Women’s Resource Center
This article was originally published in Season 22 of Whim Internet Magazine.
Women’s Resource Center of the New River Valley
A battered woman with young children and no money cries herself to sleep in her car while her children beg for food and shiver from the cold Radford wind. Thirty years ago this was the only option for a woman who had been abused whether sexually, physically or mentally.
According to the current executive director of The Women’s Resource Center, Pat Brown, there weren’t even words to describe the meaning of domestic violence in the late 1970s. It simply did not exist. Then in 1977 the first domestic violence program in Virginia opened; the Women’s Resource Center of the New River Valley finally gave women a safe place to go.
Brown has been with the center for more than 26 years, the first five served on the board of directors and the past 21 years as executive director. There are only 25 staff members, but more than 3,500 victims were served last year alone. And with more than a million dollars in her budget, which she must raise herself, Brown is a busy woman.
Brown’s background includes a degree in psychology from Longwood University and a few years of teaching high school. She is a mother, and loves to volunteer. Before starting her career at the center she was involved in numerous clubs and participated in the Parent Teacher Association.
“I found it compelling, and that the work that was being done was vital. I thought that we had to do it, and it really was a perfect job for my skills,” Brown said. And she could “speak the king’s English.”
The past 30 years have been a growing experience for the world and the New River Valley in the rights of women and all groups of people. Floyd, Montgomery, Giles and Pulaski counties as well as Radford City are currently the lucky recipients of the 30 years of dedication the Women’s Resource Center has provided. The name is a little misleading as not only women receive care and counseling from the center.
Brown said that as many as ten percent of all domestic violence cases are one in which the man is the victim and many situations of domestic violence also include children. The center provides these victims with comprehensive services that can include transitional housing, sheltering, basic needs items such as food, hygienic items, diapers, etc. It can also help a victim reach other community resources and they help with legal advocacy issues. In addition to all of those face-to-face services there is also a crisis hotline that is available at any time.
One unique service that the center offers is a volunteer service for emergency situations. It’s 3 a.m. and your mother and step-father are completely inebriated and fighting. He hits her in the face. Once at the hospital, your mother is hysterical and you are even worse, because you are 7 year sold. The hospital can have someone paged to come spend the time in the hospital with you and your mother.
They can play games with you or hold your mom’s hand while she is being examined. This staff member can help you and your mom understand procedures that the doctor is going to perform. They can suggest future help, and these volunteer staff members are available any time of day or night on any day of the year. These staff members are trained just as any other volunteer staff is trained but they also receive additional training to provide the best possible care and understanding.
The 400 volunteers at the center are a huge help in serving the 3,500 victims every year. Every volunteer is sent through a rigorous training program.
The program is about 50 hours of learning and practicing common situations and issues that may be needed to help with the hotline, shelter or other services throughout the center. Volunteers learn the rules of the shelter, meet staff and practice crisis intervention and other skills they will utilize during their volunteer hours. After this training, the volunteers are asked to commit eight hours a month to their work.
If all of that is too intense there are other ways to volunteer and help the center and the community. Many groups come to the center and perform volunteer projects. There is no training required and for those on the shy side there is no one-on-one communication with the victim. These groups can supply birthday parties, help clean or move furniture, which is exactly what a group from Virginia Tech does.
“They do nothing for four hours but move furniture that we’ve had donated in,” Brown said. “Or if somebody is moving out of the shelter into their own place, we have some furniture stocked up that these volunteers move to their new place for them.”
Many students from Radford choose to give their time to the community through the shelter as well. This semester there are approximately 12 interns from a variety of majors help out at the shelter as well as further their credit hours toward graduation.
It’s the middle of the night and a young woman was just raped and beaten by her father. Her mother is already dead. She is alone. She is scared and crying, and driving herself to the hospital. Once there she is met by a friendly face that offers her that cigarette she’s been wanting since she left and a nice warm fuzzy sweater to curl up in while waiting in the ER. She’s not alone anymore, she actually has a friend that understands and cares.
