Angie Martinez testifies as survivor and Sisters in Purple peer director
Martinez recounts being kidnapped with her daughter in 2012 and says the system must do more than respond after harm. She asks whether survivors receive services, whether community organizations are meaningfully included, and whether success is measured by survivor experience.
Okay.
No, I'm a little nervous.
Okay, peace and blessings and thank you so much to the committee and Women of Gender Equity.
Hi everyone, my name is Angie Martinez and I am the Director of Peer Engagement at Sisters in Purple.
And I'm also a Voices member and also sitting on the FRC Fatality Committee.
And I say this with pride.
I am a proud survivor of domestic violence.
Back in 2012, I was kidnapped with my daughter.
By the grace of God, I am here today to tell my story.
Although I had a great team by my side, I still faced challenges while navigating through the system, which shows how much support survivors like me need.
I am here today because I know personally what it means to need a system that does more than just respond after someone has been harmed.
Survivors need a system that sees us, hears us, protects us, and helps us rebuild our lives again.
That restructuring of the mayor's office to end domestic and gender-based violence under the Office of Community Safety makes oversight incredibly important.
Under the Executive Order 15, the Office of Community Safety is responsible for coordinating several offices, including NDGBV.
While NDGBV continues to have responsibilities related to domestic violence services, policies, agents, and services,
coordination and improving the city's responses.
With that reconstruction comes an important responsibility.
We must make sure that survivors do not get lost in the structure.
Oversight just asks the questions that survivors and community organizations are asking every day.
Are survivors actually receiving services when they really need them?
Are our shelters, housing resources, legal services, financial assistance, and safety planning accessible with responsive response?
Are survivors from every borough and every community being heard?
Are community-based organizations being meanfully included in decisions and sitting at the table?
And most importantly, are we measuring success by what survivors experience?
Not simply by what government agencies report.
As a survivor, I understand that asking for help can be one of the hardest moments in a person's life.
I was once there.
I was once that person.
When a survivor reaches out, that may be the moment that they have finally found the courage to say, I need help.
We cannot afford for that call to be met with confusion, delays, disconnections in the systems, or even death.
I believe survivors must have a seat at the table, not just as people being served, but as partners in shaping the systems designed to serve us.
As Sisters in Purple, we are committed to making sure survivors'voices remain part of this conversation.
This is why we're here today.
We need transparency.
We need accountability.
We need meaningful community engagement.
We need resources to follow the needs of survivors because reconstruction in office is about more than just changing where an agency starts, sits on organizational charts.
It's about whether a survivor feels safer when they reach out for help.
And then I am here today to let you know that we are those survivors.
Listen to survivors, include survivors, invest in survivors, and hold the systems accountable for survivors.
Thank you all and have a blessed day.