When a Maryland domestic violence shelter launched a new hotline last year, staffer Lashell Mack found it “a bit jarring” at first. She and her co-workers had been initially skeptical of the idea. “We all had concerns,” Mack said.
That’s because this hotline isn’t for survivors of domestic violence — it’s for their partners, who use violence in their relationships.
When House of Ruth Maryland’s Chief Operating Officer Lisa Nitsch proposed a different approach to domestic violence services, colleagues in the prevention field didn’t hold back. “We were told in the beginning that we were hand-holding [abusers], and that people were going to die because of what we were doing,” she said.
The Gateway Project sits in the heart of Baltimore’s busy North Charles Street.Farrell Brenner
Based in Baltimore, the Gateway to Change hotline is the United States’ first 24/7 hotline of its kind. It is closely modeled after the Massachusetts-based helpline A Call For Change, which operates on a more limited schedule from 10 am to 10 pm ET. House of Ruth Maryland’s hotline is also unique because it launched at the same time as a voluntary drop-in group for abusive partners that runs parallel to its existing court-mandated program. It operates out of a community center splashed with turquoise walls, an oasis on Baltimore’s busy North Charles Street.
This hotline isn’t for survivors of domestic violence — it’s for their partners, who use violence in their relationships.
For decades, the primary solution to intimate partner violence in the U.S. has been a criminal justice one. This places an impossible choice on victims’ shoulders. If a victim decides to report the abuse and leave, they may lose everything they own or become homeless, as domestic violence shelters are often over-full and underfunded. Police reports may go nowhere, or they may result in extended legal harassment, the partner’s incarceration, or children being taken away. Leaving the relationship can also threaten the victim’s safety if the perpetrator retaliates; in 2022, 26 percent of intimate partner homicide victims in Maryland had recently left their partners or were in the process of leaving. But staying in the relationship presents just as many risks, often with very little support.
“I don’t think people realize that it’s not just leaving,” said Lashell Mack, for whom the process of leaving an abusive marriage took 18 years. “It’s so much more afterwards.” She left with nothing, and at first even simple tasks like grocery shopping reminded her of the trauma. She often hears echoes of her story in the callers she now helps on House of Ruth’s victim hotline.
Lisa Nitsch keeps reminders of House of Ruth Maryland’s mission and successes close in her office.Farrell Brenner
Dr. Charvonne Holliday Nworu is the co-director of the Center for Health Equity and Outcomes Research at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. “There’s a lot of resistance,” she said. “There are a lot of people who say,