How to get help if you're a victim
• Call 1-800-794-4624.
• Visit the Options website at help4abuse.org.Options has a free face-to-face chat.
• Text the word HOPE to 847411 to open a text with an Options advocate.All of those services are available 24 hours a day.
• You can also visit the offices in Hays, 2716 Plaza Ave., or Colby, 1480 W. Fourth St. No appointment is needed.
By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Options Domestic and Sexual Violence Services is facing a $200,000 funding shortfall this year because of grant cuts.
Although the agency has cut $140,000 from its budget, it still faces a $60,000 deficit this year, Jennifer Hecker, Options executive director, said.
“We have deferred some hiring. We have taken some positions and collapsed them together,” she said. “We've made several other cuts as any good steward of money does.
“We're looking where we can cut the fat, and we have cut $140,000. But that last 60,000 is something that we really need to make sure that we're able to provide those direct services. That's the money we haven't been able to replace yet.”
Options serves 18 Kansas counties, including Ellis County, with offices in Hays and Colby. That area covers from Russell County to the Colorado border and from the Nebraska border to Wallace County.
Some of the direct services that could be affected by the funding shortfall are helpline services, staffing to help victims fill out police reports, and staff to accompany victims to court or sexual assault nurse exams.
“It could also mean that we run low on funds when our shelter is full, and we have been full to the rafters and overflowing into hotels for most of the year,” Hecker said. “And so that $60,000 gap could also really be affecting our ability to put people in hotels and keep them safe.”
Hecker said the cuts came from a combination of federal and state cuts. The agency’s Victims of Crime Act grant, its largest grant, is now very small, Hecker said.
Despite the gap, Hecker said the agency will never turn anyone away.
“We will do everything we can to make sure. But in reality, what that can mean is a delayed response if we don't have enough staff to provide the help. Someone may have to wait hours or days to get the help that they need, and for some people, that can be devastating,” she said.
Options also helps pay rent for some victims who have recently left their abusers. Hecker said Options might not be able to provide that assistance if it can’t make up the funding shortfall.
Although Options is facing cuts, the demand for their services is increasing.
“Even though nationally crime has gone down, domestic violence, violent crime, has increased,” Hecker said.
“In fact, right now, more than a fourth of all murders in Kansas are related to domestic violence. It's one in four. That's astonishing that all other kinds of crime can go down, but gender-based violence is increasing.”
Hecker said domestic violence does not only affect adult victims. In many cases, children are involved as well. Responding to domestic violence cases can also be dangerous for law enforcement.
“It is not a secret in the law enforcement community that responding to a domestic violence incident is one of the most dangerous things that an officer can do, and unfortunately, we saw that happen in real life in our community, and it was devastating,” Hecker said.
Hecker said domestic violence seems to be hitting rural areas especially hard right now.
“I think there are a lot of factors, and while the economy and drinking and things like that do not cause domestic violence, they can ramp up the stress that people are feeling,” she said. “And the farm economy is not great. That means a lot of stress in communities where people are already isolated and have very few resources.”
Hecker repeated Options will not turn victims away.
“I was in a meeting the other day, and someone asked, ‘How do you plan for that?’” Hecker said. “And I probably said the worst financially smart thing I could say, which is, ‘I don't know.’ We bring them in, and then we figure that part out later. And so far, it's worked.”
How can I help?
“I tell people the first thing to do when someone they know discloses violence is to believe them,” Hecker said.
“Very often, the very first response that someone gets from someone when they disclose dictates how they're going to move forward, and if that first response is disbelief, is minimizing, is asking them what they did to make the other person hurt them, that certainly makes a victim back up from those services.”
You can volunteer with Options. You can learn more by calling 785-625-4202.
“We have a county ambassador program, and so we are looking for someone in each community to be the local voice for Options and the services that we provide, so that everyone in the community knows that there's a place to go,” Hecker said.
How do I donate?
Bring a check in person to one of the Options offices: Hays, 2716 Plaza Ave., or Colby, 1480 W. Fourth St.
Donate online at help4abuse.org.
You can make a one-time donation or sign up for a monthly contribution.
Donations are tax-deductible.