The Jacksonville Police Department is teaming up with a local organization to help those impacted by domestic violence.
The Crisis Center Foundation will now provide domestic violence victims with an advocate from 6PM to 6AM on calls to the JPD. We spoke with Alex Bryant, Legal Advocate at The Crisis Center about this new partnership.
She first explains how the partnership will work.
“When there is a domestic violence call, the police will go to the home and make sure the area is secure, then they will have the option to call me and I will have twenty minutes to respond to the victim’s home, be there to support them, make sure they know their rights and that they’re safe or needs to be transported somewhere,” Bryant explains.
Bryant feels the impact that domestic violence can have on the victim is often overlooked. She hopes that this program will help further educate people about the reality of domestic violence.
“I think it happens way more than people know or even notice, so that’s our hope with this is that the word gets out a little more and that there are more consequences for the actions of the abusers. We also hope that it gets the word out about what we offer here at the Crisis Center and having someone there who knows a little bit more about domestic violence to be with the victims right there on the scene,” says Bryant.
Bryant emphasizes that victims of domestic violence are welcome to call the Crisis Center at any time.
“They can either call the on-call advocate, that would be the new thing that we are doing, or the Crisis Center is a 24-hour agency and we always have someone answering the hotline,” Bryant says.
For more information on this program, or if you would like to talk to someone about domestic violence you can call 217-243-4357 for the Crisis Center Foundation or 217-479-4630 for the Jacksonville Police Department.