The vendor is required to provide the crisis that domestic and sexual violence creates for people who are harmed, state has made a commitment to ensure that crisis can be addressed immediately.
- One of those ways is through the availability of domestic and sexual violence hotlines.
- Domestic and sexual violence hotlines are phone lines, and now text and chat lines that are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year.
- Hotlines are operated by people who are trained in crisis intervention and are knowledgeable about the dynamics of domestic and sexual violence and the resources available to victims.
- These resources work to resolve crisis and to provide ongoing safety and support for victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
- Hotline services are most effective when they are delivered in a survivor-centered, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive manner to meet the needs of all people seeking help.
- State domestic and sexual violence hotline operates 24-hours a day and is available to anyone who calls, texts, or chats.
- City domestic and gender-based violence hotline operates 24 hours a day.
- In response to the covid-19 pandemic and subsequent quarantining of individuals in their homes resulting in greater isolation and perhaps danger for victims of domestic and sexual violence, office created a text and chat line to supplement the phone hotline service.
- The hotline can be contacted via phone, chat, and text. Individuals contacting the hotline include victims of domestic and sexual violence, concerned others (e.g., family members, friends and co-workers), and professionals (e.g., professionals from law enforcement, human services, health care and criminal justice).
- The hotline provides multi-language accessibility as well as 711 telecommunications relay services (TRS).
- The hotline can directly connect callers, with their permission, to their local domestic violence and rape crisis service providers.
- This is a vital element of the hotline’s service provision because it assists the caller in making a potential long-term connection to domestic and sexual violence services in their communities.
- Contract Period/Term: 3 years
- Questions/Inquires Deadline: June 13, 2025