October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and organizations across the nation are raising their voices to shed light on this important issue.

Cordelia Heaney is the Executive Director at the Compass Center for Women and Families. She said understanding the prevalence of domestic violence is one of the first steps in helping survivors receive the support they need.

“Nationally we see 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime,” Heaney said. “So we are all touched by this issue.”

Locally, the Compass Center is hosting several events to foster communication, education and advocacy – but that’s not all they’re doing. This month, the Compass Center has opened up its first emergency housing for domestic violence survivors in Orange County.

According to their website, 253 people requested emergency housing in 2019, yet the Compass Center was only able to locally place 15 adults and 5 children in brief hotel stays.

While they helped survivors find safe havens in other counties, the Compass Center never had their own emergency housing – until now.

Orange County has lacked a domestic violence shelter for more than two decades, and the Compass Center has been actively working for the last few years to bridge that gap.

Now, Heaney said the center’s Safe Homes, New Lives campaign has finally raised enough money to provide emergency housing to victims fleeing violence in Orange County.

“This has been part of an amazing community effort to bring emergency housing for domestic violence survivors and their children to Orange County that has not existed in nearly 30 years,” Heaney said.

Under this campaign, the Compass Center will lease various apartments across the county to shelter domestic violence victims for a few days to up to three months. This is known as “scattered housing.”

Heaney said the Compass Center decided on scattered emergency housing – in this case, apartments – over a single shelter for four main reasons. These reasons include providing adequate services that reach all of Orange County, having a long-term sustainable housing model, prioritizing the safety and confidentiality of survivors and to better focus on the healing of clients.

“When we talk to our colleagues who operate traditional shelters, they’ll often tell you that their staff are spending most of their time just managing the interactions between clients and not really getting to do a lot of more supportive services with them,” Heaney said. “Unfortunately having to manage communal living, which most people aren’t familiar with, can sometimes inadvertently recreate these dynamics of power and control of the person they [survivors] have just left.”

After starting its fundraising one year ago, last week the Compass Center reached its goal of raising $675,000 dollars to maintain three apartments over three years with additional staffing. In light of this milestone, they are now working to acquire six apartments – which Heaney said would require about $1.1 million dollars in funding.

“We all want to live in a community that’s free from domestic violence,” Heaney said. “So when we all chip in we get closer to creating that reality.”

For more information on the Compass Center and its services, or to donate to the Safe Homes, New Lives campaign, click here.

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