From its inception, Help-In-Crisis has been committed to the process of people helping themselves, especially through providing crisis intervention and support/referral services at a time when individual resources are low or even non-existent. In our rural community, we have chosen to direct our attentions and caring to women and children who live in violent home relationships, to those who experience sexual assault, and to those who are dealing with acute depression and have no one to listen.
We utilize the concepts of individual worth, self-determination, and interdependence as a foundation for our interactions with each other, our community, and with those who participate in our programs. We deliver our services with an emphasis on providing a confidential, immediate response.
We have several basic conclusions about battered women. One is that the battering of women is a social rather than an individual or family problem.
A second conclusion is that facilitating self-determination means actively involving participants of our program in the change process, and we believe that change is more effective if it is modeled, as well as taught.
A third conclusion is that an effective program listens to and learns from those involved at all levels; board, staff, volunteers, participants in the program, and the community at large. We encourage the blending of energies within and between each of these groups, and believe this is essential to the process of promoting community well-being and healing. We additionally work within larger networks of domestic violence and sexual assault programs in a non-competitive attitude toward fundraising.
Given the deeply ingrained societal attitudes that at least tacitly, if not overtly condone violence, we feel the public is in need of information to bring to light the magnitude of the problem of domestic violence in order to counteract the myths and misinformation to which we all have been exposed. We believe that community education and developing active concern are critical keys in breaking the cycle of violence and domestic abuse.
In our work of helping people help themselves, we also utilize a supportive, non-judgmental framework, which is geared to fostering independence, and optimizing each individual's strengths and abilities. We attempt to incorporate these qualities of caring and strength in our communities, to provide mutual support, and to ensure the continuation of our work.
