A Springfield organization aiming to reduce the impact of domestic violence on young mothers has seen a rise in the number of women seeking help.
Sunindiya Bhalla, the executive vice president of Roca, said the agency is currently working with about 100 young women and mothers in western Massachusetts with many on a waitlist because they are at capacity.
Bhalla said the pandemic intensified issues of poverty, homelessness, and community violence for these mothers. She said it takes a lot for a person to change, but believes it's possible with accessible programs.
"We know change takes 18 to 24 months on average for our young women, and we don't really start to look at outcomes until after that point, because we know that given that their adolescence, their brains are still developing and they've experienced a lot of trauma, those things are hard," Bhalla said.
A representative from the organization said 74 percent of women saw improved emotional regulation after 18 months in their program and more than half of the women reduced substance use.
One survivor, who identified herself only as Bianca for safety reasons, said the father of her child was incarcerated 11 months after she gave birth. Bianca said she began struggling.
"I was depressed, I was unemployed, my kids weren't in after school programs or daycare,” Biana said. “I was losing all hope. The staff would call me every day... and try to get me to go [to the] program. When I started attending, I finally started finding myself. I started finding people at Roca that I could put my trust in."
The organization has asked the Legislature to continue to provide funding for their Springfield program through a pilot program in partnership with the Commonwealth's Office of the Child Advocate. The program was established in the state's fiscal 2024 budget passed last summer and provides funding to support programming for the highest-risk young mothers and women across the state.
A spokesperson for Roca said the partnership will allow the organization to measure and report on the effectiveness of intervention and document and address cross-system barriers that undermine support for young mothers experiencing acute trauma.
The funding request for fiscal year 2025 would sustain the statewide pilot for a second year and allow Roca to serve up to 20 additional young moms in Springfield.
