The Demand is Rising

On September 15^th Hope House once again took part in the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) Census. This is an annual count of adults and children who seek services from U.S. domestic violence shelter programs during a single 24-hour survey period.

In that same 24-hour period last year, the results showed us that Missouri programs:

• served 2,033 victims.
• provided 1,238 victims emergency shelters or transitional housing.
• provided 795 adults and children non-residential assistance and services such as counselling and legal advocacy.
• answered 515 hotline calls.
• educated 1,410 people in prevention trainings.
• turned away 416 requests for service. 

While the number served is truly amazing, in the entirety of 2009 Missouri programs had to turn away more people than they served due to lack of funding/lack of staff.

I suspect that when the numbers for the 2010 census are released in a few months the picture will be worse.  I am anticipating that we will see more turned away, more numbers served, and a greater demand for services.

Hopefully soon we will see a trend in the opposite direction that will find providers with enough funding to increase their capacity to meet the growing need.

If you want to learn more about the census and what is happening across the country, visit the NNEDV website at www.nnedv.org and click on projects.