This article originally appeared in the Jewish Week and was authored by Steve Lipman.

To deal with the growing incidence of domestic violence during the three-month-long Covid-19 pandemic, the Met Council on Jewish Poverty has introduced a new texting service designed to let victims of violence safely report attacks.

Met Council announced on Tuesday that its new Secure Text initiative will allow people subject to any form of abuse — sexual, physical, spiritual, financial, verbal or any other form of domestic abuse or sex trafficking — to contact Met Council caseworkers, trained social workers who will answer the calls.

David Greenfield, the agency’s executive director, said Met Council, which in a usual year handles 700 to 800 family violence cases, has dealt with more than 1,000 so far this year. While the agency assists people from any religious or ethnic background, most of domestic abuse complaints Met Council has received are from the Jewish community, Greenfield said in an interview with The Jewish Week.

The texting number, (917) 540-0225, went into operation this week, and will be available 8 a.m.-midnight, the same hours as Met Council’s extant domestic violence call-in helpline ([212] 453-9592). The new platform was developed and tested as a response to an increase in domestic abuse reports that Met Council has received since March, said Greenfield. “It offers safe and reliable access to all our resources.”The stress caused by people being unemployed and often at home with someone who had already been guilty of abuse “aggravated the situation” and made abuse more likely, Greenfield said.

Previously, calls from abuse victims had been made from workplaces, during normal working hours; since the start of the pandemic, the victims had to make the calls surreptitiously from home, he said, sometimes “whispering” from a bathroom. The Secure Text will make it possible for victims to without fear contact Met Council, which Greenfield called the largest provider of family violence services in the country. “People who were previously afraid to call us will start reaching out to us.

”All calls are confidential, and Met Council does not charge for its services, which include legal, financial and counseling advice.”

Met Council’s family violence helpline can also be reached at [email protected].