LIAM ESPOSITO: OK. Hello. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining our webinar today. My name is Liam Esposito and I use the pronoun he, him and his. And thank you for joining us as I work with the Center on Victimization and Safety at the Vera Institute of Justice. And I would like to welcome you to today's webinar. 

We are pleased to bring you this as part of our 2022 End Abuse of People with Disabilities webinar series. I like to do an image description of myself. I am a white Deaf transgender male with short strawberry blonde hair. 

I have a beard and I have square gray glasses. And I am wearing a navy button down shirt with a tie that is very colorful and the colors consist of black, red, yellow, and white. The design is by a Deaf artist by the name of Nancy Hawk and has ASL signs for unity on the tie. 

My background is a white wall to the right of me behind me and the other half is set a windows that have blinds over them. I also have blue curtain in the corner as well on the left side. And beside me is a desk, a wooden brown desk. 

And to the right of me it's a small yellow table with a internet wire connecting to my computer behind it. Before we get started today, I like to provide you all with some information about the accessibility features of our Zoom webinar platform as well as how you can interact with us throughout the session today. 

You should only be in listen-only and view-only mode. This means that you can hear and see us, but we cannot hear and see you. If you'd like to go ahead and turn on the captioning, please go ahead and do so by locating the Closed Captioning symbol at the bottom of your screen. 

And select the arrow to the right of that icon and the words underneath the icon should say Live Transcript. You can then either select Show Subtitle or View Full Transcripts. And once you do so, you will see the words that I'm speaking appearing below my video showing the subtitles. 

Today, we have a multilingual space. The presentation will be in English with American Sign Language and Spanish interpretation. You will see ASL interpreters. Actually, and you will see Deaf interpreters today and hear ASL interpreters providing access. And there will also be interpretation as well. 

You should have received an email, excuse me, about how to access special interpretation if you requested it. If you did not, my colleagues will be posting that information in the chat. If you have any issues regarding language or interpretation or access, please kindly do inform us in the chat. 

We value complete access in our virtual sessions. And if we encounter any technical problems, we will pause to address that issue. However, if the issue cannot be resolved, we may have to cancel and pause the session. And if that happens, we will then send an email to all of you providing further information. 

Please feel free to use the chat to communicate with each other. However, if you have a question for the presenters, please do use the Q&A pod so that your question does get lost in the chat. If you'd like to ask a question in ASL, please raise your hand and then we will go ahead and spotlight you. Please do hold your questions until the end of the program. 

So a quick note about the chat pod. You cannot save the chat or copy and paste from the chat. This is for a security measure. If we share links in the chat, we will make sure to include them and the participant materials for this session. 

If there are any materials that we will provide, we will make sure that we share those materials with you after the session. Right now if you are joined using your web browser, you may be seeing speaker view, which may prohibit you from seeing all of the panelists. 

If you join via the Zoom desktop application, which we recommend, you should have several viewing options. In the upper right hand corner of your Zoom window, you should see a button that says View with nine small squares. It will say gallery side by side speaker. 

Today, we recommend that Gallery View is the best selection to view the panelists today. We will be recording today's webinar. The webinar recording and materials will be posted and available on the End Abuse of People with Disabilities website within two weeks. 

A record of attendance and materials from the session will be available for download via link in the chat pod at the end of the webinar. OK. With that said, go ahead and get the program started. I would like to ask my fellow colleagues and panelists to please join me on screen. And Kristina will remove her camera and turn off her camera. But panelists please join us. 

OK. Hello, beautiful humans. Hello. Let's go ahead and get started. So please kindly introduce yourself with your name, your pronouns. Kindly give an image description of yourself and the role that you're doing within your agency. If we could start with DeAnna, please. 

DEANNA SWOPE: Yes. Hello, everybody. I am wearing a red long sleeve shirt with a red wrapping my hair and my locks are in a bun. I am sitting behind a pink background, a wooden background. And I also am wearing a scarf. It's a pink and purple scarf with green accents. Has a pattern on it. 

And my name is DeAnna Swope. I am the program director for BRIDGES. And BRIDGES is located in Georgia. My pronouns are she, her, hers. And I'm pleased to be here. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: Wonderful. This is Liam signing. Thank you so much, DeAnna. I'll pass it over to Aracelia Aguilar. Please. 

ARACELIA AGUILAR: Hello, everyone. I'll start with a visual description of myself. I'm wearing a dark purple long-sleeved shirt. My hair is curly and it's in a ponytail. I'm wearing a mauve of lipstick as well as wearing mascara. And my background is a black background. I'm happy to be here. 

My name is Aracelia Aguilar. My pronouns are she, hers, her. My role with fight against violence work, I work with DeafHope and I will elaborate in a bit about what I do. But I am an empowerment director, one of three empowerment directors at DeafHope and I am thrilled to be here and to have a conversation with all of you. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Thank you so much, Aracelia. Next, please. Roberta. 

ROBERTA EATON: Hello, everyone. I'm Roberta. I'm wearing a black long-sleeve shirt turtleneck. I have a blue black background behind me and I have a window with this blue and gray. I'm wearing gold stud earrings. My hair is black and it's pulled back from my face. 

My name is Roberta Eaton. This is my sign name. My pronounce are she, her, and hers. And my position is with Deaf DAWN. I'm a survivor resource specialist. Pleased to be here with everyone. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Thank you so much, Roberta. Thank you. Olivia, please. 

OLIVIA MACKEY: Hello, everyone. I'll start with the visual description of myself. I'm wearing a Black long sleeve shirt with a gold shiny shirt underneath it. I'm a white female and I have wavy hair. My background is black. It's a black screen right behind me and the White walls visible behind it as well and I'm sitting in a black chair. 

My name is Olivia Mackey. This is my name in ASL. I work at ADWAS as the hotline manager. It is a part of the Deaf Domestic Violence Hotline and I'm happy to be here with you all today. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: Wonderful. This is Liam. Thank you so much for joining our program today. And we'll be focusing on what's going on today with the survivors within domestic violence and sexual violence all over the country to just provide an opportunity for folks to have a better sense of what are some of the issues that have been happening within our communities and within our work. 

And so we want to be able to provide information regarding programs and services and to talk about what are some ongoing challenges that are facing us in our work and how we can work together collectively and collaboratively to support the survivors. 

So thank you, audience, for joining us today and for being with us. We really appreciate your participation. Now, I would love to know more about the different Deaf programs that we have today. If you wouldn't mind just giving a brief overview for folks who are with us today. 

In the United States. We have about 3,000 hearing domestic violence programs throughout the country. And the Deaf community only has 20 Deaf-centric programs. And what that means is that geographically, around 70% of counties do not have Deaf-run for Deaf by Deaf services. And we will talk more about that later in our programming. 

And I want to give just a general overview of the type of programming that we have, and just to give a sense of what your programs are like. So if you wouldn't mind elaborating, we would appreciate that. We'll begin with Roberta. 

Roberta, would you mind talking a little bit about your program at Deaf DAWN. Where is that located? How long has that been in operations and what kind of programs do you provide for Deaf survivors? And also, what makes your program unique. Roberta, please. 

ROBERTA EATON: Sure. My pleasure to talk a bit more about this. DAWN serves folks within the DC metro area, and that's Maryland as well. And so that includes Frederick, Maryland, Frederick County, Baltimore, Baltimore County, as well as the surrounding areas. So it's quite a large geographical area. 

We provide services in different areas. In-depth services, advocacy, legal services. Any kind of court or hospital, settings technical assistance, education and counseling. Of course, I should add counseling. We do have quite a robust counseling program that just started two years ago. 

When we established the program, that was 1999, it was a group of five women. And the goal was to provide services to the Deaf community in areas that were lacking. And initially it was based on volunteer work and then we finally were able to open our doors to the community after a lot of work in 2003. And we have been going ever since. Let me see what else can I say. Have I covered all the bases, Liam? 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Well, if you could say just one special thing. What is something that makes your program unique and makes your program stand out? 

ROBERTA EATON: Sure we are unique I think, maybe I'm biased, but from my view I think because we take a social justice viewpoint. We look at systemic barriers in the community. We use a lot of non-traditional approaches in our work and advocacy, which can look really different compared to what is out there currently. So I think that makes us unique. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Thank you so much, Roberta. DeAnna, would you kindly introduce yourself in your program. And talk a little bit about what you do and what makes your program stand out as well please. 

DEANNA SWOPE: Hello. This is DeAnna signing. Yes, I'm happy to speak a bit more about the program the program name is BRIDGES and it's located in Georgia. It was established in February of 2019. And previous to that, I was working for a Deaf organization since 2012 and had done a lot of networking in the field. 

And I really saw a lack of domestic violence advocacy for Deaf people specifically. So I just started canvassing the community, gathering information sort of getting a pulse on where people were in wanting services. And just developing a really strong network. 

And I ended up doing a lot of trainings and that ultimately lead me to establish this program. And this program provides direct services. It does not do referrals to other agencies. A lot of people have difficulties with cost of interpreters or lack of access. And so we found that through the years, it can save time ultimately to come to one place. And so that's where BRIDGES was established. 

And we also do advocacy with multiple other programs as well. We do liaison work as well. If there are problems in a particular shelter, we are often called in to help mediate those processes. And so we do quality services with other agencies. And so we are able to see about people have less of a worry about what choices they have. 

As far as trainings, we do provide trainings as well but it's more of community education. This has become a statewide service. It is the only Deaf-led program in the state of Georgia for domestic violence. So that I believe is what makes this unique. So far, this is the only one. Of course, I'm always hoping that will expand in the future. And we'll see more. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Thank you, DeAnna. And actually correct me if I'm wrong, but BRIDGES Georgia actually it is the only program in the South for Deaf by Deaf programming. Is that correct? 

DEANNA SWOPE: Yes, that's correct. This is DeAnna signing. That's correct. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: Yes, thank you. This is Liam signing. Thank you, Diana. Aracelia 

ARACELIA AGUILAR: This is Aracelia signing. I mentioned earlier that I work at DeafHope. DeafHope was founded in Oakland, California. We serve everyone in the Bay Area. However, we're not limited only to the Bay Area. We actually do provide services to survivors out of state as well. 

We've been in operation since 2003 with a small team of three to five staffers. We've never grown beyond five. You'll notice that I did mention that I am one of three empowerment directors. That's what makes our organization stand out. 

We operate based on a collective leadership. So the traditional approach of having a hierarchical perspective, of having an executive director and such, we actually decided to change that type of formatting. 

And instead of having one, we have three empowerment directors where we all can share the responsibility of the operations of the organization which we believe is very effective. It reduces the opportunity for burnout and the opportunity for folks to possibly leave the organization. We don't see that. 

This is a case by case basis. When we work with survivors, we give a holistic approach to a survivor when they come into our doors and it's different for every survivor as we know. 

We provide survivor-centric advocacy. We really make sure that our work is survivor-centric in everything that we do, in every part of their journey. We make sure that they know that this is their choice. We do not participate in terms of encouraging restraining orders or the system. 

We explain the pros and cons of the system when they provide the possibilities of causing harm. We are very transparent with survivors when we offer our services and support. 

We also provide Deaf one on one training to hearing service providers, to better understand of culture and to better provide culturally responsive advocacy and support. And actually showing them what that looks like in actual practice. 

And we are committed and 1,000% invested in the restorative justice work that we do in reducing harm work in our advocacy. So that's really what makes our organization unique and stand out. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Thank you so much, Aracelia. We really appreciate that. Everything you had just briefly mentioned, mentioning the system and the different approaches that you use reducing harm and your policy and procedures, we will talk further about that later in the program, specifically about our considerations of what it means to be culturally responsive. 

And how to be deeply intentional about that working with survivors of color specifically. So that would be a big part of our discussion later today. And we'll explore a little bit more about that. Thank you, Aracelia. Olivia, please. 

OLIVIA MACKEY: Hello. Olivia here. I work at ADWAS which is located in Washington state Seattle. We have multiple services. I work as the hotline manager and we partner with the National Domestic Violence Hotline. 

The goal is to make this accessible to Deaf and hard of hearing individuals. For those survivors who need communication access in an emergency situation, we offer 24/7 support services. Deaf Hotline Team was established in 2016, roughly six years ago. I joined five years ago. So I missed one year of the hotline services. 

Our Deaf hotline has its own group of service providers that are somewhat different and somewhat aligned with the ADWAS team. We provide crisis intervention, emergency intervention. We create evacuation plan, safety planning, making sure people have access to shelter, et cetera. So we're able to support them in the moment. 

We also do education in regards to domestic violence and sexual assault. We have trained individuals who are able to support people who are going through a crisis. We also provide education to hearing domestic violence and sexual assault entities and agencies, our counterparts who are not familiar with working with the Deaf and hard of hearing community and survivors. 

We want to make sure that they have an in-depth understanding of that. So we act as a cultural broker and provide trainings for them. I would say what makes us unique is that we were one of the first entities to create an accessible hotline for Deaf survivors. 

We have video phone, we have email, we have chat. I'm so grateful that I'm able to contribute to that and be a part of that and making sure that there's communication access with no additional trauma, there's no linguistic barriers. And so I'm very grateful to be a part of that. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Thank you so much, Olivia. I'm just looking at my notes. I wanted to mention a little bit too about ADWAS as Olivia just explained a little bit about that. I want to add a little bit more if I may. 

ADWAS what started in 1986. And it became the first for Deaf by Deaf domestic violence program in the United States. They were the only one for about a decade, roughly 10 to 14 years. 

And then the Office on Violence Against Women then provided some funding to provide support and sponsorship and training to grow and build more capacity throughout the country, which led to the now what we have, 20 programs established here in the United States. 

And so with the work that we're doing with OVW is quite critical to the formation of our programming throughout the country. ADWAS is also one of the largest programs and incredibly unique because as Aracelia mentioned, most programs have three to five staffers. 

Sometimes all have one or two staffers. Maybe three in certain programs. There is a range but there's not too many folks working in an organization. And so to have an organization that is formed by Deaf that also provides shelter services for Deaf survivors, there are no other services that are for Deaf by Deaf that provide shelter services except for the organization in Seattle, Washington. 

And so the partnership of working with hearing organizations is really quite critical with working with survivors and having Deaf advocates and Deaf survivors work together. So thank you, Olivia. So Olivia, would love for you to talk a little bit more actually about that National Domestic Violence Hotline. Could you please share a little bit more about the hotline and how many calls do you receive on average? 

Also, just where are the calls coming from mostly have you noticed? Let's start with that. So just give us a little bit of context for folks to better understand what and how the Deaf hotline makes the most unique and different from other hotlines. 

OLIVIA MACKEY: Actually in 2021, we created a report. We counted the number of calls from Deaf and hard of hearing callers. And we actually also noticed that we were seeing an increase in calls from people who could hear, we call them hearing. 

So there are people who were potentially Spanish speaking or BIPOC survivors. So we had 1,302 total calls. Email or contacts, rather. That's email, video phone and chat that we were able to offer support to. 

We offer support all over the country as well as Puerto Rico. Once in a while, we are actually able to support people from Canada and individuals from Europe as well. So we can do our best to find resources because again, it is out of our jurisdiction in a sense and we will as we are able to find support for them and connections. 

The Deaf Domestic Violence Hotline is always looking to support people who are often in urgent or crisis situations. We are able to connect them with shelters domestic violence, sexual assault agencies or resources that are local to them. 

And we also support emotional need if that person is in crisis and is needing something to that effect. We're able to hold space with them and support them. And regardless of the time of day, we are there 24/7 and able to support them in their time of need. Our goal is to support them and reduce the trauma and the crisis and connect them with support as best we are able. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Thank you for that information, Olivia. That's great. And yes, that's the thing about us Deaf folks. We understand what it means, that we are most likely to work in a certain geographic area. But as members of an oppressed minority, we understand each other's pain in certain ways and in certain situations. 

And it's always a place where we have the capacity to support one another, even if it's outside our geographic area because we believe that access and culture and language and linguistic access to resources is challenging. There are barriers to those aspects. 

And so we really believe in the collective value of supporting one another, no matter where we are. So thank you for sharing that. If you wouldn't mind, share a little bit more about the type of data that you have within the United States. 

What are some of the gaps that you might have noticed? Meaning maybe some calls that you may receive. However, there may not be any Deaf for Deaf by Deaf services in that particular area. 

OLIVIA MACKEY: Often we receive calls from Deaf survivors because potentially their state has zero services to support them in any capacity because they do not have any for Deaf by Deaf services. That's the case and we see that in many of our calls. 

So typically, we are the bridge. We are connecting a hearing domestic violence, sexual assault agency to a Deaf survivor. And now those Deaf survivors have often had frustration in trying to navigate these hearing services. 

And often these agencies won't provide sign language interpreters. And typically the excuse they use is because they can't afford it or they aren't sure. They're looking for any loopholes to avoid this. But again, we are often there to advocate saying that the law states that they are there to provide access. 

So we are often the liaison and we are doing some in education around the ADA, what access means, what their obligation is in terms of providing access. So we are that bridge to make sure that they are getting the services they need within their region. 

And sometimes that is doing some cultural liaison work, sometimes it's explaining how to work with an interpreter or that they do, in fact, need to hire an interpreter. So we do that education with a lot of hearing agencies because we see a significant gap. There's a significant gap around cultural knowledge and also what laws are in place that they need to follow. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Thank you, Olivia. That actually leads me to my next question which I plan on asking, which you actually technically answered it. Could you just help our audience understand a little bit better, what is the difference between hearing hotlines that use interpreters versus your signing access help? Would you mind explaining the difference? 

OLIVIA MACKEY: Thank you for asking that, Liam. Sure. So I would say the difference between the hotline, our hotline and the National Domestic Violence Hotline which is based in Texas is that they have no ASL access except for the TTY. 

And actually in 2022, we are no longer using the TTY. Our technology is much more advanced. There are some rural places where there is potentially no high speed internet and they may be using TTY. But in general, our community is not using the TTY. 

And what is fantastic about our services is that we are using ASL to connect. We're reducing that trauma because people have direct access. They're not facing a linguistic barrier on top of all the other hardships that they're going through. 

We offer video phone support, email support and chat support. And it is our work to make sure that we are meeting the people where they are. So that they have access. If some of them potentially did not have access to sign language growing up, we are able to accommodate that and modify our language to make sure that they are getting what they need and are getting the support that they need. 

We're open to supporting trans individuals, we are open to supporting BIPOC people, people who grew up in Spanish speaking countries or use Spanish as their home sign or first language. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Thank you, Olivia. That leads to a next conversation. As a hotline manager, would you mind just talking a little bit more about how you support? You recently mentioned supporting transgender folks and BIPOC folks. What exactly are you doing to support racial equity in the hotline work? 

OLIVIA MACKEY: Thank you for asking that. Olivia here responding. As a hotline manager, it is a new experience for me as a white privileged individual. I have to acknowledge my privilege in this role and making sure that I am creating an equal space. That there is not a division. 

Because me as a white person in an administrative managerial role, I think it's really important that we pay attention to how we transform and create equity in order to change the culture at ADWAS and change our system. We have to acknowledge our privilege and we have to be respectful of our BIPOC colleagues. And we need to listen w and create space to hold their experiences. 

So one thing is making sure that we are, as a team have variety and diversity within our staffing. That we are not just white people, that we have people who come from a Spanish-speaking background or culture, that we have people who are trans or gender non-conforming. 

We want to make sure that we are able to provide the best services as possible. So that is, again, in supporting the BIPOC community, LGBTQIA community. So we want to make sure that we are doing our work in unpacking our privilege. We want to reduce trauma, we want to reduce harm when supporting individuals. So that is how we're approaching that. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Olivia, one more question before we move on to Roberta. I'm curious you mentioned that you have a variety of staffers with different demographics. When you talk about Deaf by Deaf, and when we're talking about Deaf folks doing the advocacy work with Deaf people. 

When you have a hotline call from a Black or Brown or Indigenous survivor, is there a Black or Brown or Indigenous staff working with you to work with that survivor? 

OLIVIA MACKEY: Yes we have a variety of people on the schedule, a variety of cultures and identities. It's possible that somebody may not be comfortable talking with a White staffer or hotline specialist. And so at that time, we can recognize that. 

And so potentially we can offer them a different time to connect because we do have staff on a rotating basis. So potentially if somebody is not comfortable speaking with a White staff, we can make sure that we offer them different times to connect with us. 

And of course, we always make sure that we will not share their information. It is confidential and we will support them in a crisis. And we also want to offer them options to make sure that they are comfortable when processing their experiences. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam. Thank you so much, Olivia. We appreciate you sharing. Next, I would like to talk a little bit if we can segue from the hotline to now talking about the next part of our discussion, which is in regards to the virtual service hotline which is also known as VSL. 

And just to give some context about this first before Roberta begins sharing about this. What happened in 2017, OVW, the Office on Violence Against Women offered funds to Vera Institute of Justice. 

Then as part of the plan to explore and to research and to learn a bit more about what's happening throughout the country, to learn about the different dynamics for Deaf survivors because OVW recognized that there is a gap. And quite a few gaps. 

OVW was very concerned about the disparities in providing available services for Deaf survivors. And it needed to be addressed. So the funding was given to Vera and Roberta who was a huge part of that project doing that work at that time with Nancy Smith, who is the Center Directors for Victimization and safety as well as Charity Hope was the assistant director at CVS. 

We worked closely together. And in 2017, they had developed just trying to get a sense of what was going on in the country. And as I had mentioned earlier, we have only about 20 programs for Deaf by Deaf programs in comparison to the 3,000 programs that are geared for hearing people. 

And so geographically within the United States, if you're looking at the map of the US, about 71% of the country show gaps and there are no Deaf for Deaf by Deaf services for Deaf survivors to support them in their journey. 

And so in the Midwest and in the deep South, those are the two key areas where there are a gap of services. And so OVW provided those funds to try and explore and see how we can close these gaps and to see what more we can do to provide further support. 

There has been some research to look at the Virtual Service Line which in hindsight, it was really quite a brilliant move on OVW's part because that was before COVID. So it was almost as if OVW was already ahead of the game just by considering a virtual approach to this gap. 

And so now with COVID, it really did force many of us to become creative of course and how we connect with our community members and survivors to provide support on a sustainable basis so Roberta, could you share a little bit about the VSL project that you worked on and what led you to that. And what was your experience with that if you may. 

ROBERTA EATON: Absolutely. Thank you for that short summary, Liam. This is Roberta signing. When I became involved in this project, it led to a lot of discussions. And as Olivia previously mentioned, there was the Deaf hotline. And there were different types of service of use. 

So Olivia and the Deaf hotline provide more short term support. Meaning that if they are contacted by survivors, they help them in that moment. They help provide them tools and referrals. They don't do any kind of long term support or case management or anything like that. 

And so often Deaf people do receive those short term services but don't know where to go with them. And so they kind of go back. They often end up going back to those unhealthy relationships, caught in those same cycles again because they're not receiving continuous support. 

So that's where that Virtual Service Line project comes in. And so ultimately the goal of this, this was 2017 2018, the idea at that time was to set up a nationwide long term advocacy service. 

And that would be more ongoing, what you might see in terms of the services provided at a local organization but provide that nationwide and virtually. All virtually. Because it's much easier to make those connections to different resources to get connections to interpreters and so forth. So that was the goal in what we discussed. 

And as Nancy, she changed her name sign, but Nancy and I did this work with the Center of Organization Safety. We looked at different centers and the different focuses that would be needed and the possible challenges. 

And so we did do a lot of this work at that level trying to investigate and where the services would be needed. And Charity Hope was also involved in a lot of these discussions and planning. We had different roundtables, we hosted a different roundtable events. 

One was the National Anti-violence Coalition, and that was held in Vermont. And we did a lot of planning around some of these questions that we were going to ask. The people who attended that roundtable were many of them were advocates, many of them are also managers or who provided enrichment services. It was a variety of stakeholders that attended those meetings. 

And there were multiple discussions and people shared different viewpoints in trying to identify those gaps. And our goal was to sort of fill in those gaps that we identified. And really wanted to tailor these services particularly to the Deaf community along with those with intersectional identities. 

And at these discussions, we thought about this may look different at the national level. For example, services in the East Coast may look very different than services in the South or Indiana. The Midwest is very different from the Western United States. 

And we really wanted to think about, particularly BIPOC folks, immigrants, college students, Deaf people that come from Deaf families. International students or folks moving from other countries, and take those different lands. And I know that DeAnna can also talk about this but we were really looking at what services would need to be for a variety of different people. 

So we went back home and had more discussions and continue to think about it. We had a second roundtable event and that happened in Washington DC with some of these folks and continue these discussions. And also included, if I remember correctly. Gosh, this was back in 2017. 

This was for people in crisis not necessarily like in that moment of crisis. But we would consider those who are coming out of a crisis. So we're also thinking about residential schools for the Deaf that were located in different states and students there. 

Because residential school for the Deaf are a huge part of the Deaf community, not just for the students, but for the community in general. And we tried a base hit into there and grow from there, what does anti-violence program would that look like for teenagers, for older individuals and so forth. 

We thought about community organizations, different organizations. And we also sat down with BIPOC Deaf people and really tried to hone in on their feelings about some of these service programs because many of them are White-led, the vast majority. 

And we continue to have these discussions amongst ourselves. And ultimately, recommended several things to CDS and continued in that vein. I think with that, I'll pass it back to you Liam. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: Sure. Sounds good. This is Liam signing. Thank you, Roberta. That was beautiful summation. Thank you for explaining your experiences, and especially listening sessions of those roundtable discussions and being able to sort of interview folks and to get their responses and then to submit that to OVW and knowing that it's in their hands now to decide the next step. 

So we'll see what happens. And if there are any new changes or updates, we will make sure that we keep folks informed about that. But yes, the goal is to basically essentially make sure that we are closing that gap and making sure that we are providing services for Deaf survivors. 

And it's an opportunity to go ahead and utilize that resource so that this hotline can be provided in ASL. And that way it's also recognized legislatively that there are services being provided where their case managers and other forms of support available that are critical to our work. And that's where we're hoping to be creative moving forward in trying to cover those gaps. 

So Roberta, you do have a unique experience. You've had a variety of roles all throughout the years in your work. So the Virtual Service Line project as part of your work and also you are now part of DAWN, which you mentioned and started to talk about a little bit and how you said that it's a program that stands out. 

DAWN is a Black-Brown Deaf-led organization. And if you wouldn't mind, can you explain what that means Roberta, especially as a Black-Brown Deaf woman for Deaf by Deaf organizations that is being run and led by Black-Brown Deaf people? Would you mind explaining a bit? 

ROBERTA EATON: Sure. I've worked in different programs over the years and I have learned so much. I'm very thankful and very grateful to my work in those programs and the support that I received and people who believed in me and helped me continue this work. 

I am a Black Deaf woman and I consider intersectionality to be critical to my experience. I walk through this world with primarily three identities that have a large impact on multiple identities, especially here in this group. I think it's so important to be Black and Brown Deaf-led because those groups often experience multiple marginalization. 

And so now within the Deaf community, people of color are also marginalized very often and are not part of those conversations. So in my experience, in my own personal life and my professional life, we opt to provide services to people. 

And so I'm so very thankful for my work there at DAWN being Black and Brown Deaf-led. I believe it's the only one in the US entirely Black and Brown Deaf-led. But DAWN we've been providing services for many, many years. Over 500 people, and there are so many different groups of people. 

I feel like I myself haven't even experienced everything that DAWN has to offer. We get people from all walks of life over the past 25 years that we've been in operation. And Deaf people from Deaf families. 

It's critical that we are culturally responsive due to just the different identities and loss of life of the people that we serve. And so it's important to continue to recognize and have discussions about disability, about any types of isms that may present themselves, any types of biases, gaps in our work. How we can collaborate and partner with our brother and sister organizations. 

I mean, there are so many wonderful organizations that are doing great things and it's wonderful to be able to work with them and collaborate. And how we can adapt and adjust to survivors needs. I feel like that's such an important question. 

We really have to consider what kind of support are we providing. How can we help others grow? What makes people or what adds to their healing? What can we provide regardless of what it is. It may look completely different from one individual to another. I could keep talking but I think I'll give it back to you, Liam. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: That's great. This is Liam. That's beautiful. Thank you, Roberta. Thank you. So as you said, that is one example of how you're being culturally responsive is you are asking survivors directly. How can we support you? How can we be present with you and what can we do to support your journey? 

And if you wouldn't mind just elaborating a little bit more of, what's the philosophy behind the value and the belief of your approach and how that makes your work of being culturally responsive effective? Would you mind explaining that a little bit? 

ROBERTA EATON: Sure. Really behind this work is the desire to reduce harm, to work against oppression, against violence. We know that we have caused harm we probably as people, continue to cause harm. But in these discussions it's important to address that. 

Violence could be bias values, a lot of different things. We have to unpack. We have to call each other out on our different areas of privilege and continue having those ongoing discussions or else those things will continue to happen. 

And so really considering these systematic barriers. And often I do emphasize as Black and Brown people, often in life we don't hold the power. We aren't the ones who hold the power and survivors who are Black and Brown don't have a lot of power either within the system rather I mean. And so working together to confront that system. 

We will figure out whatever we need to do to go up against those barriers because we believe that and that's what I love about DAWN. We couldn't do this without the community. I think that is the most easy thing to latch onto is that we are so community-based and rely so much in our community. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Thank you, Roberta. I felt that. I felt that deep in my heart what you said. And just knowing that survivors who's saying that they don't have the power but you work with them, you navigate with them in the systems and the resources and what you provide, that's very real. 

And I think it's important that we name it. That we name it. It's called white supremacy systems. That's the name of it. And that is a huge force that has had an influence on Black and Brown and Indigenous communities and survivors and their experiences within our system throughout society. So Roberta, I just want to say I see you and thank you. Thank you. 

ROBERTA EATON: Thank you. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: DeAnna and Aracelia, would you mind talking a little bit about your experiences? In Georgia and in California, what you see things come up for Deaf survivors in your work. How are those barriers for Deaf survivors in Georgia and California different compared to maybe others in the country? Maybe we'll start with you, DeAnna. 

DEANNA SWOPE: OK. This is DeAnna signing. Since I have been working in this field, I've noticed several challenges. I have noticed particularly within shelters as well as communication accommodations, a refusal to provide interpreters or bringing in interpreters who are not qualified to do this work. 

And I think there's a lot of misunderstanding out there, especially with law enforcement. I see that quite a bit that's very common to have misunderstandings in interactions with law enforcement. Oftentimes children are taken away and it's not very clear the motives or the reasons why those children are removed from the home. 

And so how victims become, if you will-- There was a CAR law, child abuse registration. Meaning that if a child is in a dangerous situation they can document that. And so that's sort of the rule out there. 

And so sometimes what happens is people move. And so that's a challenge to track them down where there are open cases, and where those need to be closed. And so resources most of all, can be challenging in particularly for me to try and navigate these different hearing programs. 

Oftentimes I get resistance. Many don't want to work with me or they don't want to work with the client. There are continuous barriers to access even for me just to get that information. Either organizations don't want to work with me or I get information with a lot of gaps, a lot of information missing. 

So currently, I am working to fill in those gaps by trying to develop partnerships and alliances with other organizations to break down those barriers. And so that's been a great challenge that's the first one that comes to mind. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Thank you so much, DeAnna. Aracelia, would you like to add your experiences and your observations in California? What have they been like? 

ARACELIA AGUILAR: This is Aracelia signing. The things that we see quite often is that survivors face so many barriers. And what's most accessible is housing. California housing has just gone up exponentially and survivors rely a lot on government benefits. And the disparity is just too great. 

And so for California it's just been more of a roommate culture, if you will, because survivors in California need to room with one another to simply meet the cost of rent and expenses. And so for survivors who want to have their own place to feel safe, it's a bit hard to support them but it's been an ongoing challenge because of the cost of housing. And so there are so many barriers to try to overcome access to housing. 

A second element is receiving legal services. That has been quite challenging. And looking at how the system is set up really, we'll be looking at folks will say OK, we'll go ahead and leave a message and we'll call you back. For a certain survivor, they might not be able to have a phone that is reliable. 

And so if a legal aid office calls that person back, that cell phone might be out of range and so therefore they might miss that call. And that survivor has to start all over again to just get in touch and connect with somebody in legal services. And that is an ongoing issue for many Deaf survivors here in California. 

And we do a lot of out of state service providing as I mentioned earlier. We have noticed that a lot of states outside of California do have amazing domestic violence coalitions where folks are really supporting one another collaboratively, supporting Deaf-centric systems where outside systems have caused some barriers. 

Sometimes hearing organizations will provide shelters or a temporary housing and hotel or motel. We don't have that in California. Everything we do is independent and on our own. 

And another part is courts not providing interpreters. Certain courts to do. In fact, I have one person right now who had their court date postponed three times because the interpreter has not shown up. And this case has been going on for seven months. And for the interpreters to not show up, that's such a huge barrier. And that causes a huge struggle for Deaf survivors. 

And also lastly, language deprivation, which is just another huge layer to our work. To be able to explain to survivors the content, the information, different parts of their journey of what they have to face is not easy. 

And that means that they may not have necessarily had access to language and not having understanding of the context of what's going on in certain systems. And so to break down information to make sure that it's more accessible is also a bit of a challenge as well on our part when we provide services. Yes, Liam. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. Aracelia while I have you on that language deprivation, would you mind just for our audience for them to understand a little bit better could you give an example of advocates who work with survivors who have language deprivation. And what does that look like. 

ARACELIA AGUILAR: This is Aracelia. Oh, sure. I'm happy to share that. I have two stories I can share. There's one survivor who themselves was unhoused and they were a BIPOC survivor. And so I was interacting with them and engaging with them. 

And they continue to sign this, which was signed for due in schedule, due mean calendar and this person did not know the word for it. But they kept signing this over and over. And eventually I realized that they were signing that this is the sign for a pattern. 

We look at this sign and we think well, yes this is the sign for schedule or the sign for calendar. But when this person was signing this particular sign, they had to sign that as a pattern. 

An ASL language interpreter may not have caught that but having a Deaf advocate or working with a Certified Deaf Interpreter, they would have been able to understand that due to the linguistic sameness and specialty and expert that they come with. 

Also, court language is quite different and it's not necessarily accessible. For instance, there will be different types of interpreting where there might be all forms of contact. And so a Deaf person will think OK, so it's important that I don't physically touch or be in touch with the interpreter. That's fine. They'll have that understanding. 

But the thing is if they are under a restraining order, a person will say, well, you have violated that. And they'll say, well no, I understood what that means. But the truth is that they may not have a full understanding of the expectations of a restraining order. That means you're not allowed to tap them on the shoulder, that means you're not allowed to use a forensic in touch with them. You're not allowed to use Facebook to get a hold of them. 

There are certain mandates in order to break it down for them to be able to explain explicitly to have a better understanding of what that means. And so those are just some examples of language deprivation. And if I could just give some examples. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: Yes, Roberta. And this is Liam. Just one comment, I want to make sure that people can understand CDI. Can you explain what a CDI means, Aracelia? 

ARACELIA AGUILAR: Yes. Aracelia is saying a Certified Deaf Interpreter, CDI is a person who is a Deaf person themself who is specializing and able to interpret. And for some hearing people they might say, well, how can a Deaf person interpret? 

A Deaf person is able to interpret with special training and with certain exposures. They have nuances linguistically and culturally where they are able to understand and share in the sameness of the Deaf person they are working with. 

Hearing person who is a hearing interpreter may not be able to capture those specialized nuances. And so if a person has a sign name such as this, which is G on the chest, say that person's name is George. 

In a court of law and giving a context, the interpreter might misunderstand thinking that means guilty because that's the sign for guilty. Whereas a Certified Deaf Interpreter will be able to provide clarification and be able to work with Deaf people with a variety of backgrounds. And so they typically work with hearing interpreters. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: And this is Liam. Thank you so much. Roberta, did you want to add? 

ROBERTA EATON: This is Roberta here. Yes, I just wanted to clarify about two things. And maybe I don't know what the audience is familiar with this but I guess thinking about CDI, Certified Deaf Interpreters, now the question with interpreting if you are working with a Deaf interpreter, a Deaf person will natively have that cultural awareness. 

They will have that sense of almost can feel like a second sense sometimes, of understanding what the Deaf person means where hearing interpreter does not have that because they don't have the lived experience of being Deaf. 

And so Deaf people can often understand or capture the Deaf person's intent because they innately understand that experience of Deafness. And some of those nuances might escape a hearing interpreter. So Certified Deaf Interpreter works alongside a hearing interpreter. They work as a team. 

And now as far as language deprivation, what that is and I mean, statistically speaking, we always like to have numbers, right? It's very convincing to have those numbers. Percentage of Deaf people born to hearing parents is about 90%. 

Meaning that most of them don't have access to language in their home because often hearing parents don't know American Sign Language. And so they're gesturing or using home signs. And so what consequently happens is when they don't have access to language, they become language delayed and ultimately language deprived. 

Because primarily, these Deaf children are gaining information through the world via their vision. And so Deaf children with Deaf parents have a very different experience. They automatically have access to the language in their world, their v linguistic experiences very rich. And so they're often great disparities between Deaf children with hearing parents and Deaf children with Deaf parents. 

And so I think that if we look at Deaf people who are graduating high school, there's this famous statistic out there. They graduated with a 4th grade reading level. And actually again, a lot of that is due to language deprivation. 

There's not a lot of information in the schools about, for example, how to pick up on learning that's in the environment because a lot of it is auditory. It's not visual. It's not made a visual for Deaf children. 

And so they miss out on many opportunities and ultimately can become language deprived if they don't have a rich visual language environment. And so for many survivors, it's very highly likely that they grew up in these circumstances and are still dealing with the effects of language deprivation. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. I know that interpretation is still being provided. So I wanted to give a break to the interpreters. Deaf folks I know sometimes you forget to give pause for the interpretation. So I wanted to give space for that. 

So Roberta you named, and Aracelia you named language deprivation. And you talked about the written word and having text in English, looking at documents. And there was an article that I had read by Tamar Okon who is a Black author. 

And they had written something called white supremacy culture and the different characteristics of identifying white supremacy culture. the? Word of worship is one of the words that looks up that is trying to honor if you will a white supremacy culture where hearing people value English and rely on spoken English and written English, which is actually quite oppressive in many different ways. 

It's an oppressive language itself. It oppresses members of the disability community in real ways. And so instead, Okon wrote this article offering several different antidotes as to what we can do to instead of relying on the written word and on spoken English, what one can do to then provide alternatives. And so I just wanted to name that. 

Because I think it's very important that we not only recognize naming the roots of where is this oppression happening, r and where is this action itself is happening. And so it's helping us to be able to identify that and then to be able to dismantle and be able to provide transformative justice within our work. So thank you for that. 

I like to now talk a little bit more about the White supremacy system, as I've been mentioning. And of course, Aracelia and DeAnna and others you have mentioned. What are some disparities in providing services to the survivors of color? 

As a result of course, there are many white supremacy systems such as racism and others. As advocates of color, what would you like your white colleagues to make sure that they provide a culturally responsive services to survivors of color? Why don't we start with Aracelia. 

ARACELIA AGUILAR: This is Aracelia signing. I think first I've quite a few thoughts but first it's important to me to address that I have seen a lot of traditional organizations holding on to the idea of this concept of professionalism. 

I feel that professionalism does in a way separate you from the advocate and survivor. And that space and what I mean by that is a survivor comes into the space trying to get services. And whether they work with someone who is light skinned or a person who's White, already in that moment there's a sense of disparity. 

And the reason being might be because they might have had experience of being language deprived. And that's where for myself, where do I really, Aracelia, try to make sure we balance the power dynamic between the survivor and myself? 

Survivors are experts in their situations. And I often do tell survivors, you are our teachers. How can we learn from you? How can we support you and hold space for you? And sometimes survivors language can look wow, that's different and that's fine. And that is going to look different for different people. 

Certain people might take it personally and it's important to actually find the root of why one thinks that way. Maybe it's fear based and it has nothing to do with advocacy but it might be due to how people react. And the more trauma informed you are, the more you can actually better understand where survivors are coming from. 

I have seen where white advocates have actually just cut off services with BIPOC survivors because that individual could not get anything done for the last two years, the BIPOC survivor couldn't do anything for the last two years. But the truth is that the reaction in the work within the last two years has been heavily trauma based. 

And so that's heavy. That's really challenging. And so there are a lot of things and ways that advocates to provide harm without even realizing it. And so I would love it if advocates could create a workshop that would be more accessible for us, for Deaf advocates. 

We really do need more experience and a lot of hearing organizations are saying, well, you're going to have to go ahead and get interpreters. And it's like, well OK. There's an impact then and how we receive information to then pass it on to survivors. And that's just one example. But if others want to add and chime in, please feel free to do so. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam. Roberta, DeAnna, did you want to add some thoughts? DeAnna, please. 

DEANNA SWOPE: This is DeAnna signing. I agree with Aracelia. It's important to develop relationships and we have to remember that not all communities of color or survivors have that trust or they will automatically trust. 

Not everybody is ready to do the work. Many they have that experience of being pigeonholed, of being oppressed. And so oftentimes people are reluctant to sort of pull up their sleeves and do some of that hard work. 

What I find is oftentimes when I'm working with survivors, I have this period of them assessing me and it takes time for us to get comfortable together and to develop that rapport. If they don't feel comfortable with me, we can't do the work. 

And so it's sometimes just taking that time. Maybe for White advocates, do you have a colleague of color that you can pull in and do some of that work together with the survivor? But we have to make sure that survivor is comfortable first before we do any of that work. 

So sometimes it's taking a step back telling yourself, this is not personal. It's not about me, it's about them. How can I support them in other ways until they are ready to do this work? And so sometimes it takes time for the mind and the heart to open because of past experiences. 

And people often get labeled things angry Black woman or an angry Deaf woman. And so just taking the time to know who that person is can go a long way. Just want to throw that out there. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: Yes, Roberta. 

ROBERTA EATON: Yes. And to add to that, I would like to say that advocates of color in the United States, particularly let's say Deaf advocates of color, there are very few of us. Maybe seven. Aracelia and DeAnna, you want to tell me how many you think there are? Ten. 

OLIVIA MACKEY: I'll say 10. 

ROBERTA EATON: So about 10 in total. And for the hearing audience, those of you who are watching this just to clarify culturally specific services, if we're talking about Deaf folks, those services are out there. They are provided but we provide services tailored to Deaf people but it feels like we are more than just Deaf services. 

We have to think about Deaf people with intersectional experiences and multiple marginalized identities. And so people of color can be exhausted. If you're serving this community and you're educating people, perhaps White Deaf people and providing trainings on how to provide services to BIPOC survivors, you're doing double duty. you're advocating for Deaf folks you're advocating for people of color. 

And so we can't just focus on one area or another, or one Identity or another. We have to think about people as they come. And so thinking about things fundamentally, like automatically providing captions, automatically thinking about interpreting services. So that when you do have a Deaf person come, you're ready. 

If you are Deaf but you're White and how do you work with survivors of color doing that work. We're not necessarily paid to do this double duty but it does come into place because of all the isms that we encounter. And it can be very exhausting. 

And so we advocate for everyone's needs and across all different identities. And just realizing and being cognizant that people have different experiences. They may be Deaf line, they may have an additional disability. They may be late Deafened. People's experiences are different. 

And so thinking about information sharing amongst one another, this impacts multiple different groups. So for Deaf women, one out of two may experience violence. For Deaf men, maybe 1 out of 6. So those statistics are sobering. 

And just thinking about all the different hats we have to wear trying to cover these different areas, it can be quite exhausting. It's not a simple answer and it does require going into much more depth. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: Aracelia, I see your hand. Go ahead. This is Liam. Go ahead, Aracelia. 

ARACELIA AGUILAR: This is Aracelia signing. I just wanted to add a few more as folks were sharing. I know I mentioned language deprivation. Many survivors have experienced that, especially Black and Brown people. 

And so what we need to be mindful of is being aware of your advocacy time. It may be 2 to three hours when you work with a survivor. I know that hearing people might have been accustomed to working with survivors for about an hour. 

But working with Deaf Brown Black people who may be language deprived may require two to three hours, which will allow the survivor to express themselves in a safe way to be heard and to be seen. 

And so if I may, I would like to encourage domestic violence agencies and organizations please do your best to provide quality responsive services. And let a Deaf advocate be present to support that Deaf survivor with what your agency may provide, whether it's a shelter or whether it's services. 

We do see shelters often kick out Deaf survivors because they don't understand the rules. And so it's important that when you hand a document to a Deaf survivor and saying, here are our rules so please abide by them. That Deaf survivor may not have access to that document. And so you need the support of a Deaf advocate to break that information down for them. 

Another situation that we've encountered is us as advocates, we could uplift and we could amplify the work of Deaf survivors to make sure that they feel equitable and feel like they have power in their work because they do. 

In all of our work and all of our practice, we make sure that we provide services for survivors. And so in certain instances, there might be folks who have a certain amount of training or years of training. They will say, well, how do I justify my rate? For instance, certain advocates might say. 

And so what they'll do is they may offer a lower rate, whether it's following a fairly standard rate. And as we asked survivors maybe to provide presentations or be on panels, we intentionally tried to develop an invoice to show to the survivor so that they can and see that they hold on to that template as a way to justify when they provide experiences or training. 

So that they have a better understanding of the value of their knowledge and their experiences. And so that's one way where we can actually really uplift survivors themselves to be teachers and to be trainers so that they feel equal in their power. 

I think for us as advocates, we are so trained to honor the survivor and to making sure that they feel and trust and they feel believed. And that's just something that we want to make sure that survivors are aware of. We want them to be seen and to feel empowered in their journey. 

When we provide services, whether it's with support groups, sometimes BIPOC survivors may not have transportation access and it might be dangerous for them to walk at night. And so sometimes certain agencies and organizations may say, well OK, that's not our job. 

But certain agencies will say, well, let's provide transportation. How can we make sure that survivor gets to their destination safely? And so certain organizations need to look at their policies and think, are these protocols causing harm or are they supporting marginalized groups? And so that's something to really consider and vital to think about. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. So as we are nearing the end of wrapping up our session, there's one comment that was recently brought up about interpreting. As Aracelia mentioned, we have Certified Deaf Interpreters, we have hearing interpreters. 

We also have ASL, which is American Sign Language. We also have Black ASL. We also have LSM, Langua de sanas Mexicana. So we need to make sure that we're not assuming that all Deaf people are using ASL. 

There are some survivors who may use Black ASL, some may use LSM. And so we want to make sure that you get the appropriate interpretive color to provide congruent services parallel to the Deaf survivor and their linguistic access. 

And so we want to make sure that you do a little bit of research and do a little bit of investigating to see what kind of interpreters you have in your area. So for instance, I am a trans individual. I have a preference for trans interpreters or for certain situations. 

For instance, if a Black Deaf survivor would like to work with a Black interpreter, that might be the case. So that's something for folks to be considerate of when providing interpreting services. And so here we are, we've come to the Q&A. I know that we've got some questions in the Q&A pod. 

So let's go ahead and take a look at what we have. Olivia, would am I talking a little bit more about the hotline and how that supports Deaf folks who do not use ASL as a mode of communication? 

ARACELIA AGUILAR: This is Aracelia. Can you repeat the question, Liam? 

LIAM ESPOSITO: Sure. So as you provide services for the hotline, what if a Deaf individual may not have access to ASL? How would you provide services? 

OLIVIA MACKEY: Yes, Olivia here. So often we receive a call and the person may identify as hard of hearing and we're seeing that they're actually calling through a sign language interpreter. And so we may clarify, do they use sign language? 

Potentially they prefer to use their voice and speak their phone. There are different technologies. There's video phone. There's also amplifying telephones where a person would put a telephone down on a device and it would become louder so they could access it. 

There are people who put who do not sign and we want to make sure, again, that we are reducing the harm and reducing the trauma. We potentially would connect them with the hearing agency because that provider could speech-read or lip-read and the Deaf person would have direct access potentially. 

If somebody is depending on American Sign Language, then we are able to provide that service directly using sign language. If they are not, we can figure out what would be the best to connect them to the right resource, the right agency who can understand their needs and also be accessible to them if they do not in fact use sign language and potentially identify as hard of hearing. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: That's great. Thank you, Olivia. One person wanted to ask you, what do you say to survivors who refuse to speak with a staff person because of race? What do you say? 

OLIVIA MACKEY: It's complex for us because we do have a limitation in staff. We don't necessarily have multiple staff people on the schedule at the same time. We potentially have one person working per shift and potentially only one person working that day. 

We are always encouraging people to make sure that they are unpacking their privilege, acknowledging their privilege, as I named earlier. And at the same time we want we can provide people resources if they prefer not to speak to us because of our race or any other reason. 

Or they prefer to speak with somebody who is the same race as them and identifies the same race, we can try and connect them with resources so they can get those services the same day as they need them. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. I just want to follow up to what Roberta had mentioned. There are about 10 Black or Brown Indigenous Deaf advocates in the entire United States, just to give folks a sense of the disparities here and how we are lacking resources to provide for Black and Brown Deaf survivors. 

And that's something that we need to change. And we need to do this together. We can't do this in silos. We need the collective. We need all the 400 plus people in the Zoom room watching and your support. 

Another question has come up in regards to trafficking. Could folks talk about your experiences and possibly share some knowledge regarding the survivors with sex trafficking. I'll leave that open to the panel. DeAnna, please. 

DEANNA SWOPE: DeAnna signing. Yes, I have experience those challenges particularly with immigrants being sex trafficked and often not considering that as trafficking. 

Yet from their experiences and sharing their stories and asking several questions and from what these people support, they basically are describing a trafficking experience of being shared or sold to individuals for trading sex for money under the guise of this boyfriend or partner pimping them out. 

And so having this particular abusive relationship and leading to a lot of disturbing behaviors in what is trafficking. And so really understanding what is going on can be difficult. And so for example, other professionals may notice those who are working in schools or social workers but may not have access. 

So it takes time for these survivors often to understand their own experience and also having them getting connections to resources and what they need as far as immigration, as far as domestic violence resources. 

And what I think often happens is they fly under the radar. They aren't noticed. People don't understand what's going on with them. And so I think the Deaf community needs to pay attention, particularly residential schools for the Deaf need to keep an eye out for that people. Immigrants are particularly at risk and just understanding the big picture I think could avoid a lot of difficulties. 

ROBERTA EATON: Roberta here. I just want to pick on pick up on one thing that you said DeAnna talk about a little bit more when we're talking about hearing people having the knowledge of this and trafficking and what it means. 

I think that for Deaf people we have our own particular challenges and what trafficking can look like in Deaf communities. So I think there are particular instances of what it can look like, especially those in coming from particular backgrounds and those who are at risk of being isolated. 

And so we really do need to provide these services so badly. For those of us, the 20 organizations that are providing services, I think that this is a gap. We've got 3,000 hearings organizations versus 20 that focus on Deaf folks. So we need support. That's another reason why we need that the Virtual Service Line. More marketing for that. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: This is Liam signing. I think you have one Deaf person who would like to ask a question and ASL. So we'll have that person turn on their camera and then we'll go ahead and wrap up. Did we have a Deaf person who had a question? 

ROBERTA EATON: I see a hand raised. 

LIAM ESPOSITO: Oh, I'm sorry. It seems that it was the interpreter but their hand was raised. OK, we were checking. We want to make sure we didn't miss anybody. So OK. So we'll go ahead and we'll wrap up. 

I would like to thank all of you so much for your time, your valuable wisdom and your insight and your experiences. We truly, deeply appreciate that. I would like to thank everyone for participating. If you wouldn't mind, please complete the evaluation, which will come up in the chat. 

We would really appreciate it audience members if you could go ahead and fill that out so that we can make sure that the are met your needs and your goals. And this webinar as mentioned, will be recorded. 

And we will also provide a transcript as well and that will be available within the next two weeks. And again, we just want to say thank you so much for joining us today folks. Everyone please have a great, great day. Panelists, thank you again.