Mission Moment – Community Training & Education

About Community Engagement

At YWCA Spokane, we may be best known for providing crisis support to survivors of intimate partner domestic violence (IPDV). While these types of services are a percentage of what we do, we offer the community much more.

A key aspect of our community outreach is training and education. As the largest agency in the area working with IPDV survivors, we want to help the community better understand the complexities, myths, and realities survivors face.

Impact of Community Education

Domestic violence is a serious and prevalent issue in Spokane with almost 25% of all violent crime related to domestic violence. Educating the community equips individuals with the skills and understanding to foster healthy relationships and actively work towards eliminating domestic violence, creating a safer and more compassionate community for everyone.

Our Community Engagement Coordinator, Jemma Riedel-Johnson, leads our education efforts in this front. Almost every month, she hosts two online, free trainings on domestic violence: Domestic Violence 101: Recognize. Respond. Refer. and Domestic Violence 201: Learning In Action. The first of these trainings provide foundational information about how to recognize DV, help a survivor, and what services YWCA Spokane offers. In January of 2022, she helped the agency launch the sequel DV 201 training. This follow up training gives folks a deeper dive into the complexities of DV, looking at unique barriers, legal rights & options, and discussing complex scenarios.

“Anyone can benefit from DV education,” says Jemma. “Whether you are a survivor, work with survivors, or know a survivor, we can all learn how to better support each other.”

Spokane County has the highest reported rates of domestic violence in Washington State, 14.2 offenses per 1,000 (2020) vs state average 7.2 (State of Women and Children 2.0 report). It’s estimated 1 in 3 women and 1 in 10 men experience DV in Spokane County.

Following a community DV 201 training last year, Jemma received an email from an attendee who was immediately able to utilize information from the training.

“I had no idea about the website for DV survivor/tenant’s rights and the same day I was able to help a victim by referring them to the website,” Heidi a DV 201 attendee stated.

Education equips community members with the knowledge of available resources and techniques needed to support survivors. It enables individuals to play an active role in creating a safer and more supportive community. Providing community education also empowers potential victims by letting them know about their rights and available services, ultimately creating an environment where survivors feel more supported and less isolated.

Our Approach

By raising awareness about the different forms of abuse, including physical, emotional, financial, and verbal abuse, education enables community members to recognize signs early on. Ending the silence surrounding domestic violence is a key to dismantling the stigma associated with abuse.

We are committed to offering free trainings that are open to anyone in the community. Along with these recurring offerings, Jemma also works with organizations directly to customize training for their teams. Through our DV training, we provide a trauma-informed approach that is designed to minimize harm and connect individuals with relevant services.

“It’s crazy to think that I’ve personally trained almost 2,000 people since joining the agency 3 years ago,” says Jemma.

We are proud to also work closely with social service and crisis response agencies in Spokane. Education on how to support survivors and connect them to meaningful resources is vital in a community with such a high rate of domestic violence. Recently, Jemma has partnered with Arc of Spokane, Catholic Charities of Eastern Washington, Family Promise, Providence Systems of Medicine, Spokane Housing Authority, UW/GU Medical School, and Volunteers of America to provide in-depth training for some of their programs. This last summer, Frontier Behavioral Health made a commitment to train all of their 988 Regional Crisis Line responders with DV 101. Thank you Frontier and all the organizations we’ve trained for your commitment to creating a safer and more supportive community for everyone!

In the last 10 months, over 900 community members have engaged in some form of community education with YWCA Spokane. We know together we can raise awareness, provide support, and foster an environment that rejects all forms of abuse.

Learn More

• Find our upcoming community training dates and times at ywcaspokane.org/training

Thank You to Our Partners for Hosting a Training!