This application is being submitted by willow domestic violence center of greater rochester, INC. (willow), which hosts the region's only deaf-led and deaf-specific domestic violence services for…

This application is being submitted by willow domestic violence center of greater rochester, INC. (willow), which hosts the region's only deaf-led and deaf-specific domestic violence services for survivors of domestic violence through the deaf ignite program at willow (ignite). Willow is seeking priority consideration for category 1 as a culturally specific organization due to ignite. Ignite will work on this project with community partners including restore (a sexual assault agency), the heal collaborative - healing through health, education, advocacy, and law - at the university of rochester's medical center, and the person-in-crisis (PIC) team to enhance access to domestic violence (DV) and sexual assault (SA) services for deaf victims of crime. Despite a diverse and robust deaf community in rochester (one of the largest in the nation), barriers and gaps to DV/SA services continue to exist. Local deaf victims and ignite advocates have observationally and anecdotally identified gaps in service, including: lack of trauma informed qualified interpreters (tiqis) and language access within legal, medical and service systems to domestic violence and sexual assault services lack of access to culturally appropriate domestic violence and sexual assault services lack of outreach, prevention education, and advocacy around domestic violence and sexual assault in the deaf community, including