We're here for domestic violence survivors

Our newsletter, Intersections, explores the connectedness of health in our communities and imagines a better future.

This is a summary of the July 2025 edition. Sign up to receive the full, bimonthly newsletter in your inbox.

As an immigrant survivor leader, I’m holding both deep urgency and unwavering commitment to stand with survivors of domestic violence. Today, we face renewed threats — for example, mandates for federal funding now bar domestic violence organizations from naming violence as “systemic” and require closer ties with law enforcement. These changes endanger the communities we serve: Californians of color with low incomes. We remain in solidarity with ValorUS and the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence as they take a courageous stand in court to prevent deep cuts in the U.S. Office of Violence Against Women. At Blue Shield of California Foundation, we’re staying the course — investing in healing, equity, and racial justice. In this issue, you'll see restorative justice in action, multigenerational leadership at Alliance for Girls, and a new toolkit for domestic violence organizations to leverage CalAIM funds. Please check it out, and share this newsletter with your networks.

— Carolina Morales, Senior Program Officer

Helping domestic violence organizations navigate Medi-Cal

Domestic violence service providers often support survivors through some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Now, there’s a new resource to help these organizations go further. The CalAIM Toolkit for Domestic Violence Organizations helps providers understand how to access new benefits through the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal (CalAIM) initiative.

This toolkit breaks down how the Medi-Cal system works and how domestic violence organizations can connect survivors to life-changing services, like housing support, care coordination, and mental health treatment.

As CalAIM shifts Medi-Cal toward whole-person, trauma-informed care, there’s an urgent need to ensure survivors of domestic violence aren’t left behind. Many are eligible for services they may not even know exist — and providers can be a powerful link to those supports. The toolkit offers clear steps, real examples, and useful tools that providers can start using right away. Whether you're new to Medi-Cal or experienced with the system, this guide is built to meet you where you are.

Restorative justice offers diverse approaches to healing and accountability

Healing after domestic violence isn’t linear, and it doesn’t always happen in a courtroom or involve the police. In fact, 78% of Californians support alternatives to jail for people who cause domestic violence, according to Perry Undem research.

Through a yearlong grant, California Health Report highlighted restorative justice in action. In Contra Costa County, the Collective Healing and Transformation (CHAT) Project facilitates trauma-informed dialogue between partners, offering a structured space to repair harm. The Call for Change helpline, in partnership with the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, allows people who have caused harm to take accountability — without fear of criminalization. In Oakland, Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY) centers women survivors in peer-led healing circles that that uplift their autonomy and emotional safety, rather than focusing on reconciliation.

The series also includes firsthand essays by those shaping restorative justice:

• “The Catharsis of Accountability” by Yenni Rivera, a survivor and mother who chose peace for herself and her son
• “How I Turned from Violence to Healing and Reconciliation” by Devon Gaster, a man once convicted of abuse who now mentors others
• “How Restorative Justice Can Bring Safety and Support to Survivors During the Holidays” by our own Carolina Morales, bridging advocacy and lived experience
• “As a Former Attorney for Violence Survivors, Here’s Why Restorative Justice Gives Me Hope” by Barbara Schmitz, who is training as a restorative justice facilitator

These powerful stories show us what’s possible when we reimagine community safety — particularly for survivors who seek healing, accountability, and justice outside of the criminal legal system.

In uncertain times, some needs are clear

Organizations that serve girls and gender-expansive youth are facing serious uncertainty this year about their funding and support, according to new statewide research by our partners at Alliance for Girls. Organizations serving girls and gender-expansive youth are not merely service providers — they are support systems, lifelines, sanctuaries, and catalysts for social change. As their rights and funding come under increasing threat, research like this is critical to help funders understand the needs, impacts, and next moves for local programs.

Recommendations in this new report include supporting coalitions and collaborative initiatives, funding advocacy and movement building, and funding intersectional research that centers youth and their voices.

In conversation with Alliance for Girls

In a conversation illustrating the power of multigenerational domestic violence prevention, Senior Program Officer Carolina Morales sat down with Chantal Hildebrand, executive director of Alliance for Girls, to explore how multigenerational leadership, community-rooted data, and advocacy are creating safer futures for girls and gender-expansive youth of color across California.

Alliance for Girls, a network of more than 120 member organizations collectively serving over 300,000 youth, receives Foundation support to advance their prevention model, which begins with listening. In this conversation, Chantal shares the alliance engages youth as researchers, educators, and advocates — uplifting lived experience and community wisdom as core tools in the fight against gender-based violence.