All About Us
The Domestic Violence Program is a non-profit organization committed to ending violence and discrimination in the lives of victims suffering the pain, fear, and shame of domestic abuse.
Goals
- To help prevent occurrences of domestic violence between family and household members.
- To reduce the effects of domestic violence for victims by establishing a crisis line and shelter program.
- To educate the community regarding the incidents and causes of domestic violence.
- To assist existing agencies in coordination of programs for victims of domestic violence.
- To involve volunteers and to raise volunteer commitment in areas of domestic violence.
- To assist victims of domestic violence in establishing themselves as independent individuals.
History
The Domestic Violence Program was founded in January of 1986, in consultation with the Nashville YWCA, as a voluntary effort of residents of Rutherford County. In July of 1987, the Domestic Violence Program became fully independent from the YWCA.
In 1988, the Domestic Violence Program secured two small houses to use as our first safe shelters. After 15 years of increased use and limited space, grant funding was obtained from the Christy-Houston Foundation, along with significant donations from the Charity Circle of Murfreesboro, to build a new shelter. This shelter opened in December of 2003, and we consider it one of the top shelters in the nation.
The Domestic Violence Program serves the community by serving victims of domestic violence without discrimination of race, creed, color, age, disability, sex, or lifestyle. The Domestic Violence Program is also a certified non-profit organization, which is partially funded by the State of Tennessee and is a participating United Way agency.
DVP & SAS Staff:
Executive Director: Deborah Johnson shelter2@bellsouth.net
Operations Manager: Bettie Beckwith bbeckwith@dvpshelter.org
Intake Specialist: Ruth Parkes rparkes@dvpshelter.org
Shelter Staff: Karissa Krapf karissakrapf@bellsouth.net
Shelter Staff: Dru Jímenez d_jimenez07@yahoo.com
Shelter Night Staff: Samantha Brown sbrown@dvpshelter.org
Shelter Night Staff: Debra Roberts ddroberts99@yahoo.com
Children’s Advocate: Angela Manivong amanivong@dvpshelter.org
Staff Attorney: Mitch Shannon
Community Relations: Trista Pirtle-Bond tpirtle@dvpshelter.org
Special Court Advocate: Myra Beasley mbeasley@dvpshelter.org
Court Advocate: Debbie Swader dswader@dvpshelter.org
Court Advocate: Patty Jones pjones@dvpshelter.org
Court Advocate: Keith Shaver kshaver@dvpshelter.org
LEP: CeCe Hernandez chernandez@dvpshelter.org
Volunteers/ PR /SAS: India Rogers irogers@dvpshelter.org
Domestic Violence Counselor: Judy Nance
Sexual Assault Counselor: Shelly Wright
Data Entry/French: Linda Rathbone
Elder Abuse Coordinator: Elizabeth Harding
Shelter Kitchen Coordinators: Nora and Myra
Donations: Shirley Shannon
Shelter Maint: Cheryl Poole