A bill headed to President Joe Biden's desk addresses a long-standing problem for domestic violence survivors, ending their ties to their abusers' cellphone plans.

A North Dakota coalition predicts the changes will be helpful. The Safe Connections Act recently cleared its final Congressional hurdle. It removes financial penalties for survivors who are trying to separate their phone lines and their dependents' lines from an abuser.

Dana Mees, administrative director of the North Dakota Council on Abused Women's Services, said unresolved phone plans can be a major obstacle for someone from trying to move on from an abusive situation.

"They do give abusers access to call logs, text messages, voice mails, or family tracking features that can be used to monitor, stalk and harass survivors," Mees explained.

She added survivors are forced to pay a lot of money in termination fees, often making it difficult to transition to a safer environment. The bill had bipartisan support, but other advocates say they would have preferred policymakers not include a provision requiring the survivor to provide documentation they were abused, arguing it added to their trauma.

A separate aspect of the bill calls on the Federal Communications Commission to create rules requiring cellphone providers to expunge any calls or texts to hotlines, such as those operated by crisis centers. Mees noted it is another important tool.

"If they're calling a crisis line, and that shows up in their call log, that can tip an abuser off that they're thinking of leaving," Mees pointed out. "It can put them in a more dangerous situation."

As for financial barriers, the bill expands eligibility for the FCC's Lifeline Program, which provides monthly cellphone plan subsidies.

Collectively, Mees believes the actions should help survivors move forward with their lives without having to change a number or get another phone. President Biden is expected to sign the measure.

Rape crisis centers assist sexual abuse survivors and educate about violence prevention, and collaboration is a key aspect of their work.

The Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence supports rape crisis centers throughout Ohio, and recent regional meetings offer insight into what is happening on the ground.

Elle Fullenkamp, manager of training and technical assistance for the organization, said many centers are stepping 'outside the box' when it comes to prevention programs.

"Whether that's youth programs, like funding youth centers so that people can have spaces to have healthy relationships," Fullenkamp explained. "There are also community-based prevention programs and collaborations. We saw some tattoo shop and faith-based training projects. That's a really cool thing that we saw happening."

A common theme, she noted, is inadequate funding, which can create staffing shortages and the inability to sustain the programs needed to help survivors.

Caitlin Burke, the group's director of prevention and public health, said some programs are holding listening circles to help them tailor their prevention-based work to meet local needs.

"So, even if the community isn't necessarily worried about sexual violence, maybe they're worried about gun violence, or maybe they're worried about community or gang violence," Burke outlined. "How can we work together? Because we know that if we're working to reduce gun violence, we're likely also going to be working to reduce sexual violence. Violence is often intertwined."

Fullenkamp added many centers shared concerns about how to engage educators and parents about violence prevention in their school-based programs. She emphasized evidence-based programming is needed at an early age, as junior-high students already report they've experienced forms of violence.

"Unhealthy relationships or sexual harassment, bullying, being teased for their bodies, or things like this that are covered in the types of trainings that our programs do in junior highs," Fullenkamp pointed out. "Even at that age it's too late; these things are being experienced by these junior-high students."

Due to the pandemic, it is the first time in two years the regional meetings were held in-person. Burke stressed it allowed for providers to share their successes and concerns, and brainstorm ways to support each other.

"Collaboration just gives chances for innovation; for us to think bigger and learn from each other, and be more creative," Burke remarked." With any sort of project, it's really crucial that folks are able to get together and bounce ideas off each other. And in that way, we are also collectively working towards the same goals."

While sexual violence data is underreported, at least 25,000 survivors are estimated to be served by rape crisis centers and the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence each year.

October is winding down, but groups working to prevent domestic violence still are hoping the public hears their message during Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

A South Dakota group describes it as a prevalent issue. Nearly 28% of South Dakota women and 23% of men around the state experience intimate-partner physical violence.

Krista Heeren-Graber, executive director of the South Dakota Network Against Family Violence and Sexual Assault, said more awareness is needed about the root causes, and not focusing only on anger issues.

"It is about power and control that one person has in the family that ends up causing harm to the other family members," she said.

Heeren-Graber said broader education efforts should include promoting healthy relationships. She said another key component is consistently holding offenders accountable, and noted that those individuals need more treatment options if the state hopes to see substantial change.

Nationally, one in three women experiences domestic violence.

While helping survivors is the primary goal, Heeren-Graber said the public also needs to know more about the ripple effects of domestic violence.

"Domestic violence definitely impacts the entire community," she said, "and it's not just something that is occurring to a few people in a few homes in our state."

She said the examples it sets for children could spill outside the home and contribute to bullying issues. And there's the need for medical care, including emergency-room visits, at a time when many rural hospitals are struggling to stay open.

This month, the South Dakota Housing Development Authority approved using American Rescue Plan funding to expand temporary shelter space in five cites for several groups, including domestic-violence survivors.

A new report shows there were 112 domestic violence-related deaths in Ohio in a recent 12-month period, including 22 youth, the highest number in the past seven years.

Officials noted every domestic violence death is a tragedy, but advocates said data this year on youth fatalities is truly shocking. The Ohio Domestic Violence Network report on domestic violence-related fatalities reveals the highest number of youth fatalities since the count began seven years ago.

Lisa DeGeeter, director of Systems and Policy for the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, said there were 16 kids younger than age 10 and six infants in the total number of deceased people.

"Most of them, quite literally, babes in arms that were shot while the mothers were holding them," DeGeeter said. "The youngest victim was actually a one-day-old baby. The mom was eight and a half months pregnant and was shot in the abdomen. She was delivered before the mom passed, but the baby died of her own gunshot injuries the next day."

DeGeeter also expressed concern over the number of gun related fatalities that occurred over the last year, up 5% to 91%.

The fatalities tracked between July 2021 and June 2022 were compiled from media reports and information from the Domestic Violence Network's member programs.

DeGeeter acknowledged on a positive note, no law enforcement officers were killed during a domestic-violence incident for the second year in a row.

"We also know that in the three cases where law enforcement was required, unfortunately, to take an offender's life in responding to a situation," DeGeeter said. "All three of those victims survived. So we very much appreciate the partnership we have with law enforcement to keep people safer."

When it comes to policy, DeGeeter noted her group is a strong proponent of anti-strangulation legislation known as Aisha's law. She said Ohio is the only state in the nation without a felony-level anti-strangulation statute as a stand-alone offense.

"Nonfatal instances of strangulation are indicative of a sevenfold increase in potential later lethal violence," DeGeeter said. "And so that's really something that we would like to see happen in the next General Assembly."

The measure, House Bill 3, was passed by the Ohio House. The overall number of Ohio fatalities is down from last year when 131 fatalities were recorded, but the latest count is still higher than pre-pandemic numbers, according to anti-domestic violence advocates.