Imagine this scenario:
You have a friend who tells you that her husband yells and puts her down constantly, telling her she is ugly, not worthy and that she could never make it on her own because she has no job and no money. The abuse isn’t physical, so she feels stuck, but she clearly needs someone to listen.
What resources could you offer her?
Heather Lancaster, executive director for Sanctuary Inc., provided a few necessary answers to the Cadiz Rotary Club this past Tuesday.
Serving the counties of Caldwell, Christian, Crittenden, Hopkins, Livingston, Lyon, Muhlenberg, Todd and Trigg for the last 40 years, Lancaster noted that for women, there are five in-person offices in Hopkinsville, Madisonville, Elkton, Greenville and Eddyville — with a safe shelter at a discreet location in Christian County.
At these locations, Lancaster said the biggest goal is to serve victims of sexual assault and domestic violence in the healthiest ways possible — beginning with listening, and ending with loving.
These services, Lancaster pointed, are wide in variety. They introduce and offer individual and family therapy, conduct emergency shelter services for those in the Pennyrile and with other sister agencies across the Commonwealth, provide temporary and ongoing case management, make available transitional and permanent housing support, initiate legal medical advocacy, posit referrals and resources, and influence current and future generations with education and prevention programming.
What’s more: while these avenues are typically taken by undisclosed women in dire times of need, Lancaster said Sanctuary has, and will continue to serve, battered men.
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the US — equating to more than 10 million women and men annually nationwide. One in four women and one in nine men will experience severe intimate partner physical violence, contact sexual violence, and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetime. This can lead to injury, fearfulness, PTSD, the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases, and in the worst cases: death.
And, of course, not all abuse is physical with the victim. Over the last four years, Lancaster said Sanctuary’s primary focus has been the offering of new and enhanced services, including pet protection, rape and sexual assault connections from local and regional hospitals, and the implementation of a growing spiritual enrichment program.
The “Green Dot” program, Lancaster added, is in partnership with the Hopkinsville-Christian County Public Library, and it prepares high school-aged children for better behaviors.
In Sanctuary’s last reportable year, the not-for-profit had 132 adults and 29 children in shelter, serviced more than 3,000 24/7 crisis hotline calls, conducted more than 3,600 counseling and therapy sessions, made more than 1,000 court accompaniment appearances and more than 20 medical accompaniments, and boarded six pets belonging to victims.
Furthermore, Sanctuary Inc. is moving its shelter. Lancaster said they took this last year to outline what such a move would require, and it eventually led to the appraisal and listing of its current shelter this past December.
Anna Daniel, victims advocate for Todd and Trigg counties, offered up some sociological introspection on how she often gets referrals for Cadiz clients in need.
More often than not, it’s through Main Street Liquors.
The crisis hotline number: 1-800-766-0000. The business line for scheduling programs: (270) 885-4572. One can also access assistance online at thesanctuaryinc.com, or through Facebook or Instagram accounts.
