Accomplishments of the Domestic Violence Hotline, Online Connections, and Text (ADVHOCaT)

2014-2020

The National Domestic Violence Hotline Visit disclaimer page (The Hotline) and loveisrespect Visit disclaimer page (LIR; the help line targeted towards young people) are supported by the Division of Family Violence Prevention and Services within ACF’s Family and Youth Services Bureau. They are critical partners in the intervention, prevention, and resource assistance efforts of the network of family violence, domestic violence, and dating violence service providers. They provide:

  1. crisis intervention and support by helping identify problems, priorities, and possible solutions and options, including making plans for safety and a plan of action;
  2. information about resources on domestic violence and dating violence, children exposed to domestic violence, sexual assault, intervention programs for batterers, and working through the criminal and civil justice systems;
  3. nationwide referrals to domestic violence shelters and programs, social service agencies, programs addressing the needs of children exposed to domestic violence, legal assistance agencies, economic self-sufficiency programs, and other related services; and
  4. direct connections to local domestic violence service providers for those in need of immediate shelter or services.

The Hotline and LIR advocates provide these services via multiple anonymous modes: telephone calls (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and in 200 languages); online chats; and texts. The Hotline and LIR also maintain websites with information and resources related to family violence, domestic violence, dating violence, and healthy relationships.

The purpose of the Accomplishments of the Domestic Violence Hotline, Online Connections, and Text (ADVHOCaT) project was to describe the activities and outcomes of the Hotline and LIR. The project aimed to:

  1. describe the services and resources provided to those who access The Hotline and LIR and identify whether the information and assistance received is helpful and sought after;
  2. document trends and patterns in the mode of service provision (i.e., calls, online chats, texts, and websites); and
  3. determine short-term outcomes of contacting The Hotline and LIR and assess the level of helpfulness of the services provided.

To accomplish these aims, the research team accessed existing anonymous data collected by The Hotline and LIR in the first phase of the project. This included information on the services they provide, the needs and requests of those who contact them, and the number of contacts made via telephone calls, texts, online chats or visits to the websites. In addition, the research team collected new anonymous data on the interactions between callers and advocates and on preferences in the mode of contacting The Hotline and LIR. Because all contacts are anonymous, this project maintained the highest standards of confidentiality.

In its second phase, the project safely followed-up after two weeks with individuals who contacted The Hotline and LIR to determine short-term outcomes and the level of helpfulness of the services provided.

The Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University was awarded this contract.

Point(s) of contact: Samantha Illangasekare and Kriti Jain.

Information collections related to this project have been reviewed and approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under OMB #0970-0468 (expired 7/8/2019). Related materials are available at the ADVHOCaT Information Collection page on RegInfo.gov

Related Resources

This fact sheet provides an overview of the first phase of the Accomplishments of the Domestic Violence Hotline, Online Connections and Text (ADVHOCaT) project.

The objective of the first phase is to describe the activities and immediate outcomes of the National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) and loveisrespect help line (LIR) and to revise or develop new performance measures...

Hotlines for victims and survivors of domestic violence and/or dating violence (DV) are an important source of information and support for individuals seeking intervention and preventative care services. However, evaluation research on the impact of these programs is not widely available. The Accomplishments of the Domestic Violence Hotline, Online Connections, and Text (ADVHOCaT) project describes the activities and short-term outcomes for those contacting the...

Hotlines for victims and survivors of domestic violence and/or dating violence (DV) are an important source of information and support for individuals seeking intervention and preventative care services. However, evaluation of these programs is nascent. The National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) and loveisrespect (LIR; the help line targeted towards young people) provide information and assistance to adult and youth victims/survivors of DV...

Hotlines for victims/survivors of domestic violence and dating violence (DV) are an integral approach for providing intervention and prevention services. However, evaluation of these programs is nascent. The National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) and loveisrespect (LIR; the help line targeted towards young people) provide information and assistance to adult and youth victims/survivors of DV, their friends and family, service providers, and others, including batterers/abusers...

Hotlines and help lines for victims/survivors of domestic violence (DV) are an integral approach for providing intervention and prevention services; however, the evaluation of these programs is nascent. The National Domestic Violence Hotline...

The National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) and loveisrespect (LIR; the helpline targeted toward young people) offer services to connect with a staff person via three methods: telephone, online chat, and text. Through these modes...

This snapshot report describes the characteristics of those who contacted The National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) and loveisrespect (LIR; the helpline targeted toward young people) using telephone, online chat...