It’s National Domestic Abuse Assault Awareness Month, and ACCESS Assault Care Center reminds Greene County residents that they provide support for assault victims.
Domestic Violence Services Coordinator for Boone and Greene Counties Alicia Ross says they have a variety of services to support domestic violence victims. Those services include domestic abuse counseling, criminal and civil legal advocacy, shelter and housing assistance, virtual support groups and crisis intervention. She notes that ACCESS works with Greene County law enforcement, if they are contacted, to help those in need after an alleged domestic abuse incident.
Ross believes COVID-19 may have had an impact since mid-March and led to an increased number of calls for domestic violence that she’s recently seen.
“I don’t think we were getting the calls that we normally would have for a few months. I think that’s due in large part because they were at home with their abusers, and weren’t actually able to call us, they weren’t able to meet with us, so it became very difficult. I would say mid-summer our numbers started to go up. So a few months into it, that’s when we started to see more of those people reaching back out. Maybe it was because their partners were returning back to work, or they were creative enough to figure out how to get back in touch with us.”
Ross points out another support system is the Greene County Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She says the Coalition is a network of community members who can provide advocacy, resources and other means of support for domestic abuse survivors.
The ACCESS Domestic Violence Crisis line is 515-292-0519, or you can click the link below for more information about ACCESS.