You Gotta Know Beloved,we’re getting to know eachother.You gotta know why I,Courageous Fire,am here and the advantage for you in the existence of my agency. As the founder of this agency, Courageous Fire, LLC, I need you to understand that though I’mhere for the Black woman, I need the entire Black community. To understand that, you have tounderstand the problem of the Black woman we’re aiming to solve, why it’s so big in scope, and what prevents the Black woman from telling you- her community. I birthed thisagencyin June 2019 forwomen survivorsof DV/IPV1 and quickly turned to dedicating this agency to Black female survivors of DV at the hand of male partners. Why? Simply put, Black women need the most help. How do I know this to be true? Research. “a Bureau of Justice Statistics report indicates that Black women are 4 times more likely thanwhite women to be killed as a result of domestic violence2 . And, even though Black womenonly comprise about 13% of the U.S. population, they constitute half of the homicides againstwomeninAmerica.”3 “Black women also experience significantly higher rates of psychological abuse — including humiliation, insults, name-calling and coercive control—than do women overall.”4 As a survivor of domestic violence, I knew there were 3 things that were big for me throughout my experience that I wanted to change with this agency: a) It took me a long time to even know I was being abused. Therefore, I wanted to broaden awareness of lesser-known types of IPV like: sexual psychologicalabuse, coercion, sexual abuse, economic abuse, religious/spiritual abuse b) I had little-to-no support from my family/ friend circle at the time and the Black community because the abuser was a Blackman. Therefore, I wanted to teach the Black community how to stop victim blaming, how to safely help a victim, and how to meaningfully support a survivor c) and Once the abuser was out of my home, I had no support for my needs following abuse. Therefore,I wanted to create culturally-specific provisions to fill these gaps I was surprised to learn there are plenty of culturally-specific answers to DV/IPVin our community throughout the greater DesMoines area, PolkCounty, and the state of Iowa. Did you know that? I didn’t. Research taught me there are specific answers for every group, and that these agencies say they are not only present to help the victim woman during crisis but provide help for the survivor as well as education to or collaboration with the communities that house the victims. Indigenous, African immigrant/ refugee, LatinX, Asian/PacificIslander, and queer advocacy are all represented. There’ s seven an agency with a combined focus on Black victims of IPV, whether male or female. 1DV= domestic violence; IPV= intimate partner violence. These terms are interchangeable. 2 3 All bold and italicized fonts are supplied by the writer of this article, Courageous Fire. Very Well Mind.com article: UniqueIssuesFacingBlackWomenDealingwithAbuse 4American Psychological Association.org article:BlackWomen,theForgottenSurvivorsofSexualAssault
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