(Undated)– October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Stephanie Henrich is the Executive Director of CAASA, an advocacy organization…
“CAASA is Centers Against Abuse and Sexual Assault. We’ve been here for over 40 years. We cover 16 counties in northwest Iowa and we do advocacy support services throughout. We go to hospitals, we respond to law enforcement, go to schools and do prevention, colleges, whatever that looks like. For individuals that are sexually assaulted we are there for them along the way.”
She says, unfortunately, sexual assault is more prevalent in small-town northwest Iowa than we want to believe…
“With covid, you know, and from there we’ve seen just this last year over 210 children of sexual assault. So not only is it adults, it’s children also.”
Henrich says CAASA provides assistance to victims in a number of ways…
“If somebody gets sexually assaulted and goes to the hospital, we respond. We can be there for four hours, eight hours, two days. You just never know what that looks like for them. We also do court, we do depositions, we go into court. That could be a long year of court proceedings that they do. We meet with them in their home, whatever that looks like for them. Some people need us a lot; some people only need us a little bit. Whatever that looks like for their healing services, we do.”
She says they’re also going to hold some training coming later this month. It’s for anyone, but especially for people who want to assist victims. Those who attend will be trained to know how to respond to trauma physically and legally and will also learn about the Iowa VINE Protective Order Notification System, which aims to let clients know of a perpetrator’s whereabouts. CAASA’s Advocacy and Response Training will be held Thursday, October 29th at the Prairie Winds Event Center in Orange City, and will run from 9 am to 3 pm, in partnership with the Iowa Attorney General. For more information, visit the CAASA website, or call 712-363-5042. CAASA’s 24-hour Hope Line is 877-362-4612.
(Courtesy Community First Broadcasting station KIWA in Sheldon)
