By Lisa Rivera
More than 20 years ago, I came to NYLAG as a staff attorney in what is now our Domestic Violence Law Unit. For 15 years I had the honor of walking hand in hand with hundreds of survivors on their journeys, each unique in their circumstances and goals. I remember every single one, their families, their stories, and their experiences.
As Domestic Violence Awareness Month comes to a close, I keep thinking about those survivors and all I learned from them, particularly in the context of NYLAG’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month theme this year, who defines survival.
At the core of every survivor’s case lies this essential truth: Survivors know best what safety, autonomy, and justice look like for them. They know what they need to protect themselves and their children, and ultimately to reclaim and rebuild their lives.
It was true for the survivor who squeezed my hand under the table in the courtroom as we fought to protect her custody of her children. It was true for the survivor who needed a safe place to live, so we found a shelter that could take her in and provide wraparound services to support her healing. It was true for the survivor who came to this country for a better life, so we secured her immigration status to ensure she had the opportunity to pursue just that, without fear of retribution or deportation.
It’s true for every survivor I have ever met and for every survivor who comes through our doors looking for an advocate to work with them in seeking justice.
Ask any of us at NYLAG, and we’ll tell you the same thing: Survivors define survival. Survivors are experts in their own lives and thus are best equipped to guide their pursuit of justice. We, the advocates, are their steadfast partners in making it happen.
Our deep commitment to working with survivors as the unique individuals they are, offering survivor-centered and trauma-informed advocacy, guides our work throughout NYLAG. It informs how we pursue survivors’ cases and how we advocate for policies that expand not only access to justice for survivors, but critically access to information and resources that prioritize survivors’ autonomy – not court, attorney, or government-driven roadmaps – in reclaiming their lives.
I take great pride in the work we do with survivors at NYLAG. Each of our practice areas works with survivors in a way that sees and supports the whole survivor, covering everything from immigration to consumer protection to accessing shelter or public benefits and more. This sets us apart in more ways than one among legal service organizations, and more than anything, it meaningfully puts survivors on a path to safety, justice, and stability that meets their unique needs. It also puts survivors in control of what that looks like, no matter what their circumstances may be.
For this reason, ensuring that survivors define survival remains the central goal of our work around intimate partner violence. Every story, every case, every person we partner with for justice stays top of mind in that ongoing pursuit. We know that success in achieving justice depends on each survivor’s means to define it, and that no two will have the same circumstances, hopes, or needs.
The hundreds of survivors I worked with over the years and their stories stay with me in that way more than any other – because if you asked me in each of their cases “who defined survival,” they did. And that’s exactly how it should be.
