were working on and we provided some feedback,” said Dawn Dalton, Policy Director for DCCADV. “We feel it’s a good policy.”

Late last year, the DCCADV released the “Surviving DC: A Domestic Violence Report” , detailing the organizations assessment of how a District agency “responds to domestic violence regarding staff who experience domestic violence and survivors who seek services from their agencies.”

The report was a survey of 23 agencies and only two, the Metropolitan Police Department and the Child & Family Services Agencies, received a passing grade.

The survey helped to solidify stark realities about domestic violence and its impact on survivors.

“One of the things we know here in D.C. is that there aren’t enough Domestic Violence services whether it be shelters or long term housing to meet the demand of survivors,” Dalton said.

Luckily the Mayor’s office had already been working on a policy for the District.

“All in all its (the policy) a positive and great step forward for the District to make,” Dalton said.

Other organization heads agree.

“Mayor Bowser’s District-wide Workplace Policy is a groundbreaking initiative that can serve as an example for other states, policymakers, and workplaces to adopt a practice that will not only keep D.C. employees safe, but provide a mechanism for preventing domestic violence,” said L.Y. Marlow Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Saving Promise. “By protecting employees, creating workplace safety, support plans and policies, and offering increased training for D.C. government employees, the District is that much closer to ultimately ending domestic violence.”

According to data from the DCCADV, nearly one-third of unaccompanied homeless women in D.C. indicate that violence is the cause of their current homelessness or housing instability, and 63% of unaccompanied homeless women with past experiences of violence and trauma report at least one act of violence against them during their current period of homelessness or housing instability.

About 50% of D.C. women have experienced psychological aggression perpetrated by an intimate partner in their lifetime, according to the report. Also about 39% of women living D.C. have experienced sexual violence, physical violence and/or stalking perpetrated by an intimate partner.

The D.C. Metro police received 35,909 domestic violence-related calls for service in 2017, according to the DCCADV’s data. This is a decrease from a year ago but an increase since 2013.

On a national level a person is a victim of domestic violence or assault every 20 minutes in this country, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, impacting about 10 million women and men.

Victims of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking can reach out to the D.C. Victim Hotline at 1-844-4HELPDC (1-844-443-5732) or contact them via chat at www.dcvictim.org. If anyone is in immediate or imminent danger please dial 911.

This article originally appeared in The Afro.

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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

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1 week ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

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March 1, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

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1 week ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke