Syracuse, NY - In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Vera House will present its 21st Annual Report to the Community on Wednesday. The Report to the Community is a list that Vera House compiles with statistics about domestic violence and sexual abuse in Onondaga County. The findings will be presented to the community in a public event at the...
Syracuse, NY - In recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Vera House will present its 21st Annual Report to the Community on Wednesday.
The Report to the Community is a list that Vera House compiles with statistics about domestic violence and sexual abuse in Onondaga County. The findings will be presented to the community in a public event at the National Grid Auditorium in Syracuse, said Colleen O’Brien, program services coordinator for Vera House.
The event will include survivors’ stories, an update on community resources and accomplishments, goals for the future and guest speaker Amy Schwartz, senior staff attorney and coordinator of the domestic violence legal program at the Empire Justice Center in Rochester.
This year’s event will highlight accessibility issues that communities like the disabled and LGBTQ deal with, O’Brien said.
“We’re under-serving these populations and we want to make sure that we are doing better job at reaching out,” she said.
For more information on the event, visit www.verahouse.org or call Vera House at 315-425-0818.
Contact Fernando Alfonso III at falfonso@syracuse.com.
Statistics included in this year’s Report to the Community:
Adult domestic violence victims living in shelters:
2008: 540 people
2009: 559 people
Phone calls received on the 24-hour crisis hotline:
2008: 4,818 calls
2009: 5,172 calls
Domestic violence homicide victims:
2009: 7 people (3 men, 4 women)
2010: 2 people