• What is SEA? SEA is a new initiative created by The OisF that will provide emergency services to survivors of abuse.
• What does SEA stand for? SEA Stands for the OisF’s “Survivor Emergency Assistance” initiative.
• Does SEA provide crisis services, such as protective services? No. SEA is designed to fill the gaps that social services cannot meet. SEA will address the immediate (and unmet) needs of survivors and their families as they are working through the emergency phase of their crisis.
• Does SEA differ from existing OisF survivor initiatives? Yes! SEA is 100% focused on providing emergency assistance so that survivors and their families can meet basic needs for living and moving through the recovery phase of their trauma.
• How is SEA funded? At this time, SEA is 100% reliant on donations. All donations to SEA will be used exclusively for emergency assistance services. Donations are deposited into a dedicated financial facility that is separate from all other OisF funding, and in time will be converted to an endowment fund to ensure the initiative is available for decades to come.
• How will SEA identify survivors in need? The OisF is currently working with a number of domestic violence organizations and other providers of social services. These organizations will notify The OisF of cases where there are individuals or families in need of emergency assistance of a type falling outside of the respective organization's scope or ability. It is also expected that survivors in need of emergency assistance will come to reach out to The OisF directly.
• How does the OisF determine who to provide assistance to? The OisF reviews the applications for assistance and will then provide services based on both the survivor’s need, and the capabilities of The OisF to meet the specific need. All specific personal information related to the survivor is blinded, so as to protect the survivor and his/her family.
• Can you give an example of some SEA requests for emergency assistance that have been brought to The OisF? The OisF recently became aware of a need in a survivor family where the family was relocated from the domestic violence safe-house to transitional housing; however, do to the urgent nature of the case, the family had to leave their furniture behind. The need was for mattresses and bedding for the children. In another case, The OisF was approached about a family that had been relocated and, as they began this transition, there was a need for some stop gap support to provide assistance related to food needs beyond what the pantry could provide, as well as support with an uncovered medical issue for their child. In each of these cases, the crisis social service provider could not support the particular need because it was outside of their ability to respond.
• How can I help SEA? Right now, the greatest help that you can offer is to make a financial donation to the SEA initiative – 100% of your donation will go towards direct survivor emergency assistance. In the near future, we will provide our followers with more ways that they can get involved and help SEA.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO SEA