Of all the people living on the street, the most heartbreaking are the women with children who are escaping violent and abusive homes. Domestic violence is rampant, particularly during rough economic times, when stress levels reach breaking points in otherwise loving homes. There are hundreds of shelters and programs and institutions offering aid to victims of domestic violence, most of which are government-funded. The statistics are staggering. It should come as no surprise that domestic violence is one of the most prevalent causes of childred entering the foster care system, so it’s only fitting that we make what efforts we can in order to maintain as much of the core family as possible, minimizing the separation of children from their non-abusive parents.

The real battle is fighting against one person’s will to “make it work” with the abusive partner. Love is blind. Beyond that, sometimes people are just stupid. And sometimes, helping people who are blinded by love is pretty stupid. In fact, sometimes it’s worse than if you didn’t help at all—enabling them to continue on a destructive path within an abusive relationship—and it’s only worse when there are kids involved.

The End of the Tunnel – Victims of Domestic Violence and Violent Crime Initiative is constantly expanding its connections within law enforcement and victim advocacy organizations to locate people who are ready to make the sigchanges necessary to get their lives back on track. The beggest threat is returning to the source of the abuse, and that behavior can be the result of a few different causes—love being the most obvious culprit. Familiarity, codependency, guilt, threats, hope, and financial hardship are also strong motivators for someone to go back.

People who are contending with the psychological obstacles rarely end up on the street—they keep going back home and enduring more. Those who are only dealing with the other, more tangible, factors are the ones who are ready to receive more tangible assistance.

Simply, if a woman is hanging around in 30 th Street Station while her abusive boyfriend is living in Overton, she is clearly no longer hopeful that he’s going to change his ways, or she’d be back in Overton walking on eggshells, hoping she doesn’t say or do anything to set him off. She’s ready to receive assistance. That assistance can come in many forms, but it always amounts to establishing a foundation of self-reliance and self- respect. These are the two most powerful weapons against repeating the cycle. This could mean an apartment, job placement, and therapy in Newark, or it could be as simple as a free trip back to family in Reno.

Importantly, whenever there are kids involved, efforts should be made to help both the victims and the perpetrators of domestic abuse. Seldom are people abusive who were not abused themselves, and that often means there’s a chance to remedy the psychological damage which causes the abusive behavior to carry on through generations. Even if the wounds cannot be healed, the abuser needs to carry on as well, and future relationships will be better off if that cycle is broken.

Victims of violent crime come in all forms as well. Case-by-case solutions are necessary. If someone is assaulted on a subway, and now has trouble coping with commuting via public transportation, perhaps a new car is a good answer. If someone is assaulted in the parking garage at work, they may need to have the bills paid for a couple months while they take time off work to heal, both physically and mentally. These are small contributions that help in a big way to get people back on their feet and prevent them from having something life-changing turn into something life-destroying.

Subscribing to The Tunnel and supporting the Victims of Violence initiative provides a safety net for someone who just had their world shaken. We’re not going to end domestic violence with this initiative, but we’re going to keep a terrible situation from getting even worse.