Voices of Hope provides services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and related forms of abuse. Our services are available free to women, men, children, as well as family members, friends, and supporters of victims of these crimes. We have served Lincoln for over 36 years. Until January of 2007 we were known as the Rape/Spouse Abuse Crisis Center.

Last year, we provided face-to-face services to over 2,000 individuals – 94% of whom were women and their children. Our services are focused on providing an immediate response to victims in need of our help and in ensuring the safety of those victims. Services include:

• 24-Hour Crisis Line. Our staff and trained volunteers answer our 24-hour a day crisis line every day of the year. Last year, we answered over 10,000 client-related calls on our crisis line and office phones.
• 24-hour Advocacy in response to calls from hospital emergency rooms or law enforcement for assistance with a victim.
• Daily walk-in services, providing safety planning, assistance with protection orders, short-term counseling, referral to resources.
• Basic needs provision – diapers, toiletries, gas cards, food card, bus ticket out of town, phone cards, etc.
• Support Groups and Short-term Counseling to help victims move forward from the crisis stage through support and information. We offer 6 support groups, including a Spanish-speaking group and one targeted at African American women.
• On-Campus Advocates at UNL and SCC to provide services to students, faculty & staff
• Community Education – We raise awareness and provide education to groups such as social workers, mental health workers, and law enforcement.

Last year, Voices of Hope experienced close to a 10% increase in the number of individuals receiving face-to-face services through our advocacy, walk-in, counseling and support group services. This included:

• Responding to 116 calls from hospitals to help a domestic violence or sexual assault victim.
• Helping more than 687 individuals through our daily walk-in services.
• Providing basic needs to over 350 people.
• Offering direct or indirect services to nearly 500 children.
• Assisting 280 women through our weekly drop-in support groups.
• Answering over 8,000 client-related calls on our crisis line and office phones.

No day is ever the same at Voices of Home nor are the needs of those who come to us for help. We most often see or talk to victims at their time of crisis. Our priority is to assess their safety and determine their most immediate needs, which may be a protection order, transportation to a safe place, money for food, diapers, lock changes, furniture movers, or it may be the most immediate need is for someone to listen and tell you they understand.

A Client’s Story

Last winter, Voices of Hope received a crisis line call from a young woman who was obviously frightened. She was phoning from a pay phone, her three small children were in the car, and she was literally at the end of her rope. Her abusive ex-husband had broken down the door to her mother’s apartment where the woman and her children had been. He raised a commotion and caused damage to the apartment. The mother’s landlord said that the woman and children had to leave or he would kick the mother out.

The woman and her children had been living out of the car for the past two days. She had no more gas. The nights had been cold and she had run the car to keep warm in the night.

After talking with her for a while, the crisis line worker sent one of our advocates to meet with the woman. That night, we were able to pay for a tank of gas for her, find temporary shelter and give her some food cards so the children had something to eat. That night they were able to sleep in a warm place and eat a good meal. We later arranged for the family to stay at an out-of-town shelter. Obviously, they still faced many challenges ahead of them. But on that night, when she felt she had nowhere to turn, Voices of Hope was there and made a difference for her and her children.