Combating domestic and sexual violence is a difficult, complex task that encompasses both helping individual victims and pushing for change on a global scale. Erika Sussman founded the Center for Survivor Agency and Justice (CSAJ) a dozen years ago to attack the problem where so much of it begins, economic and social inequality.
As Sussman explains, this past year, we witnessed the many ways in which our institutions and policies jeopardize the physical and economic safety of domestic and sexual violence survivors — from the #MeToo movement and sexual harassment revelations to the rollback on DACA and campus sexual assault policies, to the series of mass shootings committed by domestic abusers in Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Parkland, and beyond. While the stakes are high and the task is overwhelming, the ground is fertile for change.
Sussman continues that we are facing a watershed moment. Right now, as light is being cast on systemic violence against women, we have an opportunity to make an enormous impact. It is time for boldness.
Leah Wald: Why did you feel the need to start a domestic violence organization rather than continuing to work as a lawyer in the space?
Erika Sussman: I grew up with an activist mother. She and a group of smart, passionate, feminist women organized the very first domestic violence shelter in our county. At that time, battered women had no place to go to escape abuse, so it was a brave and groundbreaking effort. I went to law school, knowing that I wanted to use the law as a tool for social change, with a particular interest in fighting for women's rights.
While I loved working directly with survivors, what I found most frustrating and oppressive were the systems that survivors had to navigate. It quickly became clear to me that I wanted to do more than work with individual survivors, desperately trying to navigate broken courts and other systems. Instead, I wanted to embolden advocates and work to transform the systems themselves.
Wald: How is CSAJ different from other domestic violence organizations?
Sussman: The Center for Survivor Agency and Justice targets domestic and sexual violence at its root — poverty. While many mainstream organizations engage in "economic empowerment" work, the focus has been on "financial literacy" and building individual skills with very little attention to the profound economic harms resulting from the abuse and poverty, and less attention to the systemic barriers and inequities that impact survivors from marginalized communities.
CSAJ was founded to translate survivor-centered theory into advocacy practice. Our work has "three levels of impact." At the individual level, we work with advocates and lawyers to enhance their capacity to address the economic needs of individual survivors, through training, individual technical assistance, the creation of advocacy tools and resources. At the organizational and community level, we work to build the infrastructure, protocols, and partnerships that strengthen the organizational and community responses to survivors' economic and physical safety. And, at the systems level, we support and advance local, statewide, and national efforts to transform policy and systems to enhance economic security for survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
CSAJ has engaged in intensive work with demonstration sites—organizations, communities, and statewide coalitions—to address the systemic barriers that impede survivors’ access to safety. We enlist participants (advocates, lawyers, programs, survivors themselves) in an assessment process that identifies the gaps and opportunities for change, and together we engage in a strategic planning that draws upon that rich knowledge, and then we work with the sites and their partners to implement the plan to enhance economic justice for survivors in their particular context.
Wald: What lessons have you learned as a founder?
Sussman: Founding an organization is not the hard part — sustaining it and making it flourish is both the challenge and the reward. I am learning all the time. When I began the organization, it was based on the concept of listening to survivors, that our services, our interventions, our approaches would be strengthened and made relevant if we were to listen to and be led by survivors themselves.
Much of CSAJ's work has grown out of partnerships, both our own and supporting the partnership building of advocates on the ground. Partnerships across disciplines — lawyers, advocates, academics, social scientists, researchers, policymakers — and partnerships across movements — anti-poverty, racial justice, violence against women, immigrant rights, LGBTQ, to name a few. And what I have learned and what CSAJ has learned is that true transformation occurs when there is authentic partnership, a partnership that hits pause before jumping to solutions, a partnership that gives space to listen and learn from one another's perspectives so that we can develop common language, draw from our collective expertise, and forge new paths.
Wald: What challenges have you experienced with CSAJ being a non-profit that you believe you wouldn't have experienced running a for-profit company?
Sussman: Honestly, I never thought of running a for-profit business. The opportunity to enhance advocacy for survivors of domestic and sexual violence, to work for a world where all people have access to economic, racial and gender justice is what drew me to this work, and it is what continues to sustain me. Challenges I've experienced that I wouldn't experience running for a non-profit? Funding. Like all nonprofits, we depend upon grants and donations from the government, foundations, and individuals.
Wald: What advice do you have for other women who want to start their own socially focused non-profit organizations?
Sussman: Transformation comes about not because you have the best idea or because you know the answers. Transformation comes about when you ask good questions and develop relationships that add up to more than the sum of their parts. We are at a moment in our world history, where the old models of male leadership are quickly revealing themselves to be counterproductive and damaging. Women need to be bold in our risk-taking and inclusive in our approach, creating space for those who are the focus of our efforts, and ensuring not only that they have a seat at the table but that their experiences drive the process and outcome. In this #metoo moment, as women speak up about their experiences in corporations, media, Hollywood, and government, it becomes increasingly clear that the landscape is shifting.
Leadership models that value hierarchy, inequity, non-transparency, transactional communication, authoritarianism, are no longer serving our country or the globe. As President Obama recently argued for the need to put more women in power, "because men seem to be having some problems these days.” Research shows that women offer rich life and professional experiences, communication styles (like listening and empathy skills), and collaborative leadership approaches, all of which are critical to solving the most profound problems of our current world order. We don't need women to take on the patriarchal leadership approaches of decades past, rather we need women leaders to lead their way, to do power differently. Women, the time to step into our power is now. The world needs us.
These questions and answers have been edited for length and clarity.
