domestic violence resources

CasaLuz Continues To Support Memphis’ Hispanic/Latinx Community

CasaLuz was founded in 2015 by Venezuelan attorney, Inés Negrette, as a response to the the “lack of culturally specific services and resources to Hispanic/Immigrant victims of violent crimes,” in the Memphis-area.

The most recent statistics from the United States Census Bureau (USCB) said 7.7 percent of Memphis’ population identify as Hispanic and Latino. The USCB considers people of “Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race,” as Hispanic or Latino.

In addition to this, Stacker Media reported that 30.8 percent of foreign born residents from Mexico live in Memphis. The company also said that Mexico is the number-one most common country of origin in the Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas Metro area.

Negrette explained that when she initially founded CasaLuz, she only sought to provide victim services and focus on advocacy. However, “immediately” she realized they needed to widen their approach after seeing the various problems their clients faced.

According to its website, CasaLuz is the “first and only non-profit organization in the Memphis/Shelby County area that culturally and exclusively serves Hispanic/Latinx victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, stalking, harassment, and other violent crimes, including aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, kidnapping and more.”

The organization will celebrate its eighth anniversary this year, and Negrette explains that it has not been an easy journey. She says there have been many challenges, but that her work is needed.

Negrette’s experience in Memphis has been shaped by racist and “anti-immigrant” behavior, and how people use their own personal biases in the workplace.

“That is totally unacceptable,” said Negrette. “Especially when you are responding to victims of crime. I’m talking about different agencies, organizations, law enforcement. When they are violating Title VI of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, and they still behave like you or your client doesn’t have any rights, they’re in really big trouble.”

Organizations that receive federal funding must provide interpretation services, Negrette said, but that isn’t always the case. According to the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, “Under Title VI (and the Safe Streets Act), recipients are required to provide LEP (limited English proficient) individuals with meaningful access to their programs and services. Providing ‘meaningful access’ will generally involve some combination of services for oral interpretation and written translation of vital documents.”

CasaLuz’ work primarily deals with Hispanic and Latinx victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, among other traumatic events. Negrette explains that both domestic violence and sexual assault are among the most un-reported crimes, as it takes so much for a victim to come forward, a decision made much more difficult when you’re an immigrant.

“You are in another country. You don’t have your support system, said Negrette. “Many of our clients come here [Memphis] because their legal spouse made a promise of adjusting their status. They use immigration status as a tool against them.”

When clients make their way to CasaLuz, they’ve usually endured years and years of abuse, Negrette said.

“Once you go and look for help, and they mistreat you, they won’t believe anyone else,” said Negrette.”It’s a lack of trust through the judicial system and law enforcement – are they really going to help them? They fear being deported. They don’t understand the language, the culture.”

As a result of these barriers, Negrette has been tapped by several agencies to provide culture sensitivity training, and has partnered with the Memphis Police Department to provide “cultural awareness/responding to immigrant victims of crime training.”

Negrette said that they are also able to streamline the process from their offices including filing paperwork for clients and submitting court applications. They even have a partner to provide legal services.

“By the time of the hearing, the client will have a bilingual advocate with her, plus an attorney. The same thing with counselors. We have two Latina counselors in our office, and that is individual counseling.”

Negrette said that it’s been difficult getting here, but she is driven by her passion and vision for advocacy.

“Having to push, and never taking ‘no’ for an answer, has been difficult, yes,” said Negrette. “Easy? No, it’s not easy. But it is a way for us to try to become a part of the solution.”

Phillis Lewis is the CEO and founder of Love Doesn’t Hurt, a Memphis-based nonprofit organization that “provides assistance to victims of Domestic & Sexual Violence in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.”

“Believing is one of the most important things,” said Lewis. “I think a lot of people don’t understand how charismatic, how believable abusers can be, and hearing someone’s story and their journey, just because it’s not your experience, doesn’t mean it’s not theirs.”

The Flyer got in touch with Lewis to discuss Love Doesn’t Hurt’s purpose, and the resources that they offer for the community.

Memphis Flyer: How would you describe Love Doesn’t Hurt?

Phillis Lewis:We are a nonprofit organization that focuses on providing crisis intervention for victims of crime in the LGBTQ+ community, addressing things such as housing insecurity, food insecurity, and getting individuals connected to resources that are diverse and inclusive to their needs.

All the referrals that we make for our clients are with organizations and agencies that we have worked with directly, and we know have affirming and welcoming practices in the work that they do.

In conjunction with the crisis intervention part, we also know that the community also needs life-hack skills and educational sessions to help in the long-run of things, because violence is not just a one-time, incident thing. With that, we want to make sure we’re giving people in the community tools, so that way we can lower the risk of victimization in the future. We do different informational sessions to talk about grief, trauma, self-care, and financial literacy. Next year we will be doing some quarterly cooking classes, as well as quarterly self-care events. Just taking a holistic approach that working with individuals is not just one thing that you’re trying to address. It’s usually a web of things, and we are doing our best to work with other organizations to build a safety net for the clients that we come in contact with, so that they have the best chance of thriving after victimization.

As the founder, was there something that you saw in the community that you felt wasn’t being addressed? Or was there some type of moment or incident that occurred that prompted you to make sure that certain resources were available?

My mother was a victim of domestic and sexual violence, and when she experienced her abuse, it was during a time back in the early ’90s where there wasn’t a lot of protection or a lot of assistance for victims of crime, especially when it came to intimate partner violence. That kind of drove me toward the work, but what drove me toward working with the population I work with, I myself identify as bisexual. So when I started my career at the district attorney’s office, I came in contact with a couple of clients, but one in particular had been in an abusive relationship with her spouse. When we referred her to one of the vendors that was on our referral list, instead of focusing on the trauma she had experienced, they focused more on her sexual orientation. When you are working in social services, you are taught to work in a trauma informed space — not asking people like, ‘what’s wrong with you?’ but ‘what happened?’, and ‘how can I show up for you in this space to help you heal from the trauma you’ve experienced?’ instead of re-victimizing someone that has already been through something hard enough.

How has the landscape changed in recent years? What are some areas that still need work?

In regards to things that need to be improved upon, housing is probably one of the biggest issues. It was even an issue before the pandemic. The pandemic just exacerbated the disparities that we have when it comes to affordable housing. We have individuals that are trying to rebuild their lives, but they don’t have the capacity to do so, and they live in spaces where the requirements to gain housing are sometimes very unreasonable. You say you are charging $800 a month in rent, but you expect the person who is living in that space to make four times the amount of rent. If they made four times the amount in rent, they probably wouldn’t choose to stay in that spot.

Also in housing, when it comes to grants and having flexible funding to help meet people where they are. There are some grants that won’t allow you to help people apply and pay for the application fee. You’re having to figure out where to get funding from, in order to help the need that the clients have. That way they can get to where they’re trying to be.

If you as an agency can help provide first month’s rent and a deposit, but they can’t even pay the application fee, then they’re not going to even get to the point where they can pay rent or the deposit.

In recent weeks we’ve reported on how members of the LGBTQ+ community have had negative experiences with certain agencies, which causes them to not seek help or reach out. How do you all work as a vessel to help restore their confidence in seeking and receiving help?

We take the approach where we let them know what their options are, because the options are out there. If you would like to report it to the police, you can, but also when you’re dealing with individuals that not only have a mistrust when it comes to dealing with law enforcement or the criminal justice system as a whole, whoever the abuser is to them, that is someone they’re going to have to deal with. So as service providers, we’re only coming in as a triage. So, long-term, we try to help not only find the information, but resources so that the individuals that are enacted by the violence can stay safe, and be violence-free. Whatever we can do to help support them in that, we allow them the freedom and autonomy to let us know how they would like to move forward. If they do wish to involve law enforcement, then we make ourselves available to accompany them. If it does get to the point where they do go to the court, and they have to go in for a court proceeding, then we go with them so they have support, and connecting them with other agencies to help provide court advocacy. … Not only do they see our face, but they see other individuals that we’re working with, and letting them know that they have a support system there and there are people there that are trying to help them, to help build trust and rapport. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. You’re talking about years, decades of trauma that has happened between the LGBTQ+ community and law enforcement.

There are a lot of different things that you help people with. What are your most popular resources?

Our educational sessions are where we have our greatest reach. In 2021, we were able to reach over 27,000 people through the educational stuff that we do. That is a piece of what we do, but a lot of the direct services part, comes more with the crisis intervention. Sometimes we’ll have people who will call us, and they just want to do a safety plan. They just want to know what their options are. They may not want to move forward with getting out of those situations, but sometimes people just need someone to talk, to know that they’re not crazy for feeling the way that they do, or to reassure them that what they’re experiencing is not the norm.