Bringing awareness to the county

When visiting the courthouse this month you will see an additional display on the first floor - a purple silhouette with a story to tell. The project belongs to the Domestic Abuse Resource Center who is bringing awareness to Chickasaw County in the month of October which is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.Domestic Abuse Resource Center representative Christine Vreeman met with the Chickasaw County Board of Supervisors along with Donna Kubesh with Helping Services of NE Iowa Board of Directors and Nikki Kuhn with helping Services of NE Iowa-Volunteer Program coordinator.The ladies discussed the past year’s projections from the center that helps cover Chickasaw County.“We have had a lot of referrals from the New Hampton Police Department and the sheriff department,” said Vreeman. Last year Chickasaw County had 26 new clients, which is consistent with previous years.The clients have been coming from all over the county, not just New Hampton.“We have gotten new housing for several of those new clients and just in August we had six new clients from Chickasaw County,” she said.While getting new clients is never a happy process, Vreeman said it is good because people are hearing about the services offered and feeling comfortable coming to them.“We are looking at doing more outreach for males,” said Vreeman because they can be victims as well.The center would also like to do training and outreach programs in the hospitals as well.For the complete story see the 10/14/2016 New Hampton Tribune.