Having been in Franklin County for more than fifteen years, Safeplace has been paving the way for change for domestic violence victims and their families all over north Alabama.
“It is important for people to know how fortunate we are to have a domestic violence program office here in our county,” said associate director Ginger Stone. “We’re located in the Russellville First United Methodist Church basement. It is a very safe and convenient place for the victims we serve.”
The Franklin County office is just one of two satellite offices. The other satellite office is located in Moulton, while the central office is located in Lauderdale County. The Franklin County office serves six counties: Colbert, Franklin, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Marion and Winston.
“Franklin is very central to these counties,” Stone said. “This is a key office, because we are right in the center.”
Although there are six counties, there is only one shelter in a non-disclosed location within one of those counties to help victims and their families get away from their abusers.
Stone herself is a Safeplace success story.
“I started out in room 413,” Stone said. “I fled into shelter fifteen years ago on September 29. I ended up getting help from them, and then I came to work for them and to give back and help others.”
Stone began her career with Safeplace twelve years ago in the Franklin County office, where she serves as a court advocate. During those years, she did do a stint in Colbert County but came back to the area.
“Every time domestic violence is on the docket in municipal, circuit and district courts, we are present to assist victims through the process,” said Stone.
Stone also explained other services that Safeplace provides aside from court advocacy.
“We offer a batterer’s intervention program that serves this county, but perpetrators have to go to Muscle Shoals or Hamilton,” Stone said. “But we serve the victims here by offering a way for their family to get intervention for the perpetrator.”
Safeplace also offers transitional housing and victim support group services as well as prevention education in city and county schools.
“We go into these schools with all different grades,” said Stone. “We do prevention programs to teach children about healthy relationships, about good touch/bad touch, teen dating violence, safety planning and how to facilitate safety in the home. Often times, children are the key to a victim’s successful exit from a domestic violence relationship, because they come home from school with a card that says here is where you call to get help.”
The community can also play a vital role in identifying domestic violence and helping victims.
“We do community trainings to educate people about the dynamics of domestic violence, about victim and perpetrator behavior and how to safely assist a victim of domestic violence,” Stone said.
Since they do provide all these services, Safeplace staff members do not have a lot of time to raise money.
“We help people find the resources they need,” said Stone. “Those resources are avenues of help that are not monetary, because we do not have money to give away to victims. What we do have is a tremendous amount of services that we provide to assist them. We can not do it nearly as effectively without people being willing to put that match in to maximize our grant funding, which really opens up doors.”
Although Safeplace receives grant funding, they host two fundraisers a year: “Pave the Way for Change” and the Liberty Luncheon. Safeplace has to raise a certain amount of money for the grant funding to match.
“For every 20 cents we collect, we have grant funders who will give us an additional eighty cents,” said Stone. “The catch is that if we do not get the 20 cents, we can not get the 80.”
Currently, Safeplace is working on the Pave the Way for Change fundraiser, which will take place at the Red Bay Founder’s Day Festival on Saturday, September 19. However, everyone can take part in the fundraiser right now.
“We ask that people take one of the lids with the Safeplace logo on it and attach it to a jar and collect quarters,” said Stone. “The jar lids can be picked up at One Place of the Shoals, or you may call to request as many as you need.
“The Pave the Way for Change event will display all the quarters at the Red Bay Founder’s Day Festival on Saturday, September 19 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. We want people to be involved all over our six counties, not just in the one where the fundraiser is held.”
Businesses and organizations can also take a part in the fundraiser as a sponsor. Safeplace offers three sponsorship options for Pave the Way for Change. The $500 Life Changer sponsorship includes a large full page rolling LED advertisement throughout the day of the event, as well as recognition at the event, media opportunities and eight T-shirts. The $250 Way Paver sponsorship includes the business or organization’s name listed on a rolling LED advertisement throughout the day of the event and four T-shirts. The $100 Helping Hands sponsorship includes two T-shirts.
For more information on how to participate, please contact Stone at (256) 331-0477 or gstone@nwalsafeplace.org.
