Family Violence faces hard times

There are currently four individuals from Pine Haven who are receiving assistance from Crook County Family Violence, according to executive director Sandy Stevens, who attended last Tuesday night’s meeting of Pine Haven’s council. She spoke about how the organization has been doing over the past year and sought a donation of $1200 to help in the coming year.

The department included three staff members, director, crisis advocate and prevention education coordinator; however because of budget constraints, they have received a $32,000 cut this year. This reduction has cost the organization the position of coordinator.

“We’re anticipating another 25% cut in July,” Stevens expounded. “That’s basically another staff position. So it’s going to be just me running the agency.” This is more concerning when in the light of the the statute that says the organization must be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Crook County Family Violence served 58 clients during 2020. Of these, 44 were for domestic violence, nine were stalking, two were sexual assault, one was teen dating violence and two were child sexual assaults. They provided 516 services including advocacy, transportation, legal assistance (orders of protection, restraining orders, packets for divorce, etc), providing food and clothing for those residing in the agency’s shelter, 32 nights in hotels and $4500 in financial assistance for victims.

The education offered within communities was severely curtailed due to the pandemic over the last year, according to the director. The agency usually works a lot within the school environment, teaching youth about teen dating violence among other points. They were able, though, to conduct three law enforcement classes.

Stevens also gave seminars regarding victims sheltering during the pandemic with the abusers.

Historically, $125,000 was disseminated to the agency from state and federal funds annually, 25% of which must be matched in kind or cash. The moneys Stevens’ periodically requests from the municipalities is part of that 25%.

Also, the aforementioned shelter is going up for sale in the near future: “We can’t keep up with the cost. Our state and federal funds won’t pay for [that].” People who would normally stay in the facility will be put up in a hotel, said Stevens. “We’ve got some really good hotel owners who have given us some really good deals.”

The town approved giving the agency the budgeted $1200; Stevens said thank you and that she’d be back.