October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time to advocate for domestic violence survivors, and educate communities about the topic and break down stigmas.
One of the organizations standing up to educate the community and provide safety and resources for domestic violence survivors is Rivers of Hope in Monticello, which serves Sherburne and Wright Counties.
Domestic violence is a pattern of behaviors used to establish and maintain control over a family member, household member or intimate partner. Domestic violence includes physical abuse, financial abuse, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, digital abuse, threats, intimidation, coercion, isolation and more.
“For a lot of people that we serve there’s never been any physical abuse, so from the outside looking in, a lot of people might not recognize it as domestic violence at all,” Rivers of Hope Executive Director Hannah-Ruth Patterson said.
According to Patterson, victims of types of domestic abuse such as emotional or verbal abuse may fail to recognize these patterns of abuse because of the stigma surrounding domestic violence, which can make it hard to leave an abusive situation.
Rivers of Hope provides free and confidential services for both adults and youth to recognize healthy/unhealthy relationships and combat domestic violence. The organization provides services for the St. Michael-Albertville community, as well as youth support for Rogers schools, since Rogers is part of the Elk River Area School District.
Adult services
Some of the adult services provided by Rivers of Hope adult advocates are a 24/7 crisis hotline and a virtual weekly support group for female-identifying survivors. Advocates also offer many other services as well such as safety planning, resource referrals and more.
“They’re able to help them filing orders for protection and harassment restraining orders. They help people prepare for court and they’ll accompany them as well to hearings,” Patterson said.
The weekly support group takes place on Thursdays from 5:30 to 7 p.m. and is open to all survivors even if they haven’t received any services from Rivers of Hope.
Youth services
Youth services offer educational presentations to classrooms to help students identify healthy relationships and the warning signs of dating violence. One-on-one counseling in a school setting is also offered to students and focuses on safety planning, client-identified needs and social-emotional skill development.
One-on-one counseling provides support to students who have experienced or witnessed family or teen dating violence.
“Sometimes it’s because we’re working with a parent and that parent wants to know what kind of support is available for their child, but sometimes we’re not working with a parent and we’ve received a referral from maybe a school social worker or a counselor,” Rivers of Hope Outreach Manager/Youth Advocate Mel Harmon said. “So the whole goal of our youth program is to offer that support and advocacy to make sure that kids are safe and understanding [of] what healthy relationships look like.”
Rivers of Hope’s partnership with schools also allows youth advocates to work with health, life skills and other types of teachers to provide classroom presentations as part of a healthy relationship curriculum in schools.
In the past, the youth program has primarily focused on middle and high schools. However, this school year, Rivers of Hope has expanded its reach into elementary schools to give students tools early on to develop healthy relationships and discuss topics such as what it means to be a good friend.
Background and mission
Rivers of Hope currently has eight full-time staff members as well as three on-call advocates who operate the crisis line. The organization was founded in Elk River in 1989 by teachers and community members who noticed the impact of domestic violence on the community. In a few years, the organization expanded to include Wright County and to offer youth services as well.
Rivers of Hope is dedicated to helping survivors regardless of gender, race, religion or socioeconomic status. All programs are funded by grants that Rivers of Hopes receives, so grants are extremely important for the organization to be able to continue offering services.
“The elementary program actually this year was kind of a pilot grant. We got one to see if it would work, and it has been very well received, more so than we thought. So we’re already trying to figure out like ‘ok, this is a one-time pilot funding, what are we going to do for this next year?’” Patterson said.
Fundraising events
Besides grants, Rivers of Hope also hosts fundraising events to raise money for programs. One of these events is the first annual Golf Tournament event at Topgolf in Brooklyn Center on Oct. 17. The event will take place at 5 p.m. and will include golf, a silent auction, fajitas and a raffle.
The organization’s biggest fundraiser is the annual gala event, which will take place at Rockwoods in Otsego on April 11. This year’s theme is masquerade and the event features games, a silent auction but most importantly a chance to hear survivors' stories and the impact Rivers of Hope has had on them.
Another fundraising event is the color run, which took place on Aug. 17 this year.
Referrals, partnerships and resources
Domestic violence survivors can always reach out to Rivers of Hope and if Rivers of Hope feels that another organization could assist someone better, the organization has several resources to refer them to.
“Domestic violence does not come as a single package per se, it’s often intertwined with a lot of very complicated situations where we do need to pull in other community agencies and partners,” Harmon said.
Rivers of Hope can provide survivors with a safe place to stay short term such as a hotel. There are no domestic violence shelters in Sherburne County or Wright County for longer periods of shelter, so Rivers of Hope reaches out to shelters in other areas of Minnesota to determine if space is available.
They can also refer survivors to programs that provide shelter/housing such as Minnesota Day One. A resource for survivors of sexual violence is the Central Minnesota Sexual Assault Center and organizations that can provide mental health support include the Central Minnesota Mental Health Center and the Minnesota Mental Health Warmline.
Rivers of Hope can’t offer legal advice to people, so they provide referrals to lawyers when domestic violence survivors need resources for custody and divorce proceedings. Rivers of Hope can be contacted through the crisis line at 763-295-3433, on the website at riversofhope.org and by emailing info@riversofhope.org to talk to adult advocates or youthteam@riversofhope.org for youth advocates.
How to help
Community members can support Rivers of Hope by attending fundraisers, donating money, putting together a drive to collect cleaning supplies or gift cards to give to survivors in need and volunteering at events.
“Another way too which is such a simple way that often I think gets overlooked, is [to] tell people about Rivers of Hope. That can be done through having one of our brochures in their workplace or we have posters,” Harmon said. “We just find there’s still so many stigmas and stereotypes around domestic violence, that part of normalizing those stigmas is hanging up a poster in the workplace letting folks know that if that’s the journey you’re on, this is a safe space to reach out.”
Individuals, groups or organizations interested in learning more about Rivers of Hope and domestic violence in general, can also schedule a time to meet with someone from the organization.
Of course, victims of domestic violence may not always be willing or ready yet to reach out to resources for help, at least on their own. According to Harmon, sometimes survivors call Rivers of Hope with friends or family during the first initial call, since it can be difficult for survivors to make that first step of reaching out.
Other victims of domestic violence may not be aware of the resources out there, so word-of-mouth about Rivers of Hope is important.
“Support them, if they disclose to you, believe them. If you’re questioning, ask them. It can be awkward to ask if they’re ok in a relationship. Even if in that moment they say ‘yeah everything is fine’ or even get defensive, if they are experiencing abuse, they might know now that you’re a safe person that they can turn to when they’re ready,” Patterson said.
Local News
Comments / 0