According to the U.S. Department of Justice, domestic violence makes up 21% of all violent crime experienced by women. Every year in the United States there are an estimated 2.5 million incidents of domestic violence against women, and, far too often, children witness their parents’ abusive relationship.

Children who grow up in a violent environment are more likely to perpetuate the cycle of violence: boys are more likely to be come abusive and girls are more likely to tolerate abuse if they’ve witnessed this type of relationship growing up. Domestic violence, therefore, spreads like a disease, but treatment seems permanently stuck in triage mode. Even this response is mostly limited to a short term quarantine of a minority of the carriers.

Shelters
With their limited funding dependent upon community support and variable governmental support, current domestic violence shelters can only offer temporary respite from violent environments. While this respite is of vital importance, many women who avail themselves of a shelter end up returning to their abusers. The reasons are complex and include economic and psychological dependence on the abuser. Additionally, the very limited amount of time a woman can spend in a shelter doesn’t often allow her to develop a viable escape plan.

If she is to have any real chance at success in reclaiming her life, an abuse survivor must somehow deal with the psychological traumas, including post traumatic stress disorder, Stockholm syndrome, and other identifiable maladies that are commonly the outgrowth of repeated physical and psychological abuse. She needs economic support that must include her children and she needs time to heal in a safe environment.

The Oasis Project ushers in a new model, a Violence Recovery Community, (VRC) to address of these needs and more. A violence recovery community is a safe place, both physically and emotionally, where the whole community is built around the idea of long term recovery. Everyone at the community is a survivor or professional working with survivors.

Why a community?
Safety
The first goal of any kind of shelter is safety. A woman fleeing violence, however, frequently has to consider not only her safety, but the safety of her children. A VRC is large enough to absorb a woman and her children.

Sustainability
Sustainability is critical for two reasons. First, recovery takes time. A VRC is required to give survivors time to heal without the immediate stress of feeding and providing shelter for themselves and their children. Secondly, a community can be self sustaining. Community members will produce the community’s food, and power will be (a much as possible) from free sustainable sources. If well thought out, the financial needs of a VRC will be so slight that it will be independent of changes in political priorities. It is a model that all can support as it provides critical services (violence recovery, education, job training, independent living), while reducing the burden on courts, police departments, school counselors, etc., and all without ongoing public expenditure.

Effectiveness
A community is critical because simply treating survivors of domestic violence, while important, is not the same as breaking the cycle of violence in our society as a whole. A new model for living must be established, not just for the battered woman but for her children. She must relearn independence. She and her children must see and live a life without violence. A women and her children may need to learn critical skills. And all must see that the world offers possibilities outside of the control of a violent partner. This requires time, and no shelter system that exists currently can provide the kind of time and resources needed.

Domestic violence is a community problem-- it requires a community solution. Women and children escaping violence deserve a chance to right their lives, and a community designed to be supportive of the changes required to break the cycle of violence is an ideal worth supporting.