Excerpted from Spectrum News 1
By Sarina Sandoval and Hannah Poukish
A Southern California legislator proposed a new law to help domestic violence centers expand their hotline services for victims of abuse.
Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach) introduced Assembly Bill 689 to support these organizations as they update their services to include computer chat and phone text platforms.
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“Over the last three decades, how people communicate with an agency like WEAVE has really changed, and it’s very cumbersome for a lot of people to pick up the phone, and we want to make it easier for them to get services,” Hassett said.
With this legislation, the organization would be able to expand a new chat feature they recently launched online. Hassett explained how on a typical day, the domestic violence hotline receives about 13 calls per minute. However, since the pandemic began, there’s been a 9% increase.