Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Program
​If you or someone you know needs help please call 1-800-874-5936 or 1-517-265-6776.

Outreach

Outreach to Survivors:
The agency seeks to inform survivors about our services through a variety of methods including: distribution of materials to key areas in the community, public service announcements, collaboration with law enforcement and hospitals to provide information at the time of a domestic violence or sexual assault incident, collaboration with court personnel to provide information prior to court proceedings, and participation in community awareness events. The agency publicizes the 24-hour crisis hotline in all of it's materials and in local and regional directories.

Outreach to the Community:
The agency seeks to increase community participation in our effort to assist survivors and end domestic violence and sexual assault through speaking engagements at local, businesses, churches, schools and other community organizations or engagement events.

Outreach to Service Providers:
It is the philosophy of Family Counseling & Children's Services that close collaboration and coordination among service providers leads to higher levels of participation and greater success for clients. Therefore, we offer outreach to the community service providers in order to increase their understanding of the dynamics of domestic violence and the survivor's experience and increase their knowledge of what is offered to survivors at Family Counseling & Children's Services. We seek to understand the philosophies and services of these providers in order to complete the collaborative cycle.

The target of our outreach efforts include:

• Law enforcement
• Legal services
• Child protective services
• Health care providers
• Mental health care providers
• Substance use treatment providers
• Human services workers
• Housing service providers
• Schools
• Churches

A variety of methods are used to engage with service providers:

Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Task Forces
The Task Forces are comprised of community members who represent local Law Enforcement, Judges, Prosecutors, Health Care Professionals, The Department of Human Services, Therapists and Mental Health workers.

The functions of each Task Force include:

• Consulting/reviewing development of procedures
• Participating in public education
• Providing community liaison and resource development

Cross-Training
The agency offers conduct training for staff at the various agencies that serve our clients and requests trainings for our staff from those organizations.

Individual Advocacy
The agency makes use of every opportunity to educate service providers about domestic violence and sexual assault. Sometimes this means one worker at a time as they interact with our clients.

Please contact a staff member for more information or if you are interested in participating with a Task Force, or would like to bring our training onboard to your organization.

Donate

Other Task Force and Community Collaboratives:
The agency participates regularly in several community collaboratives and visits other on occasion to present information regarding domestic violence and/or sexual assault.

These include:

• Continuum of Care
• Lenawee Housing Development Corporation
• Human Trafficking Task Force
• Basic Needs Task Force
• Human Resources Council
• Anti-Bullying Task Force