In a full lifetime, more than 45% of women and 35% of men will experience intimate partner violence.
And in 2023, this isn’t something that’s unfortunate. It’s systemic, and a troubling trend in need of being addressed and corrected.
Last Wednesday in Frankfort’s capitol rotunda, state officials took another step in that direction — signing a proclamation declaring October as “Domestic Violence Awareness” Month, while announcing a $2.5 million federal grant bolstering the Commonwealth’s sexual assault kit and testing program.
Alongside Governor Andy Beshear and First Lady Britainy Beshear for the measures were Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman, ZeroV CEO Angela Yanelli, OASIS Executive Director Andrea Robinson and 3rd District State Senator Whitney Westerfield.
Serving Christian, Todd and Logan counties, Westerfield noted programs like Sanctuary, Inc., and the 15 or so other domestic violence and sexual abuse shelters in Kentucky “need every extra dollar” of support.
Why? Because in 2022, an idea was floated to him — an idea that eventually turned into Senate Bill 271.
The legislation, which passed with “flying colors,” asked for the Criminal Justice Statistical Analysis Center to produce a report highlighting a number of harrowing state statistics, including domestic violence fatalities, volumes of domestic violence and abuse, reports of dating violence and abuse from Kentucky State Police, and other indicators from the Cabinet of Health and Family Services, the Kentucky State Medical Examiner’s Office, county coroner’s offices, and more.
The first such readout was due this past July 1, but was discussed publicly for the first time last month, in a session of the Interim Joint Committee on Judiciary.
Westerfield said in this first account, more than 1,200 individuals across the state — an average of more than 10 per county — were turned away in the last 12 months.
“Problem” is an understatement.
In the last year, and according to a 2022 Domestic Violence Data Report through the Commonwealth:
— More than 38,700 electronic JC-3 forms, necessary for abuse and violence content, were filed
— More than 8,800 domestic-violence related arrests were made
— More than 16,400 emergency protective orders were delivered by KSP
— More than 16,000 people received services from ZeroV’s 15 regional domestic violence programs
— And more than 21,200 crisis/hotline calls were received at those same regional sites
Westerfield further noted the $2.5 million certainly helps, as federal dollars toward combating domestic violence have trended downward in the last five years.
And he commended the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence re-branding to “ZeroV” — meaning “zero violence.”
Specifically, the $2.5 million comes from the U.S. Department of Justice, and allows for KSP’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative investigative team to hire addition personnel dedicated to testing assault kits and improving data collection for better efforts on predator identification. It also provides dollars to the Louisville Metro Police Department, allowing the hiring of joint KSP personnel for a study of sexual assault kit data.
Located at 210 E 9th Street in Hopkinsville, Sanctuary, Inc., officials can also be reached by phone at (270) 885-4572.
If it is a medical or police emergency, dial 911.
