Last time, I looked at a few state-wide resources in Missouri and Kansas, but this week, I’d like to talk briefly about three resources that we have right here in the community. For starters, we have a good list of local resources here on the UMKC Women’s Center website, and I’m using this resource to find the organizations I will highlight below.
Hope House is a local organization which helps thousands of domestic violence victims every year by providing two 52-bed shelters, awareness training and community outreach, court advocacy, an emergency hotline, and other useful services. They have been serving the Kansas City Metro for 26 years now. You can friend them on Facebook through the Women’s Center Facebook profile.
Mattie Rhodes Center has been serving the community for 115 years now. Here’s their mission statement: “Mattie Rhodes Center bridges cultures and communities through arts, mental health and social services. We empower individuals and families through culturally competent, bilingual services in a respectful and compassionate environment.” As for services, the center seems to focus more on tackling issues of mental health related to domestic and sexual violence, as well as intervention. They also provide a substance abuse prevention and treatment program, along with other valuable services.
Rose Brooks Center helps thousands of people every year who are affected by domestic violence by offering a full-spectrum approach from prevention to crisis intervention to various forms of treatment. Like Hope House, they also offer court advocacy and child programming and emergency shelter.
These are just a few of the organizations that you’ll find at the Women’s Center resource page for Domestic and Sexual Violence. Each of them plays an important part in the effort to stamp out domestic and sexual violence in our community. I encourage our readers to check out these, and other organizations. It’s a real eye-opener. If each of these organizations are helping thousands (or, more like tens of thousands) within our community, it is easy to see what a difficult challenge we face.