Statements

Mission

The mission of the Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault Center (DVSA Center) is to protect victims, prevent violence, and empower survivors. We accomplish that by providing citizens of Rutherford County with the resources and assistance necessary to effectively deal with the personal, social, and legal implications of victimization by domestic violence and sexual assault. DVSA Center has been serving people in Rutherford County for over 35 years. Outreach, education, awareness, and direct client services around the issues of domestic violence and sexual assault are primary focus areas. This includes providing 24-hour crisis lines for domestic violence and sexual assault, emergency safe shelter, court advocacy, counseling, sexual assault hospital accompaniment, on-site sexual assault forensic exams, bilingual services, and follow up services. All services are provided year round to benefit the general welfare of the community and at no cost to the client. No fees are collected for any service we provide.

Background

The Domestic Violence Program of Rutherford County was founded in 1986 and led by Deborah Johnson, who served as the Executive Director for 30 years until her retirement in 2016. What started with a tiny, one room office, with only a desk and a phone, two salaries, and limited services has grown immensely. In 2004 with donated land by the City of Murfreesboro, capital campaign funding from Christy Houston Foundation and other charitable gifts, a 16,000 sq ft emergency safe shelter was built. In 2007, Domestic Violence Program merged with Sexual Assault Services, becoming a dual program that provided hospital accompaniment, counseling, and court advocacy services to victims of sexual assault and stalking, in addition to domestic violence. In 2018, the through a legacy gift from founder, Deborah Johnson, the center was able to purchase a 7,000+ sq ft public office space to expand its capacity to provide innovative and quality victim services. In 2019 the center opened up a Sexual Assault Forensic Exam Room (SAFE Room), an alternative to hospital emergency department assistance, for survivors of sexual assault to receive a sexual assault forensic examination by a trained Sexual Assault Nurse examiner in a supportive and peaceful environment. The center continues to grow and mold to fit the needs of its growing and changing community, to better assist the individuals and families who find themselves in the critical situation of personal violence.

Impact

The Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Center assisted 2684 clients during FY 2020-2021 compared to 2493 the previous FY. 972 were served through hotline services, 126 sheltered, 117 through counseling and sexual assault services and 1469 through court services. In addition, FY 2018-2019 brought many new changes to the organization for expanded and improved services. In October 2018 we moved into and officially began operating out of our new 7,000 sq foot office building. With this new space we added a Sexual Assault Forensic Exam (SAFE) room and began building our forensic exam services. The addition of the SAFE room allows us to quickly address the trauma of sexual assault, increase reporting opportunities, and immediately provide for victim's emotional well-being and sense of safety along with improving access to services. We officially opened the SAFE Room for clients in April, 2019 and anticipate providing around 50 exams within a year. We are currently working to expand hours of service for exams and get out the word in the community. In addition, we received a 3 year federal grant to allow us to initiate a Transitional Housing program to provide up to 2 years of financial assistance and wraparound supportive services for improved safety, health and well-being. In addition to our continued services of crisis lines, emergency shelter, counseling, court advocacy and sexual assault services, we are exploring more opportunities to increase prevention efforts in the community. We have developed a community based day long training 'Summit' to bring awareness about the issues, build skills for effective intervention, response and support and encourage prevention dialogues around healthy relationships. We continue to see a need for services as our population continues to grow. DVSA goals are to: 1) ensure clients served through safe shelter, court advocacy, crisis lines, sexual assault services and counseling are safe from emotional and physical abuse; understand trauma and how it impacts their physical and emotional health and well-being, have access to adequate resources and supportive services and feel empowered to use their voice and personal choices for their physical safety and emotional well-being; 2) implement trauma informed best practices in program services that result in increasing sense of safety, self-efficacy, hope and healing for improved physical and emotional health; 3) increase capacity to provide 24/7 coverage for SAFE room and on-call services; 4) include trauma informed measures into program surveys to assess program delivery, client satisfaction and positive mental and physical health outcomes; 5) research and identify prevention models that would be relevant and compatible to our program capacity; 6) continue building operational capacity for sustainability (including succession planning), strategic partnerships; organizational capacity(staffing).

Needs

Every 20 seconds a person is affected by physical violence by a partner. Increased growth in the Rutherford County community has increased the need for our services. The DVSA Center sees a 5-15% increase in those seeking our critical services year after year. We provide all services free to reduce the barriers of victims needing supportive services to deal with the affects of intimate partner violence, sexual violence and stalking. We rely on grants, fundraising activities and donors to assist us in helping to meet the needs of this very vulnerable population. For in-kind donations to help meet client basic needs, especially for those fleeing violence and seeking safe shelter, we keep an updated list (using Amazon Wish List)on our website--www.dvsacenter.org. Additional on-going needs include: 1. Individuals with expertise in Human Resources, Marketing, Fundraising, Building Management and Accounting/Finance to serve on our board of directors or provide support assistance. 2.Volunteers to assist with special events, administrative services, direct client services and shelter support 4. Financial gifts to supplement unmeet needs of grant funding.

CEO Statement

I am excited to have been selected in December 2019 to serve as the organization's 3rd Executive Director. Deb Johnson, Founding Executive Director retired after 30 years of dedicated service to the organization in October 2016 and our second Director, Karen Lampert, left in October 2019. I am extremely proud of the legacy the organization has in the community as well as the strength of the caring and dedicated staff and board of directors. We have developed strong partnerships and working relationships in the community that allow us to provide the best in trauma informed services. We are proud of our ability to provide Court Advocacy services and Orders of Protection and the growth and expansion of our Sexual Assault Services. Our shelter is one of the larger shelters in the state and one of the few shelters that can adequately accommodate male victims as well as victims with service animals or handicap accessibility needs. I am honored to be a steward in the community and to be a part of the impact of the journey of healing for our survivors.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Human Services  - Family Violence Shelters and Services
Secondary Category:	Crime & Legal - Related  - Spouse Abuse Prevention
Tertiary Category:	Mental Health & Crisis Intervention  - Sexual Assault Services

Areas Served

Our primary service area is Rutherford County, Tennessee, which has seen a huge explosion of growth within the past 10 years. Rutherford County is a mixture of suburban (83%) and rural areas (17%) with diversified employment. Demographic breakdown is predominately white (64%), followed by African American (15%), Hispanic/Latino (3%), and other (American Indian, Asian, etc.) (16%). 80% of clients served are residents of Rutherford County with 20% coming from surrounding counties

TN - Rutherford