Domestic Violence Awareness Month (October) is over, but the advocacy for continued safety and prevention of domestic violence in the Queen City cannot be closed out. At Women Helping Women, we are on pace to serve 9,000 survivors and have already responded with crisis response services nearly 30,000 times. We are on pace to answer our 24/7 hotline over 20,000 times by the end of the year.
As the numbers show, domestic violence still is alive and well in our region. And behind every data point is a person, a family, a community. Far too often, survivors are still experiencing increased danger and injury. An overwhelming number of the survivors we serve experience strangulation. Strangulation is a key indicator of domestic violence homicide.
In Ohio, according to the latest report by the Ohio Domestic Violence Network, the number of family annihilation cases doubled; 65% of domestic violence homicides had previous contact with the criminal or civil justice systems; and the youngest victim was four months old and the oldest was 92. This is why 24/7 responses matter and why our agency’s Domestic Violence Enhancement Response Team shows up on-scene with law enforcement throughout all 52 neighborhoods of Cincinnati and 32 jurisdictions through Hamilton County.