The SafeDVS hotline has for years served as a crucial lifeline for victims of domestic violence in Maricopa County. But now, it’s shutting down.
It will officially go dark on May 15, according to the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, who most recently ran the hotline.
They said in a statement the hotline’s funding dried up with American Rescue Plan Act funds, and they can’t afford to keep it running.
While victims could always directly call a domestic violence shelter to get help, the SaveDVS hotline was a centralized access point for people who needed help.
It’s a blow to shelters in metro Phoenix who will lose this access point for victims.
Tanner Swanson with domestic violence shelter A New Leaf joined The Show to talk about the impact.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: Good morning, Tanner.
TANNER SWANSON: Good morning, great to be with you.
LAUREN GILGER: Thank you for coming on. So first, just tell us exactly how this kind of — this particular hotline works. It was sort of an access point for lots of shelters, right?
TANNER SWANSON: Of course. So when a survivor needed help, they had a central hotline that they could call and get connected to services anywhere within Maricopa County. And that's pretty powerful because shelters, some of them might be full, it might be difficult to access some different services.
Here, they could call a single hotline and get access to any of those services across the county without having to make multiple calls, which can be really difficult for a survivor.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. I always thought that was kind of the case when it came to domestic violence victims in particular. Like it can be hard for them to get to the point to have the courage to reach out to find help in the first place, right?
TANNER SWANSON: It can. And any little extra step in the way that stops them from accessing those services is huge. And not only that, but puts them more in danger. The most dangerous time for a survivor of domestic violence is when they decide to leave or seek help. And so that — that's a major concern for us as this hotline goes dark.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. So tell us about the reaction there at A New Leaf. You run several shelters around the Valley.
Without this hotline, are you expecting to get calls? Are you already getting calls?
TANNER SWANSON: We do expect to get calls and we already have gotten them and they're going everywhere because these people are desperate for help. We're getting calls at our donation center, our administrative office, and at our shelters.
And the hard part with that is when you have a hotline, you have someone there to answer the call 24/7, right? All of that call burden is being shifted over to the shelters and the programs now. And so you're having people answer the phone who might not necessarily be trained to, you know, answer these questions of people who are in active crisis. And not only that, but there might not be someone available to answer that phone at that time, which can be a deterrent to survivors.
And our goal is just to make sure as best as we can as service providers to survivors, to make sure that they can access services.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. So someone calls and you don't have the staff for them to — to answer that call to try to help that person, you might lose them.
TANNER SWANSON: Yep. Yep.
LAUREN GILGER: Do you have the staff to answer calls like that? Are you prepared for this?
TANNER SWANSON: We simply don't yet. You know, we're working absolutely as hard as we can. We're coordinating with all the other service providers in the county, and we're talking to some government agencies to figure out what a better answer might be. But right, now that's the situation.
LAUREN GILGER: What are the other options someone has, Tanner, who might be in a domestic violence situation who needs help? Like there are other hotlines they can call. They can call shelters directly like yours if they can get a hold of someone. But are there other resources available?
TANNER SWANSON: Of course. We always tell people to call the national hotline [800-799-7233] if they need someone to talk to. That's a great place to start. And if they do need shelter or services, they can go to atenewleaf.org. We have services all across the Valley, and they can also go to arizonasurvivors.org, where there is a listing of services across the county as well.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. Let me ask you about the broader picture here. This hotline, as I mentioned, is going dark because that kind of pandemic-era funding, pandemic-era funding, excuse me, is running out, which is the case for a lot of, I think, nonprofit services and social safety net kind of services around the country.
What's the status of funding for organizations like yours? Are you facing similar problems?
TANNER SWANSON: We are. And I think we've seen domestic violence organizations across the state, Tucson, Flagstaff, Phoenix, Mesa. We've seen all of them get hit by not only ARPA funds expiring, but federal funding cut changes to the Violence Against Women Act, the Victims of Crime Act.
A lot of core revenue that used to help support these programs and make sure survivors had safety in our communities are either changing, under threat of changing, or they have changed. And it's created a lot of challenges for agencies.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. So where can you turn if you need more funding? What are you looking at in terms of other options? You have to keep running, I'm sure, but that's — sounds like it's going to get harder.
TANNER SWANSON: It is. And, you know, the reality that we're dealing with is we're looking to the community. We don't have a whole lot of optimism about, you know, government revenue coming through to help survivors of domestic violence.
And so we're saying if you can get involved, if you can donate or volunteer, you know, visit atenewleaf.org or go to arizonasurvivors.org and see if you can help because that's our best solution right now, even though we're working on other answers with some of our partners in government.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. Let me ask you lastly, Tanner, before I let you go, about what you want someone who is in a situation like this, who might be in a domestic violence situation right now, hears that this hotline's not around or calls it and just gets that voicemail in a couple months or in a month or so when this shuts down.
What do you want them to do? What do you want them to know?
TANNER SWANSON: Stay persistent, stay safe, and seek out services. It's difficult, it can be scary, and it can be discouraging sometimes when you don't get through immediately. But the resources here in Arizona are funded, they are available, and we are here to help any survivor of domestic violence.
LAUREN GILGER: So the resources are there if you need them, but it just might be harder to — to get to them at this moment.
TANNER SWANSON: Yep. Yeah.
LAUREN GILGER: All right, we'll leave it there. Tanner Swanson with domestic violence shelter A New Leaf joining us. Tanner, thank you very much for coming on the show. I appreciate you taking the time.
TANNER SWANSON: Of course, thank you so much.
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