Rep. Nima Kulkarni, D-Louisville, and Rep. Samara Heavrin, R-Leitchfield, instructed the Interim Joint Committee on Financial Growth and Workforce Funding that they’re within the strategy of drafting a invoice for consideration in the course of the 2022 Normal Meeting.
Katie Showalter, a social work professor on the College of Kentucky and a gender-based violence and employment professional, testified that gender-based violence is a significant concern within the state.
“Kentucky is the second-highest state within the U.S. for charges of home violence with 1 in 3 ladies and 1 in 8 males experiencing it throughout their lifetime,” Showalter stated.
She instructed the panel survivors usually expertise 15 days of labor loss per yr, and lots of victims are financially depending on their abusive companions, including abusers usually use management of funds to additional isolate and abuse their companions. “Revenue loss is a big concern for survivors, however additionally it is tied to the lack of different sources like social relationships and advantages for the survivor, so it’s actually like a sequence response that survivors are experiencing.”
Showalter added, “We’re seeing numerous unemployment and particularly unemployment insurance coverage would actually assist victims who’re experiencing intimate companion violence, sexual violence or stalking to regain stability.
“That is one thing that I’ve labored on for the previous few periods that was dropped at me by constituents,” Kulkarni stated. “And it’s a difficulty that on the similar time it’s determined and pressing, is one thing that can also be clouded with silence and plenty of stigma connected to it.”
When requested if a counseling requirement could be a part of the invoice, the 2 stated it didn’t, including not everybody can instantly search counseling.
“They’re not all the time in a position to go to counseling as a result of the job may not permit them, so hopefully we are able to discover a center there that’s useful with the worker and employer,” Heavrin said. “However simply to be empathetic, I feel it’s exhausting to push any person to do counseling till they’re prepared.”
The present draft of Kulkarni and Heavrin’s invoice would require survivors to offer documentation with the intention to qualify for advantages. That could possibly be police or courtroom data, a sworn assertion from the survivor or different documentation from a shelter employee, legal professional, member of the clergy or medical skilled.
The same invoice didn’t obtain a ground vote in the course of the 2021 common session.
