Tiff Hernandez, Author at FreeFrom

February 21, 2024

This Landmark Bill Marks A Major Step Forward In Addressing Economic Abuse In The U.S.

Today, Rep. Nydia Velázquez (NY-7) and Sen. Smith (MN) have introduced a bill that will allow the U.S. for the first time to gather data on economic abuse occurring within banks and other financial institutions.

The bill would create a working group to:

study and report on economic abuse happening within banks and other financial institutions and
provide recommendations for how financial institutions can better support and protect their survivor customers.

This new source of data will help us better understand economic abuse and how to keep survivors’ finances safe.

“74% of survivors – approximately 48.8 million people in the U.S. – lack access to a secure bank account, with 58% reporting that a harm-doer has accessed, monitored, withdrawn from, or otherwise controlled their bank account,” said Sonya Passi, Founder and CEO of FreeFrom. “Without safe access to their own finances, the path to long-term safety remains difficult and dangerous for survivors. We commend Rep. Velázquez and Sen. Smith for spearheading this effort to address economic abuse occurring within banks and other financial institutions. This legislation has the potential to support millions of survivors and their families across the U.S. in building and protecting the assets they need to heal, rebuild, and thrive.”

We’re so grateful for Rep. Velázquez and Sen. Smith’s leadership in introducing this landmark bill and championing survivors’ financial security in Congress.

Learn more about the bill

What is Economic Abuse?

Economic abuse occurs when a harm-doer controls, regulates, monitors, or depletes a survivor’s financial resources. Some examples include stealing a survivor’s personal property, hiding money or financial information, or controlling access to bank accounts.

Learn more about economic abuse

December 16, 2023

Celebrating Our 7-Year Anniversary

The Wins

As FreeFrom turns seven, we have been reflecting on what we’ve accomplished:

We have disbursed over $2MM in more than 8,800 emergency cash grants directly to survivors in all 50 states and Puerto Rico through our Safety Fund;
We have supported 1,600+ survivors and counting in collectively saving over $600K through our national Savings Match Program;
We built a growing social enterprise, Gifted, that has generated over $2.5MM in income for survivors through entrepreneurship and living wage work;
We are supporting survivors and advocates in their local efforts to pass survivor-centered legislation in 12 states (red and blue) and counting. Approximately 5.3MM survivors have greater access to and protection of their financial security as a result;
As a result of our advocacy, 315,000 workers now have access to paid and protected gender-based violence leave; and
We have published first-of-its-kind data, filling the gap in our societal understanding of the true cost and longevity of the effects of abuse. Driving the national conversation about what survivors need to thrive, our reports and original research have been cited by federal agencies, cities, states, and the Biden-Harris Administration.

Our Guiding Principles

Over the last seven years, our work has been guided by the following four principles:

Survivors know best what we need;
Investing in survivors is the key to disrupting gender-based violence and the dangers it subjects our entire community to;
Everyone in our society – every institution, every community, and every individual – has a part to play in addressing this systemic problem; and
The health and well-being of our FreeFrom team comes first for us. All change starts from within, and we are committed to the continuous process of building and sustaining a workplace in which we all can thrive.

Thank You

Thank you for being with us on the journey. We all have a part to play in creating a world in which we are all free. It is an honor to be in community with you and do this work alongside you.

Here’s to the next 7 years together,

Sonya
Founder & CEO

How To Get Involved

1. Shop Gifted

Healing is incredibly expensive. If we want to end the generational impact of intimate partner violence, we need to invest in survivor wealth. When you shop at Gifted, you are investing 100% of your money in survivors. Explore our holiday collection to treat your loved ones or yourself this winter season.

Shop Gifted

2. Help us secure a matching grant

This holiday season, FreeFrom has an incredible matching opportunity that we don’t want to miss out on. If we raise $300,000 by the end of the year, it will be matched dollar for dollar by a generous donor. This is a raise it or lose it challenge – only if FreeFrom raises the full $300,000 do we get the match. We are halfway there, and with your help, we can reach our goal.

Every dollar raised will be given out directly to survivors as cash either as emergency grants to support their immediate needs or as a savings match to invest in their long-term safety. And, your donation is 100% tax deductible.

Give Today

December 15, 2023

We’ve Made Updates To The Scorecard

Thank you so much for signing up to get updates on FreeFrom’s National Survivor Financial Security Policy Map and Scorecard. We’ve been busy adding 7 NEW policy categories and fine-tuning a few of the current ones!