During my first campaign to represent House District 24 in the Colorado General Assembly, I vowed that I would use my office to create more pathways for survivors of domestic violence to escape abusive relationships and dangerous situations. As a survivor of domestic abuse and a former-homeless, single mother myself, this was an issue that was especially close to my heart.
I thought I’d take this opportunity to outline a program we’ve started to put in motion to empower survivors to make the changes they need to be safe and the work we have left to do to make it a reality. In 2019 we passed Senate Bill 188, which I sponsored alongside my friend and colleague Rep. Matt Gray. This law created an outline and implementation schedule to create the foundation for a strong, robust paid family leave policy for Colorado workers and businesses by 2024.
My vision for the program that will eventually be borne from our efforts includes a robust safe-time component, which is the specific provision that will change the lives of people experiencing domestic violence and other abuses. In a general sense, safe time is paid leave that can be used during instances of domestic violence, veterans’ mental health issues, sexual assault, child and elder abuse, or even instances of stalking. Safe time empowers people who are in dire, dangerous situations to take the time they need to seek help from loved ones, law enforcement, or medical professionals to remedy the situation they are in without putting themselves in a precarious financial position.
The decision to either put yourself and your children at risk of homelessness or food insecurity or stay in a violent home is an impossible one, and one that I think families in Colorado should never have to make. I would know — I’ve had to make that difficult decision myself. Finding yourself in a domestic violence situation is indescribably difficult. I want to make safe time a guarantee in our state as an important step forward in removing the barriers that keep people in these perilous positions.
Our work to make this program and this important protection a reality has only just begun. SB 188 created a task force to work on studying the various components of an effective and sustainable family leave program. That task force will make recommendations to the legislature. Over the past few months, the task force members have been having important conversations about how to make paid family, medical, and safe-time a reality for Coloradans.
The task force has requested and received input from a wide array of stakeholders and citizens and will use these points of view to inform the decisions that we make in the next legislative session to make our state’s paid leave program a reality.
I am proud and thankful that I was able to get myself and my children out of an abusive situation all those years ago, and I am grateful to all of the people who helped me along the way. Now, I’m determined to use the position that my constituents have entrusted me with to create a system that lends a helping hand to anyone who finds themselves in similar danger.
Colorado state Rep. Monica Duran is a survivor of domestic abuse and one of the lead sponsors of the Family Medical Leave Insurance Program that has not become law in Colorado but that is the subject of study before the 2020 legislative session.
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