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of the Carolina W omen’s Center, and the Education Director of the <br />Compass Center for W omen and Families – or their representativ es – <br />to join me in a post-show talkback. <br />To further extend the community impact of the performance following <br />the festiv al, this grant would allow me to offer a liv e show or <br />screening of Sometimes I Sing (with talkback) to the W omen's Center <br />and Compass Center, as well as to the Chapel Hill Police Department <br />Crisis Unit, and Pathways to Change in Hillsborough. This project <br />would be the first step in an ongoing community partnership with <br />these organizations, using performance to directly and indirectly <br />adv ocate for and to help raise surv iv ors’ v oices. <br />Community Impact Sometimes I Sing – as a public performance or a digital screening – <br />allows its audiences both historical distance and emotional <br />immediacy in grappling with a difficult topic. I believ e that its use as a <br />resource would help make surv iv ors of intimate partner v iolence <br />more easily seen and more readily heard, perhaps ev en by their <br />abusers in rehabilitation programs. <br />In her May 26 News and Observ er article, Tammy Grubb states: <br />“Some abusers hav e used COVID-19 to tighten the reins, telling <br />partners they can’t leav e because of stay-at-home orders…” She <br />asserts “238 people were referred to [the Orange County Sheriff’s <br />Office v ictims serv ices] from March 1 to May 12…including from <br />Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. Requests at the Compass <br />Center for emergency housing more than doubled…Civ il no-contact <br />orders also grew.” <br />In an August 13 NC Policy W atch article, Joe Killian reports, “Police <br />departments across the state are reporting an uptick in domestic <br />v iolence calls.” He states that “…many places where abuse is first <br />detected…are shut down...to slow the spread of the coronav irus. The <br />result: long-running domestic v iolence may be getting worse and new <br />cases are going undetected and unreported.” <br />That’s why it seems v ital to reach out to local agencies dealing with <br />v ictims of domestic v iolence. As an artist, activ ist and scholar, I <br />striv e to build bridges to marginalized indiv iduals and at-risk <br />communities using performances that address their experiences and <br />concerns. By offering Sometimes I Sing as a resource, I am aiming to <br />build relationships with social agencies, indiv iduals and <br />organizations that assist v ictims of domestic v iolence as a way to <br />support the surv iv ors themselv es. This project begins on the UNC <br />campus and then reaches out into Orange County – and hopefully <br />beyond. The Raleigh-based W omen’s Theatre Festiv al is also <br />considering how it could help prov ide Sometimes I Sing as a <br />liv e/digital resource throughout the Triangle. <br />The Compass Center for W omen and Families serv es ov er 5,000 <br />clients a year. The Carolina W omen’s Center opens its doors to <br />nearly 30,000 students. Pathways to Change has graduated ov er a <br />hundred participants from its Strong Father Program, and serv ed <br />DocuSign Envelope ID: 695A1714-C7AB-4D4B-8382-68F21FCD9EA9