Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence

The Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence (GCADV) launched Don’t Knock the Hustle in 2017 to assist service providers with helping domestic violence survivors become financially independent. The goal of the program is to increase the economic stability of survivors of domestic violence. GCADV has been intentional about infusing a culturally responsive lens into the curriculum, ensuring that content is relevant and meaningful for women of color and women from marginalized groups such as religious minorities and immigrants.

Using a train-the-trainer model, Don’t Knock the Hustle provides training opportunities for domestic violence program staff on facilitating economic stability for survivors, through classes on financial management, credit building, debt management, and budgeting. The program also offers micro grants to survivors who are small business creators and want to start or scale their business. These grants can be used for start-up costs, credit repair, independent financial counseling, opening a bank account, or using small business education services.

GCADV designed the project with survivors, mostly women of color, who observed that their ingenuity, creativity, and entrepreneurial spirit were frequently dismissed. They wanted a chance to rebuild their lives and thrive. In response, GCADV launched Don’t Knock the Hustle, which champions entrepreneurship as one of the most effective strategies for long-term self-sufficiency and building wealth for survivors with marginalized identities including race/ethnicity, disability, immigration status, and others.

In a typical year, approximately 50,000 crisis calls are made to Georgia’s state-certified DV programs. The COVID-19 pandemic increased DV rates, putting survivors in more danger. A report by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice found that DV was likely to have increased at least 8% since lockdowns began: survivors were quite literally trapped with their abusers. Social distancing, pandemic-fueled unemployment, and financial abuse contributed to survivors’ isolation and fear. COVID’s economic impacts led to soaring inflation, business closures, and unemployment, making low-income survivors especially vulnerable. Statistics and survivor stories demonstrate that abusers frequently use finances as a tool to control victims. To escape abuse, survivors often must sever financial ties, risk damage to their credit, and find new jobs (Institute for Women’s Policy Research).

Per the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, economic abuse creates financial dependency “by maintaining total control over financial resources, withholding access to money, or forbidding attendance at school or employment.” Survivors are forced to choose between an abusive relationship or homelessness and deep poverty. Nearly 3 in 4 survivors stay with abusers longer because of economic abuse; it’s one of the most common reasons why survivors return to abusers. Many survivors of color face additional barriers due to racism. While white non-Hispanic women make 79% of what white non-Hispanic men make, Black women and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander women earn 63%, Native women earn 60% and Hispanic women earn 55%. These survivors face additional barriers to achieving economic independence and escaping abuse.

Don’t Knock the Hustle aligns with the dimension of Assisting with access to capital, capital campaigns, and/or financial education and information. The program does exactly that through a train-the-trainer model that trains advocates in supporting survivors’ self-sufficiency and economic empowerment; and access to capital through the provision of entrepreneurship micro-grants for survivors who want to start or scale their small business.

The project also aligns with the dimension of Advocating for and shaping policy that supports small business owners and/or place-based efforts in their geographic areas, including increased access to resources, removal of structural barriers, and access to infrastructure such as broadband. Don’t Knock the Hustle champions entrepreneurship as one of the most effective strategies for long-term self-sufficiency and financial independence. Entrepreneurship puts dignity and control back into survivors’ hands. During the development of the program, survivors told us that they wanted a chance to rebuild their lives and thrive. Feeling economically empowered also decreases the chance that survivors are forced to return to their abusers because of financial hardship. GCADV has been intentional about infusing a culturally responsive lens into the curriculum, ensuring that content is relevant and meaningful for women of color and women from marginalized groups such as religious minorities and immigrants.

Don’t Knock the Hustle serves survivors of domestic violence who have experienced economic abuse. While all people from all backgrounds experience various forms of domestic violence, some survivors are more vulnerable to its economic consequences. Don’t Knock the Hustle was designed by and for survivors of color or with disabilities; survivors who identify as religious or ethnic minorities in the United States; and survivors who are immigrants. These survivors are more likely to be shut out of jobs and paid low wages. The Don’t Knock the Hustle model identifies these obstacles and helps survivors overcome them. GCADV also champions policies that tear down these barriers and promote equity and economic justice.

As an organization, those served by GCADV identify as White (50%), Black or African American (33%), Hispanic or Latino (10%), Asian (2%), Pacific Islander (2%), Multi-racial (2%), and American Indian or Alaskan Native (1%). The vast majority (91%) of those served by GCADV identify as female, and 12% have a disability.

Georgia

GCADV’s mission is to empower survivors and the programs that serve them, educate the public, and advocate for responsive public policy. Our strength is in numbers, as we collaborate throughout Georgia to stop domestic violence. Don’t Knock the Hustle, as a program of GCADV, is focused on empowering survivors through financial literacy and economic stability.

Survivors are eligible for Don’t Knock the Hustle whether they are currently escaping abuse, or have past experienced abuse and are following their entrepreneurship goals.

Survivors of domestic violence often experience economic abuse, and take on additional financial burdens as they escape their abuser. The goal of Don’t Knock the Hustle is to increase the economic stability of survivors of domestic violence. The key audience of the program is two-fold: GCADV trains domestic violence advocates and survivor community leaders in financial literacy, budgeting, debt management, and other financial topics. In turn, these advocates will train the survivors that their organizations serve. GCADV utilizes its network of collaborative partnerships as entry points for reaching the audience who would most benefit from an economic justice program. These entry points include outreach events, community presentations, communications materials, and liaising with other organizations and community leaders. We will promote the training to our member network via e-newsletters and social media. Because we have close relationships with our members, we are confident that we will meet our goals for reaching survivors. We also have a large base of participants who are motivated to learn and succeed and who have holistic support from their service providers.

Program activities include the following:

• Convening training workshops with domestic violence program staff on financial literacy and management, budgeting, financial safety, credit, debt management, and entrepreneurship;

• Disbursing entrepreneurship micro-grants to survivors for small business start-up costs, credit repair, receiving independent financial counseling, using small business education services, and other business expenses; and

• Gathering feedback from advocate and survivor participants to fine-tune the program.

The most significant measure of our work is the number of survivors who increase their financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and small business acumen. Outcome measures include the following:

• Skills and knowledge gained by advocates during training, who will help survivors create an economic empowerment plan and make their dreams come alive through training, resources, and mini-grants;

• Survivors’ progress towards achieving goals (setting up their business, creating a marketing plan, and licensing); and

• Survivors who benefited from micro-grants for business expenses, including start-up costs, credit repair, independent financial counseling, opening a bank account, or using small business education services.

Annually, Don’t Knock the Hustle trains 90 domestic violence advocates who in turn help 2,000 survivors gain entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and job seeking skills. Over five years, 10,000 domestic violence survivors would be served through the creation of economic empowerment plans, the development of business and financial goals, and entrepreneurship micro grants to help with the costs of starting and running a small business.

GCADV is Georgia’s federally recognized coalition for domestic violence agencies, advocates, and survivors, representing 63 members. Our mission is to empower survivors and the programs that serve them, educate the public, and advocate for responsive public policy. We achieve this by engaging in capacity building, communications, and public policy efforts to ensure effective domestic violence prevention and intervention within the state of Georgia. Our stakeholders include the domestic violence survivors that our programs and work benefits, and our many community partners, which include domestic violence service providers, other community organizations that serve survivors, and government agencies.

GCADV’s Don’t Knock the Hustle solution is itself a model that allows each region, organization, and even each survivor to mold the program to their needs. DKTH came about by community conversations that found survivors stating their creativity, need for flexible employment, and ideas for independence were being dismissed in favor of traditional workforce development models. Ingenuity around yearning to start a business was not being rewarded, which led to DKTH. The traditional mentality around workforce development followed that the more barriers one had, the more immediately necessary it was for them to enter traditional employment. However, the alternative was found to be true. Survivors with the most marginalized backgrounds, those with disabilities or of Black or immigrant backgrounds, were the most successful implementing entrepreneurship strategies and were least successful in traditional forms of employment because of the added barriers being posed to them compounded with domestic violence aftermath. 

In following a train-the-trainer model, our coalition provides member programs with the knowledge to educate survivors on credit, financial management, and builds organizational capacity to partnership build to create regionally specific solutions for survivors. The program does not mandate survivors to follow a specific course plan, but provides a curriculum that survivors can choose which parts are currently valuable to their situation. It also does not mandate time restrictions, which allows survivors to return to educational sessions as they progress in their financial empowerment journey.

As GCADV has over 60 member programs ranging from traditional state-certified shelters to grassroots organizations supporting domestic violence survivors, immigration and refugee resettlement agencies, and small community-based programs focusing on racial or religious minorities, GCADV allows the expertise of multiple leaders to shine. While the DKTH Director of Economic Programs herself is herself an immigrant with a disability, the value is not only held with one relationship to partners. In this way, the model is also more sustainable, as it does not hinge on one sole relationship. Immigrant or refugee survivors seek the expertise of their local organizations that implement DKTH, formerly incarcerated survivors enter the program through their networks, and so on. This allows survivors to have a trusted entry point to DKTH, and allows GCADV’s relationships not only with member programs, but marginalized survivors, to grow ever stronger.

GCADV knows the importance of providing a solution that is low/no barrier for survivors. Historically survivors have had to jump through hoops to be believed, to reach support, and find financial stability. DKTH is one-of-a-kind in that it has established partnerships for survivors to receive financial and entrepreneurship training, and does not require survivors to follow strict criteria lest they be removed from the program. DKTH is trauma-informed, and works with survivors to build belief in themselves through both educational, strategic partnership,  and financial support.

In addition to our newsletter and social media followers of over 4,000, we ensure program opportunities are sent to nonmember programs, particularly those that serve people of marginalized backgrounds. For example, GCADV has a significant amount of formerly incarcerated survivors enrolled because we partner with local grassroots organizations on progressive alternatives to incarceration. They in turn have a base of survivors that attend their programming who would not themselves attend domestic violence-specific programs. GCADV also ensures we center culturally specific organizations which have a base of immigrant and refugee survivors. These programs offer DKTH’s financial modules in multiple languages and have a base of survivor entrepreneurs that can access this programming along with other immigration supports.

GCADV attends community events and serves on multiple domestic violence and grassroots collectives which allows the program to be spread far past domestic violence circles; reaching survivors in multiple corners of the state.

We anticipate that survivors who have endured a pandemic in lockdown with their abuser will be eager to explore options for entrepreneurship and financial freedom. Goals for Don’t Knock the Hustle for the next year include the following:

1. Build the capacity of domestic violence service providers to use an economic empowerment framework.

   1. Hold quarterly workshops (approximately 20 participants per workshop) to train advocates in supporting survivors’ self-sufficiency and economic empowerment.

   2. Hold bi-monthly technical assistance meetings for advocates to help them troubleshoot issues, improve safety, and identify financial literacy and entrepreneurship resources that aid survivors.

2. Help 2,000 survivors gain entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and job seeking skills.

   1. Trained advocates will help each survivor create economic empowerment plans. Survivors will make progress on achieving their financial and business goals.

   2. Survivors will be awarded mini-grants for their business, including business start-up costs, credit repair, small business education, independent financial counseling, and other needs.

   3. A match savings incentives program will double survivors’ dollars and promote wealth-building through savings.

The program’s long-term goals are to help domestic violence advocates build their capacity to assist survivors and to provide resources and opportunities for survivors to build and maintain self-sufficiency and financial empowerment. The skills and knowledge gained by advocates during training allow them to help survivors rebuild their lives and fulfill their goals.

As Georgia’s federally-recognized domestic violence coalition, GCADV is well-positioned to provide training to domestic violence service providers that will assist them in helping survivors achieve financial literacy and entrepreneurial success. Our programs, initiatives, and trainings are developed from a survivor-centered and trauma-informed lens, incorporating an anti-racist and culutrally-responsive approach. Don’t Knock the Hustle was developed after conversations with survivors and service providers who discussed the particular difficulties faced by survivors from historically underrepresented populations.

Director of Economic Programs Shafeka Hashash has been with GCADV since 2019. Under her leadership, Don’t Knock the Hustle has flourished from a small incubated project into its own full-fledged initiative. Shafeka’s background as a disabled daughter of immigrants has driven her to create an extremely low-barrier to entry model for the program, which is crucial for reaching the most marginalized survivors as they work towards their dreams of economic independence and freedom.

Executive Director Jan Christiansen has been with GCADV since 2009. She has worked in the domestic violence movement for more than 20 years. Jan is recognized as a leader in the movement for carrying out both grassroots work and overseeing the startup of cutting-edge programs. She has spoken at the local and state levels as well as internationally.

Associate Director Christy Showalter has been with GCADV since 2005, previously serving as the agency’s Director of Training and Membership. She has worked with domestic violence survivors and service providers throughout the state of Georgia, providing training, outreach, and education on domestic violence issues.

The Truist Foundation's access to a network of resource partners, mentors, and coaches across industries and sectors would be extremely beneficial to survivors and the GCADV member programs. While we work to build partnerships, having the ability to tap into the Truist network of partners will be invaluable, especially for survivor entrepreneurs. This would also support advocates by allowing them to close the gaps in education or services needed to support survivors in their local areas. This would greatly increase the network of entrepreneur leaders survivors can look to to answer questions or support as they scale up their business ideas.  

Access to the learning and development modules aimed at refining business models, theory of change, and plans for scaling would also be immensely beneficial to Don’t Knock the Hustle. In particular, we mention the barriers posed by the cultural stigma of domestic violence; learning to scale up despite these stigmas would increase the program reach. We also mention the financial difficulty of nonprofit organizations compounded with this stigma, thus support in scaling in these areas would greatly advance the sustainability of DKTH. 

Finally, a monitoring and evaluation track to support finalist teams in building their impact measurement practice would help us develop new evaluation mechanisms. We would like to assess outcomes and long-term impacts for survivors and collect more data from domestic violence service providers.

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We have a goal not yet fully realized of having a network of those who can provide sustained close-knit small business guidance. Where we require partnership support is in giving greater small business sustainability advice. For example, survivors that require greater branding or marketing advice, product development, or skill building in specific business areas. The Truist network of partners would be very beneficial in closing these gaps for survivors and member programs whom find it difficult to cultivate and maintain these relationships.

While many partners we prefer to be local, an economy of scale when it comes to certain aspects such as marketing or tech capacity building would well serve DKTH. It would be great to partner with tech or software companies that can enhance survivor skills in web design, website creation, and keeping computer literacy up-to-date. This would also be beneficial to GCADV, which could potentially one day host an online store of survivor business products or have survivors set this up independently. Partner ideas include Microsoft and Adobe. Having an established marketing partner would also allow for greater sustainability of the program and survivor small businesses. This partner could provide constant support marketing DKTH, the businesses, and supporting each survivor with their product marketing. Partners in these arenas would support in DKTH and survivor business long-term stability.