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Make Progress Every Day

Reaching Out to Advocate for Domestic Survivors

HELP ROADS is here for anyone who identifies as a survivor of domestic, intimate partner, or gender-based violence, and crime survivors. Based in Brooklyn, we are part of the community and committed to helping survivors reach safety, recover from trauma, and build better lives.

Do you or someone you know need help? Call the hotline at 718-922-7980. If you are in immediate danger, call 911. The first thing you should do is put yourself out of harm’s way and get to a safe or public place where others can see you.

All ROADS services are free and confidential. Although ROADS is a non-residential program, our trained advocates can help you find a safe place to stay.

ROADS offers many paths to new horizons.

Choose the one that is right for you:

I need to talk to someone.

I need help planning my next steps.

ROADS provides:

  • Information and referral services
  • Safety planning and crisis intervention

I need support and advocacy.

ROADS provides:

  • Systems based advocacy
  • Community outreach and education activities.

I need to make my home safer.

ROADS provides:

  • Home+ panic button 

I need counseling for me and my children.

ROADS provides:

  • Individual and group counseling for adults and children

I need abuse-related financial and legal assistance.

ROADS provides:

  • E-filing Family Court Orders of Protection
  • Crime survivors’ compensation assistance

I need educational resources.

ROADS provides:

Individual Referral
Agency Referral
If you are being abused, remember—
  • You are not alone
  • It’s not your fault
  • HELP is HERE

You Are Not Alone

Domestic violence can happen to anyone

regardless of race, age, sexual orientation, religion, or gender, and it affects people of all socioeconomic backgrounds and education levels. It occurs in both opposite-sex and same-sex relationships and can happen to intimate partners who are married, living together, or dating.

equality wheel
power and control wheel

Recognize the Signs

Anyone can be a survivor of domestic abuse. Does something feel off in your relationship, or in the relationship of a loved one? Learn to recognize the signs of domestic abuse or violence.

Physical Abuse:

  • Involves acts like pushing, kicking, slapping, and employing physical violence.
  • May include the use of weapons against the survivor.

Psychological Abuse:

  • Comprises name-calling and continual criticism.
  • Involves isolating the survivor from their friends and family.
  • Can encompass stalking, harassment, and blackmail.

Sexual Abuse:

  • Includes rape, forced pregnancy, and sexual assault.
  • May involve refusing to use contraception methods.

Economic Abuse:

  • Entails controlling access to financial resources.
  • Can include damaging the survivor’s credit and blocking their employment or education opportunities.

Technological Abuse:

  • Encompasses restricting and monitoring phone and internet access.
  • May involve unauthorized access to the survivor’s email and personal accounts.
  • Can also involve online stalking.

Legal Abuse:

  • Involves filing frivolous legal cases.
  • May include threats of deportation.
Understanding

Why Do Survivors Stay?

During the initial phases, survivors often don’t recognize they are trapped in an abusive relationship. By the time they see the warning signs, numerous obstacles block their path to leaving. These issues may include: 

  • Safety concerns
  • Isolation from community support and available resources
  • Cultural or familial pressures compelling them to remain
  • Financial dependency
  • Worry for the well-being of their children
  • Anxiety over potential deportation
  • Apprehension of the criminal justice system
  • Feelings of shame and guilt
  • Holding onto hope that the abuser will reform
  • Deep emotional attachment (love)
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Relationship violence follows a cycle

and denial keeps the cycle in motion again and again. ROADS can help you break free and regain control of your life.

Helping Loved Ones

What You Can Do

There are some things to keep in mind if you suspect someone you know is experiencing domestic violence. For these tough conversations, it is important to know what you can say as well as what not to say.

Things to say:

  • Thank you for sharing, I believe you
  • Others have gone through this too and can help, you are not on your own in this
  • This must be really hard to talk about, I care about you and am here for you
  • Nobody deserves to be hurt
  • This is not your fault, you are not to blame

Things not to say:

  • Why don’t you leave?
  • Did you provoke your partner?
  • I thought you left, why did you return to your partner?
  • I had no idea, why didn’t you tell me sooner?

Always remember:

  • Start from a place of love, openness, and honesty
  • No judging
  • No labels
  • Keep your conversation private and confidential

Domestic violence should never happen to anyone. But it does. Maybe you have lived with abuse, maybe it happened just once; maybe you work or live next to someone who is being abused.

Whoever you are, you deserve to live free of fear.

Contact HELP ROADS. We can help you break the pattern of violence and live safe. Call 718-922-7980 today.

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