Orange County lacks a domestic violence shelter, but it's working to open one

Orange County doesn’t have a shelter for victims of domestic violence, but members of the community are working to open one.

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

One in three women and one in four men experience some form of physical violence by an intimate partner, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Victims of domestic violence in Orange County have resources they can use to get help, but lack access to a shelter.

Amily McCool, North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence advocate, said economic reasons could explain the lack of a domestic violence shelter in Orange County.

“For instance, the General Assembly has not increased the amount that the domestic violence programs get in years,” McCool said.

“They’re still doing the best that they can with the same amount of money, despite an increase in demand for their services and a downturn in the economy — I think it’s really hard for a lot of our programs trying to expand services when they don’t have expand money.”

While Orange County does not have a domestic violence shelter, the Compass Center, which is located in Chapel Hill, assists many domestic violence victims.

The Compass Center offers many services, including a 24-hour domestic violence hotline, safety planning, emotional support, court advocacy, emergency hotel placement, support groups, referrals, abuse education and in-person visits for victims during regular business hours.

The Compass Center is one of three domestic violence related community organizations partnering with the UNC School of Social Work and is currently conducting a needs assessment and feasibility study for a domestic violence shelter in Orange County.

The school is also collaborating with UNC Hospitals’ Beacon Program and the Orange County Rape Crisis Center.

Ardith Burkes, associate director of the Compass Center, said the center is putting together a study to gather data on the county’s needs and look at innovative sheltering practices across the country and how to implement them.

She said it’s expensive to open a shelter and the center wants the community to come together to make a decision about what the county can provide in terms of sheltering.

“We really think of sheltering as not just emergency shelter, but what we find is that victims who are choosing to leave their abusive relationship really need a whole series of assistance with housing; they need the emergency shelter for safety and regrouping, and then they need transitional housing and then they need long-term, affordable housing,” Burkes said.

“So the emergency shelter is just one piece of a long-term puzzle of housing for victims and their children — if they have children — in order to live self-sufficiently.”

The study began in early 2016 and is expected to end in early 2017.

The researchers conducting the study are holding focus groups with survivors of domestic violence in Orange County and with providers of domestic violence support to assess the need in the area.

They are also sending out community-wide surveys to organizations that can be connected to domestic violence.

“I think domestic violence shelters are a usual practice — a recommended practice — that many communities, not only here in North Carolina but in the United States, have,” said Rebecca Macy, co-principal investigator for the study.

“I think it’s just notable that we don’t have a shelter.”

Macy said a shelter may or may not be the best route for Orange County to take in terms of assisting domestic violence victims.

“We want to use this needs assessment as an opportunity to think not only about the needs, but the strength of the community and how we might be innovative, because a lot of exciting things are going on here in Orange County,” Macy said. “People are interested in the issue and want to be supportive and helpful — this may be a good time, in terms of energy, to try something new.”

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