Ask the Advocate Podcast: Episode 4

Helping Victims From Underrepresented Populations

Featuring: Nicole Molinaro, President and CEO of Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh

Ask the Advocate Podcast Episode 4

about the Episode

"We really started to look at how we could not just widen our reach, because we were always trying to reach as many people as we can with quality services, but also how we could really deepen our reach and focus on groups of individuals that we really were not reaching."

On this episode, Nicole Molinaro, the President and CEO of the Women’s Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, sits down with CAPSEA Executive Director, Billie Jo Weyant, to discuss the programs that WC&S has adopted through the years to better serve the region’s many diverse populations of victims, and the unique needs they may have. These programs include individualized services for members of the LGBTQ+ community, for victims who speak limited English, for abusers in need of rehabilitation support, for young victims of domestic violence and their families, and more. Learn more at wcspittsburgh.org.

 

Billie Jo Weyant: 
You’re listening to “Ask the Advocate,” a podcast series that features advocates for domestic violence, sexual violence, and all other survivors of abuse and serious crime. I’m your host, Billie Jo Weyant. And for the past three decades, I’ve worked in the victim services industry serving as the executive director for a Pennsylvania based nonprofit at named CAPSEA, which stands for citizens against physical sexual and emotional abuse. I invite you to join me as I sit down with my guests, each episode, to discuss critical victim service resources and to help raise awareness for the most pressing challenges facing survivors and the nonprofit agencies that of them. 

Billie Jo Weyant:
Hello everybody. And welcome to episode four of Ask the Advocate. I’m your host, Billie Jo Weyant with over 30 years in victim service experience. And I’m also the executive director of CAPSEA. And today I have a super special guest with me, Nicole Molinaro. Nicole, you and I go back pretty far. And I think I even go back farther than you, but I think that, um, I, I was thinking today when, before we started this, uh, the first time I visited the Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh where you are the Executive Director and CEO, it was many, many years ago. And I remember how small CAPSEA was. And then I remembered when I walked into those doors and I saw that place that looked so futuristic and beautiful. I aspired to have an agency like that, and I’m almost there, but I’m still aspiring. So, you know, I’d love for you to do how everyone, a little more about yourself, and then we’ll get into the meat and potatoes of all of this Nicole.

Nicole Molinaro: 
Billie Jo, thank you so much. That was such a kind introduction. Uh, and I’ve never heard our facility described as “futuristic.” So I like that  um, but we are, uh, so as you mentioned, I’m Nicole Molinaro, very proud to be President and CEO for Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. Um, I, as you mentioned, we’ve gone we’ve-we go back and, uh, I actually have been involved with the, uh, victim services and domestic violence services field, um, for over half of my life now, which I, I should admit is, uh, 25 years. So, I became involved with Women’s Center and Shelter originally, uh, as a volunteer, as a direct service volunteer, and then started, uh, in the training center, which was a new endeavor for us about 24, 25 years ago or so. And, um, since then have been, uh, involved with our direct services, uh, with our fundraising as the development director, I was our chief program officer, uh, and was promoted to president and CEO about three and a half years ago now. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
So I’m very proud to be following in such some really big footsteps. Um, and Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh has been around actually since 1974. And we owe so much to our founding mothers, Ellen, Berliner, and Ann Stateler. And, uh, we owe so much to them because they started Women’s Center and Shelter back in the, you know, early seventies, just as a place for women to gather and just be, because there of course were few places like that around. And, uh, what they found and because they’re both- they were both social workers, what they found is that 40% of the women coming to just do crafts and gather, uh, actually needed a safe place to stay. And so they were putting people on their couches and in guest rooms and in, and, you know, engaging friends and doing this work. And they looked at this and said, we really need to change up and be responsive instead of just being a gathering place. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
We really need to start doing the work around domestic violence. And so in 1974, incorporated, uh, and were, were a storefront, um, in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh. And since then have been through multiple moves and, uh, we’ve expanded our services and our reach greatly. And now we serve over 7,500 survivors, adult and child survivors of intimate partner violence every year. And we have a battering intervention program, offsite of course, but a battering intervention program, um, for those who use violence and abuse as well. So, um, but we just had amazing, uh, amazing founding mothers who we look to every day for continued inspiration and, uh, and guidance. 

Billie Jo Weyant:
This is just awesome. And again, I am so excited to have you on this episode, and I think this is just, you know, it, it, it’s gonna lead right into what our topic for today is, you know? How do we, and how did we grow- And, and to bring upon all these other programs to help the underserved populations that we deal with? And you started things off beautifully, you spoke about how we all started, so- in such a grassroots… In the seventies, CAPSEA started in 1977, a group of women in the area, again, needing some place for women and children to go to. And what we’ve grown, not nearly as big as you, but in our own way and to meet our needs. And I think it is so exciting. And that’s why I’m so glad that you are going to be here with us today and talk about some of those programs that you have pioneered at Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh. And for folks to really understand that we network constantly amongst all of us, and we learn from one another and we share ideas. So what you’re doing in Pittsburgh, CAPSEA could easily bring here, do some tweaking and really do some great work. And that’s what excites me every day. So Nicole, honestly, whatever you would like to start with, I am so excited to hear all about, and I’m sure everybody is some of the great cutting-edge programs that Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh has started. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
Oh, thank you so much, Billie Jo, and I really do wanna echo what you said about us all working together. Um, because I think that we have such a free flow of ideas and we, we talk often, um, and we throw ideas off of one another and we share ideas. So, you know, so many people, I think kind of assume that because we’re all separate nonprofits, we just kind of all, you know, put our heads down and do the work. And indeed the work is so much better when we share ideas and work with one another and partner. And so we have, you know, multiple active, formal partnerships with the other domestic violence programs, uh, and specifically for us in Allegheny County. Uh, and we, you know, it’s critical to work together to be able to best serve the survivors of domestic violence. But we also of course work so often with, uh, everybody outside of Allegheny County, where we are. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
So, and it’s, it’s critical to be able to offer those, uh, offer the best services we all can. So, you know, Women’s Center and Shelter has, um, you know, really provided so many core services of course, as all of the other domestic violence programs have, for so long. And, um, probably about five or six years ago, we really noticed, um, a deepening in the complexity of the issues that survivors were coming to us with. So, you know, of course survivors are across, uh, every, every, you know, demographic. We all know that, um, it, you know, socioeconomic race, ethnicity, religion, um, same sex, heterosexual, you know, other gender identities, everybody can possibly experience and does experience intimate partner violence or domestic violence. So… but we were noticing that in addition to, to that, uh, we were having more survivors who were experiencing mental health issues, who were experiencing, uh, drug and alcohol issues. 

Nicole Molinaro:
And I think that that reflects the larger world, right? Because we are just a, a portion of the, the general population and domestic violence, again, can impact anybody. So of course it makes sense that our survivors were coming to us with more complex issues because the world itself is just- has just been becoming more complex. Uh, we also noticed a deepening in the danger level, uh, even more so than we had been seeing in many of the situations of our survivors. And sometimes that’s because of, um, the availability of guns, uh, and other weapons being so, you know, very easily available and being so used. And, um, so we really started to look at how we could, um, you know, not just widen our reach, because we were always trying to reach, uh, as many people we can with quality services, but also how we could really deepen our reach and focus on groups of individuals that we really were not reaching. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
So we started our refugee immigrant limited English speaking programs because we knew, um, that first of all, we were not serving the non-English speaking partners of the men who were coming for services in our battering intervention program. So the courts were sending, um, you know, a wide range of men, including quite a few who didn’t speak English as their first language. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
And we knew from getting to know the men that their partners also did not speak English as a first language. But we were not seeing their partners in our services. Um, and we also were hearing from another partner organization, the Latino Family Center that we worked very closely with, uh, that we needed to improve how we were providing services to their Spanish-speaking populations. And we really, really listened and said, “Okay, we need to do a better job with this.” And so we started our real time, which started with two advocates: one to work on outreach and one to do, uh, internal strengthening. So to develop a multilingual phone line, to do brochures and other educational material and multiple other languages, uh, to do, you know, case management of, of clients who were in, uh, the building, uh, that really needed our help. And then of course, outreach to be able to reach out to clients in the community who needed help through our, uh, other organizations that served the refugee, immigrant, and limited English-speaking population. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
Um, and then since then we’ve been able to expand the team to include two specialty legal advocates who work in the courts with anybody who’s a refugee, immigrant, or limited-English speaker. We now have an immigration attorney. Um, and we also have, uh, two direct service folks who are in our building, working in our shelter, our children’s program, our front office, um, and in our hotline. So basically we want to make an intentional effort to be welcoming. And for us in an area as la- as large as Allegheny County, that really meant developing a very specialized program that could better serve the refugee, immigrant, and limited English-speaking population, because we wanted to be able to provide the same high quality level of services to those in those communities. And so I’m very happy to say our refugee, immigrant, limited English-speaking, uh, program in the past five years has increased our population, um, of, of real team clients from what was literally a handful, uh, to now we serve hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of, uh, refugee, immigrant, and limited English speakers every year. So we’re very, very proud of that. Um, and, uh, and the job that we do with, with them, being able to serve them. Um, so that’s one, should I just jump right into another?

Billie Jo Weyant: 
Well, and if I can add something quickly, Nicole, just, I, I really want everyone to understand that our networking capabilities are such and we work so well together that if someone here in a very small rural setting at CAPSEA, for instance, we’re gonna use my program, as an example, would run into a, an immigration situation, which we have in the past. And we were limited and really didn’t have anyone to reach out to. Now this was a number of years ago, but then if we also needed some assistance, we can confidently reach out to Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh and others in our network. I just want everyone to know how widespread the help is and, and, and the, the support and, and, and I think it’s grown even more since COVID, since the pandemic. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
Absolutely Billie Joe. And thank you for mentioning that because our services are here, uh, for clients and also for other professionals who may need some assistance or help and, and, you know, effectively serving somebody who is, is from a specific population. So, yeah. Thanks for mentioning that. 

Billie Jo Weyant: 
Hey, absolutely. And then one of your- some of your other programs go right ahead. 

Nicole Molinaro:
Sure. Yeah. So we, um, started a, a, a general community outreach program several years ago, and then realized that we weren’t reaching individuals who are part of the LGBTQ+, uh, community. And so we started an outreach program, specifically working with partner organizations who serve the LGBTQ+ population. And we have from that partnership, um, and having an advocate who focuses on that work, we’ve really been able to, again, increase our population of LGBTQ+ individuals that we serve, um, onsite and offsite. And we’ve also been able to, um, um, you know, form these partnerships with other organizations so that we can help their teams to help their clients who are impacted by, by domestic violence. So, uh, we’re very, very proud of the work that we’ve done with the LGBTQ+ population, which I have to say we’ve been serving a lot of younger folks, uh, in this population and, uh, the creativity of our team to be able to reach them and doing Tik Toks, and doing, you know, these things that usually when they bring them to me to, to talk about I’m like, “I don’t know what that is, I’m gonna have to find out.”

Nicole Molinaro: 
So , you know, but it’s been really, uh, a wonderful learning process. Uh, and we just, you know, it’s been wonderful to be able to use that creativity, to reach the, of populations that really need our need our assistance and need our help. Um, and again, it’s that intentional welcoming it’s by forming a program specifically that says, Hey, we know that you may be experiencing domestic violence and we want to be able to help you. And we’re really working hard to be able to do that, that I think has helped, uh, the population of LGBTQ+ individuals in this area to be able to reach out, uh, in an increased way for help. Um, we also have really deepened our CYF, which is “Children, Youth, and Families,” our Department of Children, Youth, and Families work over the last, uh, four or five years. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
So we had one advocate, um, who worked with our Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Children, Youth, and Familyies office. Um, we had one advocate who worked for 17 years, um, with the, the population of case workers. So over 800 case workers, right. Um, and so many clients who were impacted by domestic violence and, you know, thankfully the county really looked at the, unfortunately the lethalities of children and near, so the fatalities and the near fatalities and realized that domestic violence, um, was one of several factors that was common in over 50% of child fat and near fatalities. And so they said, all right, we need to deepen our work. And so we were, we’ve been able to hire what will now be a team of five folks, five full-time folks who are co-located in the CYF offices and here at Women’s Center and Shelter who do multiple things. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
So they work directly with families, of course, uh, who are in need. Uh, they work with case workers to provide co- coaching and consultation, um, on it specific or general issues around domestic violence. And we provide training so that the case workers are better able to work with, uh, situations involving domestic violence within their caseload. Um, so we’ve really been able to, uh, increase the number and the depth of the work that we’ve been doing with CYF. Um, also important to note is of course, in any social services, in any, you know, profession in any profession, we, there are a certain population or a certain number of folks who are personally impacted by domestic violence. So we’ve been able to also work with case workers who are impacted by domestic violence, um, not only through their caseload, but in their own personal lives. So we’re very, um, very glad to be able to provide that as an option. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
Um, should I jump into the next one, Billie Jo?

Billie Jo Weyant: 
You keep, you can just keep rolling along. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
 that’s great. Um, one of the other programs that we’re really proud of is called our INC Program, which is our “Immediate Needs Coordinator” program. Um, so to, to kind of give a little bit of context in history, Sabrina Korbel, who is now Judge Sabrina Korbel, so we’re so amazingly happy and proud for her to have been elected to the bench in Allegheny County. But Sabrina was one of our attorneys and then our legal director for about 17 years here at Women’s Center and Shelter before she just very recently became a judge. And, and, uh, for about the first 12 years as an attorney, she would say, “You know what, I can do my attorney work, our team of attorneys can do our attorney work, but the courts are saying to our clients in order to succeed with custody, um, or, you know, with whatever the, the civil matter was through our civil law project, you need to have housing, or you need to be able to do this, or you need to be able to do that.” 

Nicole Molinaro: 
And they were all social service issues as opposed to legal issues. And so Sabrina would say, “You know, I can help them with their legal issues all day long. I, you know, have neither the expertise nor the time to make these social service connections, though.” And so she, you know, was wonderfully persistent in saying, “We really need this. We really need this program.” And, uh, we were able to find a match for funding finally, and, uh, close to, you know, about five years ago, close to six years ago, we started our Immediate Needs Coordination Program, um, which now works with hundreds. And we’ve, we’ve been able to expand it now works with hundreds of folks who are our clients, but in need of, um, concrete needs. Whether concrete needs, I are include, um, utility, you know, shut off or turn on. It might mean a lot of security systems. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
We do a lot of security systems. Um, we do, uh, you know, needs, uh, uh, help connecting to medical needs them or their children, um, insurance. We, you know, literally any need that a domestic violence victim comes with, we can help them. Um, and of course they help the team helps with, uh, safety planning and with emotional support and everything else. It really offers a con- continuity of care. So if somebody comes into our legal advocacy program and is getting a protection from abuse order in court, um, they may or may not remain connected to our legal advocates, but our legal advocates can connect them to an, to an INC, um, where they can get that ongoing case management that so greatly can impact their lives and their safety. Uh, and then we’ve also recently started to connect them with our shelter. So anybody who leave shelter while they’re in shelter, of course, as we all know, they get all, you know, we wrap our arms around our shelter residents and they’re able to get all of those services while they’re in shelter, but once they leave shelter, you know, most of them actually, um, close to a hundred percent remain connected to services, through support groups, through individual counseling, through legal advocacy, through civil law project, etc.. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
Um, but there’s not necessarily anybody to work on these concrete needs with them. And so that’s what the INC program does. And we’ve really been able to help, uh, the transition for shelter residents into, um, you know, their, their life outside of shelter and free from violence through the INC program. So that’s, those are our main programs, Billie Jo, that we’re happy to be able to support through, through specialized projects. 

Billie Jo Weyant:
They are awesome and take it from me, somebody that’s worked for, as long as I have doing this… those critical supportive services, once somebody leaves shelter, when you, when you put, when you let somebody out on their own, you’re just setting somebody up to fail, through no fault of their own. It’s because they weren’t given those ongoing tools and that follow up. And that is something that, again, because for many, many years, and that, since we all, we all began in the seventies, the early seventies, mid-seventies, we, we’ve always been very underfunded, always thought of as being very grassroots, not really being recognized as professional human service programs and for us to take that and really say, what are the needs of the people we serve? And we’re going to add these other programs is just phenomenal. And we do have a couple minutes left, and I’d really love to hear a little bit, I wanna hear about the batter’s intervention program, because remember, for so long, we did victim services. You didn’t go into that at all, but you can’t bandaid things. We need to be very holistic. You must have a very comprehensive approach to this kind of work. 

Nicole Molinaro:
Right. Absolutely. Billie Joe. And I can, if I can just say just one thing, you know, I mean, I think that one of the, one of the, um, things about domestic violence that strikes me all the time is how it’s not necessarily, I, I say it’s not common sensical, right? So, um, you know, people say, “You’re in an abusive relationship, just leave.” When in reality that the most dangerous advice to give a client, because we know that 73% of those who are killed by their partners or ex-partners are killed when they leave or after they’ve tried to leave. So domestic violence doesn’t necessarily follow, um, you know, kind of good, common sense, right? You sometimes need to really, uh, think outside of the box around safety planning and think creatively, etc.. And also, you know, trauma plays so deeply into this because when you are traumatized as so many of our clients are, uh, it’s really difficult to just kind of think through your options, right? 

Nicole Molinaro: 
And so that’s why it’s so important to have somebody who is there to help and talk through and empower you on your journey. So that you’re able to really kind of look at the big picture because trauma is so real, the impacts of trauma can really impact, um, you know, folks as they move forward on their journey. But, but to get to your question, sorry, Billie Jo, the, uh, our men’s battery intervention program, we’ve actually been doing battering intervention program work for well over 20 years. Um, and just within the past, um, seven or eight years or so, we’re certified by our county as one of four battering intervention programs. Um, so, you know, obviously as I mentioned, it, it, the, the, the program is done offsite . Um, that probably goes without saying, but a lot of people ask that question. Um, but we actually are in 10 different community locations, um, throughout. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
Yeah. And it’s not kind of our regular footprint of the city of Pittsburgh and, um, you know, out and, and that we kind of like split so to speak with the other domestic violence programs throughout Allegheny County. Um, we’re, we’re really east end and up. So even into the Tarentum area, um, you know, it’s basically just wherever the county, um, has, has assigned our territory, but we have these 10 different, um, uh, battering intervention program groups and it’s 24 groups plus, uh, an intake. Uh, and it’s for specifically, this program is for men. So we at Women’s Center and Shelter, we serve any, um, survivor, uh, regardless of gender identity, but for our men’s program, it’s specifically, um, for men who use battering, you know, power and control. Um, and it is a program that is really geared at intervention and prevention, as opposed to a support group, like we would provide for a victim or a survivor. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
Um, but it’s really geared at helping to identify the problematic behavior and giving them the tools to be able to change that problematic behavior. So we measure attendance, um, and completion, we don’t measure success. Um, because of course we know that sometimes the savviest batterers are those who participate in the classes and do their homework and, um, you know, kind of put forward the best, the best foot. Well, indeed, um, behind closed doors, it can be a different situation. So we don’t really ever measure success. We really just measure part- not, and not even participation. We measure attendance and we, and we report back to the courts on completion. Um, but we do of course believe that people can change if they want to, and if they have the tools and are willing to put in the work to change. So it’s all of that, right? Um, you can’t just be willing, but not put in the work and have the tools and you can’t just have the tools, but not be willing. But, you know, a combination of factors can really lead to success. And we believe that if our vision is to end violence in the lives of everybody experiencing intimate partner violence, um, that we need to work, um, with those who are causing the violence, because they, the victims and survivors are not the, um, you know, the issue, right? The issue is those who are causing the violence. 

Billie Jo Weyant:
Awesome. Just awesome. We are just about out of time, um, honestly, Nicole, it’s been an honor to have you on this podcast. I want you to come back. Um, it, it’s just, it’s just phenomenal. And I think that you really brought to the forefront for us to have future conversations about how imperative it is for everyone to support the programs that we have out there for our victim survivors. 

Nicole Molinaro:
Right. 

Billie Jo Weyant: 
And to really support us in many different ways, because we are- what we do is life saving work. It truly is. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
It really is Billie Jo. And, you know, unfortunately we see every day, uh, the fact that that is true, but this, it really is. It’s, it’s life changing and it’s potentially life saving work. So I could, I could not agree more. 

Billie Jo Weyant:
And I think that be our programs, being trauma informed and working and considering what the needs of our clientele is. 

Nicole Molinaro: 
Yeah. 

Billie Jo Weyant:
And then working around that and molding programs to help them, uh, we’ve proven time and time again, evidence based, that it’s successful. It, it works, you know? But Nicole, I am so glad that you were here today. I appreciate your time. And I want you to come back. We have a lot more that we can talk about, 

Nicole Molinaro: 
Billie Jo I love talking to you, so I’m happy to come back anytime. 

Billie Jo Weyant: 
 Oh, great. I’m gonna hold you to that! 

Nicole Molinaro: 
Absolutely. 

Billie Jo Weyant: 
But episode four of Ask the Advocate has come to a close and on behalf of Nicole Molinaro from Women’s Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, I’m Billie Jo Weyant thanking you all and we’ll see you next time. Thanks. 

Billie Jo Weyant: 
Thank you for listening to this episode of “Ask the Advocate.” If you have a topic suggestion, or would like to be a guest on the podcast, you can contact me directly at asktheadvocatepodcast@gmail.com.

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