Volunteers, friends and family members hold cardboard cutouts representing the 46 people killed in domestic violence incidents last year in South Carolina. The 28th annual Silent Witness Ceremony was held Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2025, on the Statehouse steps in Columbia, S.C. The known victims included 35 women (represented by red silhouettes) and 11 men (blue silhouettes). (Photo by Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
Hopeful Horizons helps upwards of 1,500 survivors of child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault annually across South Carolina’s five southernmost counties, offering free emergency housing, counseling, and legal services to those seeking help.
To fund its work, the Lowcountry organization and others like it rely heavily on a patchwork of federal grants, said Sara Barber, executive director of the S.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault…