Blog / Domestic Violence Legal Services

Allison does amazing work in our Legal Clinic, specializing in Family Law, Public Benefits, and Language Access. I had the opportunity to speak with Allison about her work in the community and being a 2020 Legal Services Award Recipient.

Children’s Law Center and Bread for the City co-hosted this event during D.C. Pro Bono Week (October 2020) to discuss our respective legal services work East of the Anacostia River and to highlight the importance of pro bono in serving our D.C. neighbors.

Today Bread for the City celebrates Purple Thursday, a day dedicated to showing support for survivors and ending domestic violence. Domestic violence has always been an issue, but since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a tremendous spike in incidents of abuse. Even though we’re all facing unprecedented times, we must continue the fight to end domestic abuse. We got the chance to speak with Bread for the City Family Attorney, Astrid, about how the organization shows its support for survivors.

We sat down with BFC Managing Attorney Tracy Davis for a candid conversation about domestic violence, reimagining a new system that considers the needs of survivors and why “hope” is more like an axe than a lottery ticket.

Because domestic violence is more than physical abuse, we wanted to share a few resources to help spot the abuse we don’t always see immediately.

Originally from South Korea, Allie Yang Green moved to the DC area in 2006 after living and studying in New York, Connecticut, and Virginia. Allie started volunteering at Bread’s Legal Clinic in early 2015, and ever since, she has represented victims of domestic violence in civil protection order cases at DC Superior Court. These are her thoughts on the impact that being a volunteer has had on her.

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that an undocumented woman was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a courthouse in El Paso while she was seeking a protective order against a boyfriend she accused of domestic violence. This action, like the Executive Order that supports it, undermines public safety, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), and the tireless efforts of organizations like Bread for the City to make our country safe for all people.

Every day, three women are lost to intimate partner violence (IPV). Almost half are killed while in the process of leaving the relationship.

It is unlikely that Bresha Meadows knew these grim statistics the day she took action to protect herself and her family from the violent actions allegedly perpetrated by her father. What she did know was her father had terrorized her family and controlled her mother’s every move.

Bresha was 14 years old when she was arrested for allegedly killing her abusive father in Warren, Ohio on July 28, 2016. In an interview conducted shortly after her arrest, her mother, Brandi Meadows, described Bresha as “her hero”. She went on to say, “I wasn’t strong enough to get out and she helped us all.”