The SOAR Collective, and members of Survivors Know-Midwest Anti-Violence Solidarity Circle began collaborating in October 2022 with the goal of learning more about the experiences of current and former anti-violence advocates. We Deserve Better has become shorthand for our collective work and a call to action.

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The Assessment

We asked advocates to complete an anonymous assessment between the end of November 2022 and the middle of January 2023. For the purpose of this survey, we defined "advocate" as anyone who currently or had recently worked at victim service agencies.

 

The assessment aimed to answer two key questions:

1. What are the primary challenges advocates experience while working in the anti-violence field?

2. What changes can anti-violence agencies make to support advocates & survivors, and improve systems?

 

We received 265 responses from 31 US states and 2 US territories. The majority of respondents (80%) are still employed at an anti-violence agency. Nearly half of the respondents (48%) currently work at or most recently worked at a dual agency, and almost a quarter of respondents (24%) work at or did work at a rape crisis center (RCC).