S1: Hey , San Diego , it's Andrew Bracken in for Jade Hyneman. Today we hear from one of San Diego's Women of Distinction for 2025 who's working to end intimate partner violence. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. March is Women's history month , and earlier this month , Mayor Todd Gloria hosted a Women of Distinction event to recognize exceptional women in San Diego and thank them for what they do to make the city a better place for all of us. And among the 2025 honorees is Corey Austin. She's the CEO of the center for Community Solutions , a nonprofit dedicated to helping survivors of relationship and sexual violence. Corey , welcome to Midday Edition.
S2: Thanks for having me.
S1: So first off , congratulations on the honor. I know this is an area you've been working in for , you know , nearly 30 years.
S2: I was shocked to see how many , how many women , how many community members were not only experiencing abuse , but the effect that it has overall on the community. And so you'll see the abuse happen. Intergenerational. You see kids being impacted that's impacting their schooling , their housing , their stability. And so that was really my dedication is I want to make some change , right ? I saw the need for that. I think unfortunately we're still dealing with that. That really hasn't changed. Um , you know , years later. But I think our understanding has there's more people , I think , that are coming forward. There's more systems that are available to support people. And even working with young people and kind of thinking about our next generation , I think that that is where I see a lot of commitment and energy and some solutions that are ahead. So I think that that has really shifted. Just really our understanding.
S1: And part of the work you do is with schools. You talk to students and young people.
S2: We're also doing some community leadership programs among youth , and we're on college campuses as well. What strikes me is how many have already seen or experienced these levels of abuse , either for themselves or for their friends. That always strikes me because it feels like they already understand and comprehend what what we're talking about , right ? Yet I'm really inspired because I think more than ever , what I see is their willingness to make change. They're energized , they're bringing ideas and solutions. They want to talk to their peers and do public events on campus. And really , I think that motivation to shift and we talk to them about what it means to be an upstander , which is the idea that if you see something , how do you interrupt that so that someone doesn't get harmed ? Or how in general can you either ? I'm thinking about you can talk to your friends , you can create a different social environment , how you , um , ask for consent when you're starting a dating relationship and respect that or feel like it's okay to say no if you're uncomfortable and setting those kinds of boundaries. And so I see a real commitment from young people these days. And quite honestly , it gives me a lot of hope.
S1:
S2: I'm thinking the numbers , the numbers of people that are impacted. So 1 in 5 women in the United States experienced rape in their lifetime , and a third will experience it that for the first time between the ages of 11 and 17. When we talk about young people , right. But only about 30% of the cases ever get reported. And so it's still one of the least , you know , reported crimes. And so I think for people to know that they're not alone , right , that it is in the community that they have support available that we believe them. Same thing when we talk about domestic violence or intimate partner violence , that 1 in 4 adult women , and approximately one inch seven adult men report having experienced that in their in their lifetime intimate partner violence. And so we tend to think of like when you look at the community , if it's not something you're dealing with , it could be someone you know closely or that you love or a family member. Um , so people are constantly talking about like they don't feel like they can have the conversation , they don't tell people about it. And so some of the things that I think are really important is just knowing that you have a place to talk , you know , someone to talk to , whether it be a therapist or a counselor or calling our hotline. Um , because when you don't deal with that level of trauma , right , you can have some long term psychological impacts , emotional impacts that you can't even imagine. Some of the other long term impacts , there's physical health impacts that we always need to look at. There's economic impact. So many people are financially abused when they're in abusive relationships or even we've seen cases in sexual assault where maybe there isn't as obvious of a financial abuse , but their level of trauma is impacting their ability to work consistently. Or if it's happening in the workplace , what that means about their job security and and so many , so many traumas that part of what people are dealing with right now is they don't have adequate housing. They're , you know , looking for basic needs sometimes for intimate partner violence. It's still one of the leading causes of homelessness in this country. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. And I wanted to kind of delve into that a bit more. I think there's 1 in 5 unhoused women in California have fled their homes to escape domestic violence. I mean , that's that's pretty startling. So , you know , can you talk more about how those those problems intersect ? And then also , you know , what your organization is doing to kind of provide more housing there ? Yeah.
S2: What ultimately happens is so often is someone might be in an abusive relationship and feeling like they're at a point where they just need to escape. They don't know what they need to do. Too often , people are kind of stuck between making that decision of staying in an abusive relationship or potentially lethal kind of relationship , or fearing homelessness. And then we see that , like you said , that the number of people that are homeless or without housing because they fled. And there was recently a study that interviewed some of the women that are unhoused because of domestic violence. And they described the scenario as one of they just knew they needed to leave. They just like fled. They grabbed what they had and they fled. And they didn't have a solid plan of where are they going ? They hadn't even been able to think that through. On an average , they were bringing in about $1,000 a month. Here in San Diego. There's no way you can afford an apartment. You can support yourself , or especially if you've got kids or anyone with you. So one of the things that center for Community Solutions is doing is we provide confidential shelter. So if someone is fleeing their home because they don't feel like it is safe , they can come to one of our safe houses , completely confidential location. It's not published and we will completely wrap around them. We will provide crisis counseling. We'll have food for them , clothing if they don't have clothing , if sometimes they come with just the clothes on their back , we'll do some case planning with them. Budgeting , helping them think about their , you know , their future will help them with medical benefits , whatever that is. We'll really individualize a plan for them. Some of the other things that we're starting to do is we have some longer term shelters as well. So if someone has a more complex case and maybe we've gotten we've already helped them get restraining orders and , and some of those initial safety , but they just need to stabilize for a while. We have some longer term shelter that's kind of more transitional in nature , where they can stay with us rent free for possibly. It could be from six months to two years , depending on what their circumstance is. And then we're also been trying to work closely with the county to make sure that we can access assistance for deposits or rental assistance or those sorts of things so that we can help people to stabilize. And I always think , like , what if ? What if they didn't even have to go to a shelter ? You know , if you if your safety was resolved , if we could get a restraining order or whatever you needed. What if we could just take you from that unsafe situation directly to housed ? And that's sort of the bridge that that we want to be able to do , have flexible funding so that we can fly someone to the state where their family is. Ethically , I always think , why is it that the person being abused is the one that has to flee , has to leave , right , versus taking an abuser out of the situation ? So if we could change the question to how do we help you be safe where you are ? And we had the resources to support people. That's a dream for me.
S1: Well , this is such a critical issue , and it's as you kind of talked about here , it's embedded into all these different issues. Really appreciate you taking the time for sharing more about it. And congratulations again on your Honor. We'll be linking to some of these resources we've been speaking about on our website , npr.org. I've been speaking with Corey Austin , CEO from center for Community Solutions. Corey , thanks so much.
S2: Thank you Andrew.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm Andrew Bracken. KPBS Midday Edition airs on KPBS FM weekdays at noon , again at 8 p.m.. You can find past episodes at KPBS. Org or wherever you listen. Thanks again for listening. Have a great day.
