Contract social worker helps Monroe with domestic violence

In recent years the Monroe Police Department has received just fewer than 100 calls relating to domestic violence annually.

In 2016 responders were dispatched 90 times, and 39 times so far in 2017, according to MPD administrative director Debbie Willis. Those numbers are typical in Monroe, she said.

Not all result in an arrest. In some cases, calls can be the result of a neighborhood’s misunderstanding, she said. All are logged to provide a report history for the agency in case responders are repeatedly dispatched to the same residence. 

“It is important to respond to all of them,” Willis said. “Some are warning signs, but may not be criminal yet.”

To address needs associated with the volume, the agency hired an advocate through nonprofit Domestic Violence Services of Snohomish County. Willis said the Monroe City Council approved the new position in 2016.

When a call comes in, DVS legal advocate Bárbara del Mar Robles is the one to follow up. For the past seven months she has worked out of the Sky Valley Department of Health and Social Services Community Services Office on Monday mornings. She then heads to the Monroe department in the afternoon, as well as all day on Wednesdays.

“I get the reports from the officers, whether it’s verbal, physical, harassment, stalking or anything of that nature, then I will cold call and offer services,” she said. “I do get clients from the community who have not had police interaction and they live in Monroe, and we also offer services to them as well.”

Sometimes it takes a few calls before someone is comfortable enough to take up the offer.

“If they do agree to work with me, we go over what is happening,” she said. “There is a lot of self-doing for them, which can include safety planning.”

Robles said her clients are the ones that decide the best course of action. She is there to supply options and advice.

“As legal advocates, we cannot impose our own views or opinions on our clients,” she said. “We are there for support, and to help make the decision that is best for them.”

Willis said the same services have been provided to the community for longer than the 11 years she has been employed in Monroe. Agency chaplains previously carried out those duties, she said.

DVS legal advocacy manager Laura Mulholland said there is a 24-hour support line victims can call. Previously, the call line had been referred to as a crisis hotline, but staff renamed it. She said staff didn’t want callers to feel it had to be an emergency to reach out or receive help; that it is more than all right to pick up the phone days after an incident.

Teen dating violence education, and education in general, is an important piece of the nonprofit’s work, Mulholland said. Confidential support groups are offered throughout Snohomish County, and the organization also provides safe housing for victims, including a 52-bed confidential shelter, she said.

Mulholland said the nonprofit helps men or women, but the confidential shelter is only for women and children. There are other housing options available for men, if there are no available beds at the shelter, she said.

According to DVS’s 2015-16 annual report, there are 20 supportive housing and six traditional housing units throughout the county. In 2015 and 2016 beds were filled 33,131 times by people who struggled while trying to leave an abusive situation.

DVS also has a program that could help victims forgo homelessness altogether, Mulholland said. It can be hard for a victim to leave a living situation with an abusive partner or family member, if that means having to give up the stability of that life as well. Sometimes they can afford rent, but not the initial costs of moving in. DVS has grant-funded programs to assist those people, she said.

Robles can communicate with clients in French and Spanish, or provide other interpreters. She can also offer court support, stand by but not speak for a victim, or help them go through the process of filing necessary paperwork. While DVS advocates are trained in legal protocol relating to domestic violence, they cannot provide legal counsel, she said.

“I do want the community to be aware that I am there and that I am bilingual, and just as much education we can put out there is good for the prevention purposes,” she said. “We do really want to eradicate domestic violence, and that is what we work toward.”