{"id":805890,"date":"2020-03-31T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=381178"},"modified":"2020-03-31T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T19:00:00","slug":"summit-advocates-for-victims-of-assault-sees-significant-rise-in-domestic-abuse-amid-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-advocates-for-victims-of-assault-sees-significant-rise-in-domestic-abuse-amid-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit Advocates for Victims of Assault sees \u2018significant\u2019 rise in domestic abuse amid shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Summit Advocates for Victims of Assault Executive Director Lesley Mumford, left, talks with legal advocate Jessie Sack on Monday, March 30. Since 1979, Summit Advocates has been offering assistance and support for people dealing with domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking and other trauma.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

DILLON \u2014 As officials continue to urge residents across the state to stay at home to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, many living in violent or abusive situations are reaching out for help.<\/p>\n

Lesley Mumford, executive director of Summit Advocates for Victims of Assault, said the group has seen a \u201csignificant\u201d increase in new clients over the past month as a result of the coronavirus shutdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all been ordered to quarantine ourselves and stay at home to prevent the spread,\u201d Mumford said. \u201cBut home isn\u2019t safe for everyone. There are a lot of people already living in situations where the most dangerous thing to them is the intimate partner they live with. We don\u2019t have the breaks and respites from our partners we normally do \u2014 work or social activities \u2014 and those tensions can begin to rise with nowhere to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mumford said Advocates, a group that provides resources and services for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, has seen more than 145 new clients this year, including at least 51 in March. For comparison, the group saw 73 new individuals seeking services in the same three-month period last year.<\/p>\n

In March, the group has responded to at least 30 crisis intervention calls, wherein an advocate will respond in person to help transport someone to a shelter or accompany them to forensic nursing exams, law enforcement interviews and more. And more individuals are seeking help getting out of dangerous situations than ever before.<\/p>\n

Over the past two weeks, Advocates has housed as many as 13 people at a time in the group\u2019s safe shelters, including a number of children. In a more typical week, it\u2019s usually two or three.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have that many people was remarkable for us,\u201d Mumford said. \u201cOf course, for those individuals, we\u2019re also providing food and transportation assistance, because often people are coming to us with just what they were wearing in leaving a violent situation. We have to step up and provide all those other needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mumford emphasized that the organization has been up to the task. In addition to providing safe shelter, food, transportation and crisis intervention services, Advocates also offers emergency financial assistance and a 24\/7 crisis hotline (970-668-3906) among other services.<\/p>\n

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Summit Advocates for Victims of Assault remains open during the COVID-19 crisis.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Despite the shutdown, Mumford said, the group also has continued all of its free legal programming, including providing attorneys to represent victims in matters like obtaining protections orders, child support, divorce, visa applications and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are offering everything we did before (the public health order),\u201d Mumford said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just found new ways to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Advocates is considered an essential service for the county, it still has had to make some changes to the way it\u2019s operating. The group does have staff at the office and responding to crisis interventions, though staff also have begun experimenting with new telehealth opportunities and making contingencies for another potential surge of people in need.<\/p>\n

Advocates has enacted new measures inside its communal safe house to cut down on congregating as much as possible, including asking individuals and their families to stay in their rooms away from others and delivering prepared food to cut down on mingling in the cooking spaces. The space is also undergoing regular deep cleaning.<\/p>\n

If the need does surpass the capacity at the shelter (about 11 beds), Advocates has been working with the Summit County Office of Emergency Management to ensure people won\u2019t be turned away. Brian Bovaird, the county\u2019s emergency management director, said Advocates would be able to access some of the county\u2019s hotel rooms as part of a preestablished plan for \u201cnon-congregate\u201d housing in mass sheltering incidents.<\/p>\n

Mumford emphasized that all of Advocates\u2019 services are confidential and don\u2019t require law enforcement involvement. And despite the shutdown, they\u2019re prepared to help anyone in need.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re available 24\/7, 365,\u201d Mumford said. \u201cIf somebody isn\u2019t certain, call. Our staff is ready, willing and able to serve. We\u2019re more than happy to talk something through with an individual. All of our services are here. We\u2019re in full swing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Summit Advocates for Victims of Assault remains open during the COVID-19 crisis.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summit Advocates for Victims of Assault Executive Director Lesley Mumford, left, talks with legal advocate Jessie Sack on Monday, March 30. Since 1979, Summit Advocates has been offering assistance and support for people dealing with domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking and other trauma.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com DILLON \u2014 As officials continue to urge residents across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-805890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-17 18:29:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805890\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}