Economic Opportunity

Economic insecurity and poverty can significantly increase a person’s risk of experiencing violence and can keep survivors within violent relationships for longer periods due to financial dependency. Sexual assault, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and stalking also harm our workplaces in myriad ways – but solutions lie in our workplaces, too, through economic opportunity that helps survivors and all people rebuild their lives. 

The data is sobering:

• About two in five lifetime victims of domestic violence report significant workplace consequences, such as missed days of work, tardiness, and intrusion by a perpetrator. 
• Nearly 7 million women and 3 million men report sexual violence by a workplace-related perpetrator in their lives.
• Nearly one-third of people who leave their jobs say sexual harassment contributed to their decision to do so. 
• A 2017 study estimated that the American economy loses approximately $137.8 billion in short-term productivity due to gender-based violence and harassment. 

At Futures Without Violence, we know the power and influence employers wield to help solve these problems. For decades, we’ve been enlisting them – from major corporations to mom-and-pop businesses – to help raise awareness about and prevent this violence. FUTURES leads Workplaces Respond to Domestic & Sexual Violence, the national resource center that provides tools and strategies to make our workplaces safer. 

We also advance policies, strategies and programs to disrupt cycles of poverty for women in low-paid work, many of whom have been locked out of the country’s prosperity for generations. Our policy work includes expanding the Child Tax Credit, advocating for safe family leave, ensuring parents have access to affordable childcare, and other essential policies.

We’re enhancing access to opportunity, including education and employment, for survivors of human trafficking, and helping employers understand how the trauma they experienced can manifest. 

And we have lifted up the under reported issue of teen economic abuse, a little-known form of teen dating violence. With The Allstate Foundation, we’re educating people about the academic, work, and financial pressures teens experience in relationships. 

You can help! Share our tools and resources. Speak out in support of the policies and spending decisions that will make workplaces safer and economic opportunities equal.