A MORNING HUG - Robert Duncan, Artisit
THE FAMILY CRISIS INTERVENTION CENTER
The Family Crisis Intervention Center, founded in 1977 in Parkersburg, takes care of the needs of our neighbors inflicted with Domestic Violence in 8 counties.The purpose of The Family Crisis Intervention Center is to advocate and support social change that will result in non-violent relationships, homes and communities. As we work toward this social change, the Center provides public education, direct services, a haven, and programs related to the issues of domestic and sexual violence. Services are provided in the West Virginia counties of Calhoun, Jackson, Pleasants, Ritchie, Roane, Tyler, Wirt and Wood. Direct services provided to persons who are experiencing domestic and sexual violence are: shelter, 24-hour hotline (Call our 24 hour hot line: 1.800.794.2335 or 1.304.428.2333), counseling, legal advocacy, parenting education, transitional housing, and an eight county outreach program.
Domestic violence and emotional abuse are behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other. Partners may be married or not married; heterosexual, gay, or lesbian; living together, separated or dating.
SHE CALLED IT DOMESTIC HORROR
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Time after time, news reports tell the same sickening story: A raging West Virginia man kills his estranged wife or girlfriend, then kills himself. Domestic violence protective orders often don't prevent this senseless, self-destructive, insane-seeming tragedy. It recurs so regularly, it's hardly news any more.
A different version happened April 21 at Morgantown. Nathan Mitchell told his estranged mate, Shannon Stafford, to park at a Wal-Mart and wait for him to bring their two-year-old daughter for an overnight visit. As Stafford sat in her car, Mitchell's father arrived and allegedly gunned her to death. Nearby shoppers subdued him until police arrived. Now the father is charged with murder.
Friends of the dead young woman have launched a "Justice for Shannon Stafford" Facebook page, which has 2,000 participants. The site was created by Kristin Thompson, who says she previously suffered an abusive relationship with Mitchell.
Long accounts of this nightmare have been written by Morgantown news reporter Daleen Berry, herself once a victim of domestic horror. She told her personal story in a book, Sister of Silence, and is writing a follow-up volume on domestic murders, Lethal Silence.
This state's Coalition Against Domestic Violence says "over two-thirds of women murdered in West Virginia are killed by a family or household member" -- and that "approximately 37 percent of women seeking injury-related treatment in hospital emergency rooms are there because of injuries inflicted by a current or former spouse/partner" -- and that "15,278 domestic violence cases were filed in West Virginia family courts in 2009."
West Virginia has numerous battered women shelters. Repeatedly, the Legislature has passed more safeguards in an attempt to reduce brutality within the home -- but deaths and injuries continue. As we've said before, state leaders should appoint a commission to seek additional cures for this curse, and legislators should pass them.
WE ARE NOW LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/edit?trk=tab_pro
"I never intended to become a run-of-the-mill person." ~Barbara Jordan
DONATIONS AND GIFTS
The generous people who donate to the Family Crisis Intervention Center serving 8 counties, know that when they give to us, what they are really giving with their money is the gift of hope. If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to support the work of the Center, please feel free to contact us at the Parkersburg, WV office during regular business hours. Also check the calendar of events for special fund raising activities that you can attend to support our services as well as join in the festivities of the event.
There are several ways you can give to the Family Crisis Intervention Center.
Your contributions provide crisis services, counseling services, emergency shelter, and transitional housing for victims of domestic and sexual violence as well as violence prevention education for adults and youth in order to give the tools necessary to end the cycle of violence. Donations play an important role in providing hope and opportunity for the more than 1,700 victims/survivors served annually (2011 figures).
Give a gift in honor or memorial of someone special in your life.
Planned gifts help to ensure a strong future for our programs. Charitable Gift Annuities provide life time income to the donor, a tax deduction and funds for the Family Crisis Intervention Center (guaranteed by a highly rated insurance company).
The Family Crisis Intervention Center also gratefully accepts in-kind donations for food drives, school supply drives and the holiday gift giving programs. You can contact the main office for information regarding these programs. In addition, used items that are in good shape for re-sale can be donated to the Center. If you would like to donate items, you can call at 1.800.794.2335 or 304.428.2333.
We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and -- in spite of True Romance magazines -- we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely -- at least, not all the time -- but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.
~Hunter S. Thompson
THE KIDS FIRST PROGRAM
A Child Exchange and Monitored Visitation Center is under the direction of the Family Crisis Intervention Center, a licensed domestic violence program. The Visitation Centers are annually certified through the State of West Virginia Family Protection Services Board for Monitored Parenting and Exchange Programs. The Kids First Program operates in Jackson, Ritchie, Roane, and Wood counties.
The Kids First Programs provide families a child-focused and friendly environment, where children can be free from tensions and stresses that may be part of exchanges and visitations, by eliminating contact between parents during exchanges and visitations.
Parents participating in our program have been court-ordered by Magistrate Court, Department of Health and Human Resources, Family Court or Circuit Court. The centers must have a copy of the signed court order before our intake process can begin. This process includes meeting with each parent separately, having the children come to the center to meet our staff and see the facility, and then beginning the exchanges or monitored visitations.
There are many reasons why parents are court-ordered to use our services: divorce, custody disputes, allegations of child abuse or neglect, lack of contact by the non-custodial parent with the child, separation issues for the child, history of family violence, or drug or alcohol problems.
We provide two types of services:
Child Exchange – The custodial parent brings his or her child (ren) to the center, signs them in, and then leaves. Fifteen minutes later, the non-custodial parent arrives and signs the child (ren) out, taking them for an evening or weekend visit.
Monitored Visitation – This service is the same, as the child exchange except the non-custodial parent is required to stay at the center. The visiting parent must stay inside the center for the duration of the visit. The staff individually monitors all visitations.
We can only provide one monitored visit per week per family. We can provide as many exchanges as needed during our operating hours. Currently there is no charge for these services.
Kids First Program. 2601 Dudley Avenue # 2. Parkersburg, WV 26101-2649
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND ABUSE HELP LINKS
http://www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactSheet(National).pdf
http://www.preventchildabusewv.org/links.html
http://www.preventchildabusewv.org/partners-in-prevention.html
http://www.facebook.com/pages/FCIC-The-Family-Crisis-Intervention-Center-Parkersburg-WV/209269512424657
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=172105094&trk=tab_pro
http://www.feminist.com/resources/ourbodies/viol_incest.html
http://www.domesticviolencecrimewatch.com/
FOR HELP: Call our 24 hour hot line: 1.800.794.2335 or 304.428.2333.
"In my darkest hour both broken and bruised I didn't know how I would cope or heal. I found a place of hope and encouragement, and I found it within the walls of the FCIC. It was there I recovered and gained strength, and they gave me the greatest gift of all...a helping hand at obtaining my independence and freedom. May god bless this wonderful haven, and those who reside and work within it."
~Celena Roby, Author of Celena's Law
It is clear that the way to heal society of its violence... and lack of love is to replace the pyramid of domination with the circle of equality and respect.
~Manitonquat
I AM ME, AND I AM OKAY!
I am Me. In all the world, there is no one else exactly like me.
Everything that comes out of me is authentically mine, because I alone chose it.
I own everything about me: my body, my feelings, my mouth, my voice, all my actions, whether they be to others or myself. I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes.
Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By so doing, I can love me and be friendly with all my parts.
I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me, and other aspects that I do not know -- but as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and ways to find out more about me. However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is authentically me.
If later some parts of how I looked, sounded, thought, and felt turn out to be unfitting, I can discard that which is unfitting, keep the rest, and invent something new for that which I discarded.
I can see, hear, feel, think, say, and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me.
I own me, and therefore, I can engineer me.
I am me, and I am Okay.
ARE YOU ONE IN EVERY FOUR?
One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. Almost one-third of female homicide victims that are reported in police records are killed by an intimate partner.
1.800.794.2335 or 1.304.428.2333.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE A THREAT TO FAMILY LIFE
Pick any day at random and almost 600 men, women and children turn to the West Virginia Coalition Against Domestic Violence for help. Locally, our shelter served 43 more individuals last month then the year before.
In fact, in WV a special hotline handling domestic turmoil averages a call every seven minutes.
What’s more, one-third of all murders in West Virginia are engulfed in domestic violence.
ASKING FOR HELP
The only time we have a right to seek help as a non-profit, is when we feel we have done the job we set out to do when the by-laws of the Center were filed. Since 1977 we have been doing the job with honor and dignity. The testimonials abound. The results ... heart warming. The devotion ... intense.
Your donation will put a mother at ease, build a womans self esteem, help a child sleep with out fear and protect a mans dignity.
Domestic Violence does not discriminate. It is an equal opportunity destroyer.
To donate time or money call 1.800.794.2335 or 1.304.428.2333.
Each individual has a 'principled core' within his or her being, that can never be negotiated out.
~Barbara Charline Jordan (February 21, 1936 – January 17, 1996)
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE STATS CLIMB IN 2012
PARKERSBURG - Crime statistics for the first quarter of 2012 reveal a significant decreases in battery and alcohol-related crimes, but incidents of domestic violence continue to climb, according to the Wood County Sheriff's Office.
Compared to the first quarter of 2011, incidents of battery this year have decreased by more than 50 percent, while alcohol-related offenses have decreased by nearly 75 percent, the WCSO reported.
Burglaries and larcenies also decreased slightly.
Sheriff Jeff Sandy credits the decrease with increased patrols and crime prevention outreach initiatives.
Crimes of domestic violence continue to rise. During the first quarter of 2010, there were only 16 domestic violence crimes reported. In the first quarter of 2011, 45 were reported. The number increased to 66 domestic violence crimes in January, February and March of 2012.
The significant increase may be an indication that more women are reporting domestic violence crimes, said Sandy.
The WCSO has stepped up efforts in the past two years to fight domestic violence by assigning a deputy to the cases, spreading awareness and increasing education efforts.
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. Around 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year.
Historically, females have been most often victimized by someone they knew. Females who are 20-24 years of age are at the greatest risk of non-fatal intimate partner violence, said Sandy.
In 2010, 29 people lost their lives to domestic violence in West Virginia.
Sandy urged those who are victims of domestic violence to speak out and report it to police.
Who overcomes by force hath overcome but half his foe.
~John Milton, Paradise Lost, 1667
MOTIVATION POEM BY JOHANNA OROZCO
It is only through Pain that we discover
What we truly are made of
Through the scars, blood, and tears
We find our inner truth
We realize we fall from loves good graces
Only to walk Through the burning sands of time
We as Victims, No...We as SURVIVORS
Pray for the pain to be taken from
Our shattered souls
And heard on deaf ears We must RISE to our Feet
And realize that we are Unique We are Powerful
And we must come to the conclusion
That pain can only make us STRONGER
So I say, Wipe those tears From your eyes
And Embrace what has gotten you Here,
The Pain of Love, and the Fear
A SAMPLE OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS RESULTS RADIO RUNS FOR OUR CENTER
FAMILY CRISIS INTERVENTION CENTER / DOM VIOL 2012 // 002
30 SECOND PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
SFX: SOFT JAZZ
ANNCR: Domestic violence should not happen to anybody! Ever. Period. But it does - and when it does … there is help. The Family Crisis Intervention Center in Parkersburg provides domestic violence outreach services, a shelter, individual counseling, legal advocacy, a support group, parenting classes and much more. If you need help … call the hotline at 1-800-794-2335. If you want to help us financially call 304-428-2333. Or visit Facebook @ F C IC or Twitter f c I c 4 love. For the love of humanity make your philanthropic donations today.
The Donation in air time amounts to over $90,000 a year. Thank you 95.1 WXIL, Froggy99, The Bear 103.1, Z-106, WADC-AM-1059 & WVNT-AM-1230.
Would other media outlets be willing to help? Let us know: personaldignity@gmail.com
We challenge the culture of violence when we ourselves act in the certainty that violence is no longer acceptable, that it's tired and outdated no matter how many cling to it in the stubborn belief that it still works and that it's still valid.
~Gerard Vanderhaar
They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.
~Mahatma Gandhi
