DVC Annual Report

To: Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on General Government
From: Noelle Talley, Deputy Secretary, Department of Administration
Date: July 1, 2025

Re: Annual Report of the North Carolina Domestic Violence Commission

This report is submitted pursuant to G.S. 143B-394.16(b), which directs the North Carolina Domestic Violence Commission to report its findings and recommendations, including any legislative or administrative proposals, to the General Assembly by July 1 of each year. This report focuses on the 2024 calendar year, as well as key accomplishments during the first half of 2025.

Domestic Violence Commission Committees

The Commission accomplishes much of its work through a robust Committee structure. There are five Committees that each meet monthly:

In addition to committee reports and discussions, during 2024 and 2025, the Commission heard a number of impactful guest presentations on important topics, including: 1) the 2022-2023 Mecklenburg County Domestic Violence Fatality Reviews; 2) Domestic Violence and Traumatic Brain Injuries; 3) UNC Project RESTART’s (Restorative, Effective Solutions Toward Accountability, Responsibility and Treatment) Innovative DVIPs Program Measures Inventory and Matrix; 4) Potential Legislative Proposals to Address Criminalized Survivors; 5) Empowering Women in Reentry and Redefining Rights; and 6) a survivor’s story of The Price of Love.

Highlighted Accomplishments & Initiatives Underway

• Scholarships to the 2024 and 2025 Virtual Women’s Recovery Conference: In collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, the Commission provided 10 scholarships that allowed victim services agency staff to attend the Mountain Area Health Education Center’s May 2024 Virtual Women’s Recovery conference, Finding Balance Amid Constant Change. The Commission also provided 10 scholarships to victim services providers to attend the May 2025 conference, Creating Connections and Transforming Isolation.
• Access to Healthcare Webinar: In May 2025, the Access to Health Services Committee sponsored a webinar titled Navigating Intimate Partner Violence in Healthcare—Impacts, Barriers, and Pathways to Support. Presented by Cassandra Rowe, Director of Health and Housing at the NC Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the training was designed to help medical practitioners, victim service providers, advocates, case managers, and others understand the various health impacts of intimate partner violence (IPV), identify barriers and strategies to addressing IPV in the healthcare setting, and learn how to refer patients to local IPV services. Ninety-three people attended the live webinar and a recording is available on the Commission’s webpage.

• Oversight of DVIPs: The Commission continues to play an active role in overseeing DVIPs across North Carolina. As of April 1, 2025, the Commission had approved 34 programs that serve 66 North Carolina counties. While 34 counties do not have local programs, the Commission’s program guidelines allow for virtual sessions as long as the participants can see one another. This remote option has removed a barrier to attendance at the 26-week program and ensures that all North Carolinians have greater access to this service, regardless of proximity to an approved provider.

  The Commission is considering new innovations for DVIPs based on recommendations from national experts and evidence-based data. In September 2022, the Council for Women and Youth Involvement (CFWYI) and UNC Project RESTART (Restorative, Effective Solutions Toward Accountability, Responsibility and Treatment) received a grant from OSBM’s North Carolina Evaluation Fund to develop a theory- and evidence-informed model DVIP. The grant, which ended in March 2024, enabled the identification and development of valid measures for DVIP outcomes that can be used to assess the effectiveness of a model program and current DVIPs. In addition, the project team worked with the Commission’s DVOM Committee and outside consultants to develop proposed revisions to the North Carolina Administrative Code provisions that govern DVIPs, as well as conforming changes to CFWYI’s Guide to Achieving Recommended Practices.

The proposed Code revisions, which are currently pending review and approval by the Rules Review Commission, would do the following:

• Clarify the goals and purposes of DVIPs.
• Conform with current research and best practices, such as modernizing the language and terminology; allowing the programs’ required contact with an abused partner to be through the victim services agency working with the victim; and expanding the required elements of intake and the treatment curriculum to make them more holistic and culturally competent.
• Encourage innovation by allowing the Commission to waive compliance with certain rules for approved pilot programs, as long as they are consistent with best practices, including protecting and respecting the abused partners’ choices regarding contact with their partner.
• Create new partnerships with a variety of community groups to expand efforts to mitigate intimate partner violence.
• Improve evaluation and measurement outcomes.
• Conform with state and federal law by requiring programs to ensure language access for participants with limited English proficiency and Deaf/DeafBlind/Hard of Hearing participants.
• Require programs to establish policies to assist participants who are unable to pay the programs’ fees.
• Clarify the circumstances under which participants may be terminated from a program and the program documentation that is required when a participant is terminated.
• Provide a new and more specific procedure to govern removal from the approved list and a removed program’s right to seek review of that decision by a committee of the Commission.

• Statistical Briefings and Trend Data: During fiscal year 2023-24, domestic violence victim service providers funded by CFWYI reported serving 55,400 clients, with 8,611 receiving shelter services. From April 2023 through March 2024, 31 approved DVIPs received a total of 2,521 referrals, including 1,505 from judges presiding over criminal and civil cases, 462 from probation and parole, and 470 from the Department of Social Services.

In addition to the annual statistical briefings generated by CFWYI, in March 2025, the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCCADV) published a report based on five years of trend data provided by CFWYI state grantees, as well as domestic-violence homicide related deaths in the state.

Key findings from the report, which examined data between July 2018 and June 2023, include:

• The total number of services provided by CFWYI-funded domestic violence agencies saw a significant increase through the height of the pandemic (increasing 72% between 2018 and 2022). Services provided in 2023 did not fall back to pre-COVID levels, as the total number of services provided in 2023 was still 51% higher than in 2018.
• Similarly, the total number of domestic violence service seekers presenting to CFWYI-funded agencies across the state peaked in 2021-2022 with 75,562 survivors (a 25% increase from 2018). The total number of clients seeking services across the state in 2023 was still 14% higher than in 2018.
• There was a staggering 69.8% increase in the number of domestic violence homicides between 2018 and 2024; there was a slight dip in 2022 before another increase in 2023 and a record 94 cases in 2024.
• From 2018-2022, firearms were involved in 70% of domestic violence homicides. From 2021-2023, this increased to 75%. This increase was seen in parallel with the trend in firearm sales that more than doubled between 2022 and 2023 when the pistol permitting process was repealed.
• CFWYI-funded domestic violence agencies with shelters experienced additional stressors in maintaining shelter capacity while ensuring safety for both residents and staff. During the stay-at-home restrictions in 2020-2021, shelters were full for 133 days across the state.

• Additional Training Under Consideration: The Commission is continually exploring potential topics for training programs. Topics under current consideration include:

  • Programs for primary health care professionals on domestic violence screening, including trauma-informed policies and practices, protocols to ensure safety and confidentiality, and screening for brain injuries.
  • Programs for service providers on standardized shelter admission procedures, creating and enforcing shelter policies, the provision of trauma-informed wrap-around services, and transitional and long-term housing needs.
  • Programs for law enforcement and judicial officials on the dynamics of domestic violence, working with people with substance misuse issues and disabilities, and the use of available legal tools to address domestic violence. Programs for judicial officials involved in child custody proceedings would be required by Jesse’s Law (H896), which survived the legislative crossover deadline.
  • Programs for defense attorneys on criminalized survivors and reentry services for formerly incarcerated women with traumatic brain injuries.
  • Programs for teens and providers that work with teens on domestic violence prevention, identification, and intervention.

The Commission is also exploring potential partnerships with other organizations, such as the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Education and Training Standards Commission and the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission, to ensure the provision of relevant and meaningful training opportunities.

Legislative and Administrative Recommendations

• Secure and stabilize funding that allows domestic violence service providers, including legal service providers for domestic violence victims, to continue serving our communities. Domestic violence service providers need increased funding to help avoid program cuts and reduced capacity in the wake of continued federal funding cuts, expiring American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, and increased community need. Domestic violence service providers and legal service providers for domestic violence victims in North Carolina are at risk of closing their doors or greatly reducing their capacity to serve their communities without additional state or federal funding. The Commission supports the joint request from the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCCADV) and the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault (NCCASA) for additional non-recurring funding to be split equally between domestic violence and sexual assault service providers. While neither version of the 2025 Appropriations Act includes increased appropriations for service providers, both the Senate and House versions of the bill include increases in court fees for marriage licenses and divorce filings, as well as the share of each fee that is directed to the Domestic Violence Center Fund. The details of the fee increases differ in each bill, but both approaches are projected to generate approximately $4 million each year for the Domestic Violence Center Fund.
• Passage of a North Carolina Survivors Justice Act to mitigate the impacts of abuse on criminalized domestic violence survivors. This Act would create an alternative sentencing scheme for survivors who are convicted of a crime that resulted from their experience of domestic violence, human trafficking, or abuse, as well as a resentencing mechanism for survivors who are already incarcerated. It could also expand the definition of the affirmative defense of self-defense to encompass the viewpoint of a reasonable person who has experienced domestic violence, and create a statutory mitigating factor for defendants who were a victim of domestic violence or human trafficking. While S676 was introduced this session and passed first reading in the Senate, the reforms in that bill would not have been as extensive as those recently enacted in some other states and the bill did not survive the crossover deadline. The Commission encourages the General Assembly to continue to consider these critical reforms in future sessions, and notes that New York (2019), Oklahoma (2024), Illinois (2024), and Georgia (2025) have all enacted similar reforms in recent years. Other states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, have worked and/or are actively working on survivor justice legislation.
• Increase affordable housing opportunities for survivors. The Commission supports legislation and policy that increase emergency and long-term affordable housing opportunities for survivors of domestic violence. Survivors across the state struggle to find and maintain affordable housing, which is a major barrier in recovering from and preventing future violence. Relatedly, the Commission notes that pending legislation addressing homelessness—such as H437, which would establish drug-free homeless service zones that apply to domestic violence shelters, and H781, which would require local governments to clear people sleeping unhoused in public—may have unintended negative consequences for victims and survivors.
• Update domestic violence protective order statutory language to ensure all victims of domestic violence in North Carolina can seek relief. The Commission supports common sense changes to our domestic violence protective order statute: (1) ensuring that anyone who is abused in North Carolina can file for a protective order here, regardless of whether they have a primary residence in another state (see S429, which passed the Senate and is pending in the House); and (2) removing unconstitutional, inaccurate statutory language from G.S. 50B-1.
• Provide legal avenues for survivors of economic abuse to eliminate liability for debt incurred via economic abuse. The Commission supports coerced debt relief that would provide an opportunity for domestic violence survivors to eliminate liability for any debt they were forced to incur by threat, coercion, physical force, or fraud. The Commission endorses H515, which has passed the House and is pending in the Senate.
• Allocate designated funding to support domestic violence intervention programming. Funding is needed to offset continued federal funding cuts and provide support, training, and programming for DVIPs to address current violence and prevent future domestic violence perpetration.
• Approve proposed revisions to the Administrative Code governing DVIPs. The Commission urges the Rules Review Commission to approve the proposed revisions to Chapter 17 of Title 01 of the North Carolina Administrative Code, which is the section of the Code that governs DVIPs. These proposed changes are the culmination of months of work by a committee of the Commission and experts in the field and would modernize the Code and better align it with current research and best practices. The Commission approved the proposed revisions, which are described in detail above, at its September 27, 2024 quarterly meeting.

Conclusion

The Domestic Violence Commission acknowledges and appreciates the importance of the General Assembly’s work to address the critical issues of preventing domestic violence and serving victims and survivors in North Carolina. Given the current prevalence of federal funding reductions for victim services, many programs are facing dire challenges in continuing to provide these vital services, and the support of the General Assembly is even more urgent than in years past.

In addition, the Commission wants to emphasize the relationship between domestic violence and the deleterious impacts of Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. Put simply, we must recognize domestic violence for what it is—an emergency. Domestic violence survivors deserve shelter, safety, and resources, just like any survivor of a natural disaster. Hurricane Helene destroyed nearly 1,000 homes in western North Carolina, but natural disasters do more than destroy homes. They destabilize lives. Numerous studies have shown that, in the aftermath of hurricanes, floods, and wildfires, domestic violence increases in both frequency and severity. When communities are under stress, abuse often escalates and survivors are even more vulnerable.

The Commission thanks the General Assembly for its ongoing support of efforts to prevent and address violence, and of the critical work being done by victim service providers across the state.