Company Name: The Victim Center

Person in Charge (and title): Tara Benson, Executive Director

Year founded: 1976

Tell us about the history of your business:

The Victim Center was founded in 1976 as the Rape Crisis Center, and at the time, it only provided crisis intervention services to adult victims of sexual assault.

In 1980, The Victim Center developed a school-based prevention education program that was adopted by the Springfield Public Schools and continues today.

In 1984, services expanded beyond the initial scope to include individual counseling for victims of sexual assault and their families. In 1988, the agency’s name changed to the Rape Crisis and Sexual Abuse Center, which expanded services to include sexually abused children and their non-offending parents.

The agency’s services continued to expand, and by 1991, it became the Missouri Victim Center, which provided services to all men, women, and child victims of violent or sexual crimes.

In 1997, the agency’s name changed to The Victim Center to avoid confusion with state agencies. Today it continues to provide comprehensive services to all victims within southwest Missouri.

This year, we are proud to celebrate our 50th Anniversary of serving victims in southwest Missouri through our comprehensive, unlimited and free-of-charge services to all victimizations.

Describe the services your organization provides and what makes you unique:

The Victim Center provides free-of-charge services to victims of violent and/or sexual crimes through 24-hour crisis response, individual and group counseling, personal advocacy, and court support. The Victim Center also provides school and community-based education and training.

We serve any person who has experienced family violence, sexual violence, stalking, child sexual abuse, human trafficking, armed robbery, kidnapping, or the impact of homicide. We also serve survivors of DWI crashes, childhood trauma, and all other violent or sexual crimes.

Advocacy

The Victim Center operates a 24-hour hotline service and provides trained Volunteer Victim Advocates or professional staff members to be available on a 24-hour, seven day a week basis for telephone support and immediate crisis intervention, including hospital and/or police station accompaniment, crisis counseling, and referral services when appropriate.

· Advocates on-call 24-hours a day

· Availability to talk on the phone

· Availability to meet at the hospital or police department

Additional advocacy services include interacting with law enforcement agencies, medical personnel, social service agencies, and the civil and/or criminal justice system on behalf of the victim or their family.

· Safety Planning

· Emergency Ex Parte order of protection

· Assistance obtaining community resources and referrals

· Court, hospital, and law-enforcement accompaniment

Mental Health

The Victim Center provides individual, family, couple, and mental health therapy services for all victims of sexual or violent crime.

· Trauma-based counseling for individuals and families (adults, teens, and children).

· Healing Together Classes for parents of teens or children who have experienced trauma.

· Intro to Healing class offering coping skills for those waiting to receive therapy services.

· Sexual Assault Survivor Group: For adult survivors of rape, child sexual abuse, or sexual assault.

· LGBTQ+ Working Through Trauma: For any individual 18+ who identifies as LGBTQ+ and has experienced a violent or sexual crime in their lifetime.

· Art Therapy Group: For survivors who want to learn how to use art as a tool for healing.

Prevention Education

· We are proud to partner with local schools including Springfield Public Schools to provide prevention education to students in grades K-5.

· Our programs help students identify safe adults, understand healthy boundaries, recognize unsafe situations, and know they should keep telling until someone listens.

· Last year, our prevention educator presented to 12,689 students in 620 classrooms in six counties.

Tell us something people might not know about your organization:

We are the only agency in our area providing services to all victimization. Additionally, we offer these services not only to primary victims, but also secondary victims such as family members, guardians, or witnesses to crimes.