We Can Come To You!
Henderson House Expands Access Through Remote Advocacy
Contributed by: Rachel Flores, Henderson House Development Director
Beginning in 2024, through generous program support from Yamhill Community Care (https://yamhillcco.org/), Henderson House has been able to offer remote advocacy.
Please allow me to share with you why that is a really big deal.
Trigger Warning
Imagine that you are in an abusive relationship. You live in a rural town somewhere in Yamhill County. Your abuser is monitoring your movements and keeping tabs on your time. They are tracking how you spend money (on gas for example) or they restrict your access to transportation altogether. They may even be tracking your phone use or web activity. Many DV survivors will share that they face these dynamics with their abuser.
Given these constraints, how likely are you to reach out for vital, in-person services that are only available to you via one agency in your county, in another town. It may require 2 hours or more to access the services if you are driving from the corners of the county (that’s assuming you have access to transportation).
Henderson House evaluated how successfully we were reaching our service area – Yamhill County – and the result was discouraging. We have served this county for 43 years. Our Advocacy Center is located in McMinnville. Although McMinnville has the largest population of any town in our county, it is only home to about one third of Yamhill County residents. That minority of our service area has been receiving approximately 90% of our services. And we know that is not because other towns in our county experience fewer cases of abuse per capita.
We brought this dilemma to our dynamic and supportive partners at Yamhill Community Care. With their support, we were able to purchase an additional vehicle and expand our personnel capacity to change our service delivery model to include remote advocacy.
Now, when a survivor contacts us from anywhere in Yamhill County and shares that transportation is a barrier to accessing our on-site services (including: 100% confidential 1-on-1 support, 24-hour crisis response, 90-day emergency shelter, assistance with safety plans and protection orders, and resource referral, as well as court and emergency room accompaniment), we can make a plan with them to meet at a more convenient, neutral location at a time that works for them (Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm).
We are on a positive trajectory toward reaching our goal, bringing the ratio of non-McMinnville residents vs. McMinnville residents served closer to 3:10. There is still a long way to go to meet the more equitable ratio of 10:3, but those numbers represent hundreds of additional services reaching a broader area of our county – a life changing, life-saving impact.
Please help us spread the word – if you need Henderson House services and are facing barriers to connect with us at our office, we can come to you!
At your service,
Rachel Flores
Henderson House Development Director
