Program areas at LACASA
Adult domestic violence services: Lacasa provides counseling, shelter, legal advocacy, education, and support to victims of domestic violence and their families and friends. Our work with survivors and their family and friends is client-centered, confidential, nonjudgmental, and focused on an empowerment model. There is no charge for the services to survivors and their family and friends. In 2022, 6,416 nights of shelter were provided for 98 survivors (58 females, 2 male, and 38 children). Lacasa's shelter provides a secure, confidential and non-violent environment safe from abuse. Lacasa's on-site animal kennel provided 1,112 nights of animal shelter for 23 family pets. The legal advocacy program provided 651 survivors (497 females and 152 males) assistance with the criminal justice system. Lacasa's legal advocates assisted 61 individuals with developing a personal protection order (ppo). Lacasa's 24-hour on-call service provided support to 236 survivors (182 females and 53 males) when an assault was reported to police or medical personnel. 24-hour toll-free crisis line support is available 365 days a year and 1,487 clients received assistance through the help-line. Individual and group counseling is available to survivors to explore feelings, clarify issues, review options and create safety plans. 400 adult survivors (368 females and 32 males) took advantage of these clinical services in 2022. 94 children received clinical services concerning domestic violence. All clients develop a safety plan while in services, including 72 individuals that developed safety plans through Lacasa per the request of the livingston county prosecutor's office. In addition, Lacasa works with businesses and agencies to improve the systemic response to domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse. Lacasa has developed and implemented a livingston county community response team which is comprised of three taskforces: domestic abuse response team (dart), sexual assault response team (sart) and community awareness team. The community response team develops and implements community-wide domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse protocols. The domestic abuse response team (dart) and sexual assault response team (sart) are subgroups of Lacasa's overarching community response team. The primary function of dart and sart are to provide a community collaborated response to domestic and sexual violence before, during, and after it's occurrence. Both groups involve a variety of professionals who work with survivors, Lacasa staff, and board members. The groups meet once per month addressing needs for community collaborated systemic change within livingston county.
Children's program services Lacasa provides advocacy, shelter (with a parent), support, and counseling services for child victims who experience child abuse (including sexual abuse), dating violence and domestic violence. 164 children (98 females, 65 males, and 1 transgender) received individual and/or group clinical services. Lacasa completed 182 forensic interviews (125 females, 50 males, and 2 transgenders) through the child abuse response effort (care) program, which provides a safe and non-threatening environment for the children and adults. 169 children had the care project. In addition, 8 adults received a forensic interview. 4 children were referred for a trauma assessment at Lacasa (2 female and 2 male). The court appointed special advocate (casa) program takes trained community volunteers and appoints them to a case in the children abuse and neglect court system. The volunteer stays with the case until permanency is attained for the children. There are currently 44 volunteers assigned to cases, servicing a total of 94 children in foster care. Lacasa's child abuse prevention (cap) council provides far-reaching prevention programs aimed at protecting children from abuse and neglect. Prevention programs include classes and workshops for child welfare professionals, teachers,parents and child caregivers. The cap council provided or participated in a wide range of awareness and education classes, campaigns and events, including sexual abuse risk education programs at 12 schools; 76 educational workshops; and 2 public awareness community events. These activites reached 1,727 people in the risk education program, including 1,093 first grade students and 58 adults; 119 participants in the professional development trainings and programs, 97 participants at the awareness events. The 2022 cap month pinwheels for prevention campaign reached 85 virtual attendants, 142 direct viewers of the archived event, 3,926 people searched cap month-related posts, 105 pinwheels were distributed to the community. In june 2022, Lacasa was accredited as a child advocacy center through the national children's alliance. With this, Lacasa demonstrated that through written documentation and observed practices that the agency is in compliance with the national accreditation standards. The standards and the accompanying criteria ensures that children and families in livingston county receive effective, efficient, relevant, and compassionate services.
Adult sexual assault program Lacasa's sexual assault services address the issues of sexual assault, incest, stalking, and sexual harassment. Sexual assault services are designed to respond to the needs of sexual assault victims and their families and friends. Sexual assault counseling was provided for 163 survivors (137 females, 25 males, and 1 transgender) in 2022. The sexual assault nurse examiner (sane) program provided forensic evidence collection and medical treatment for 30 victims (28 females, 1 male, and 1 transgender) of sexual assault in accordance with standards of practice established by the international association of forensic nurses (iafn). In 2019, Lacasa expanded the sane program to include pediatrics. The sane program provides a forensic examination to minors within 120 hours of an assault but also to minors who report the abuse outside of the 120 hour window.
Family and community prevention and education services the Lacasa family education services activity includes multiple programs. The healthy families program provides a home visiting program for families at risk for abuse & neglect of children 0-3. Long-term intensive home visits were provided for 79 clients (40 adults and 65 children). In conjunction with the county department of human services, Lacasa's parent coach program provides supervised parenting time. 65 clients (14 mothers, 14 fathers and 37 children) received supervised parent coach services in 2022. The fathers' only parenting program offered one eight week parenting class that served 6 men. The nurturing parenting program conducted 4 ten week parenting classes that served 49 clients. Lacasa conducts community prevention, education and public awareness activities about domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, and child abuse. Lacasa conducted 35 community presentations that reached 425 individuals from businesses, the faith community, criminal justice workers, human service agencies, medical personnel, child care providers, emergency response teams, and substance abuse providers. 170 youth presentations were provided in the middle and high schools throughout all livingston county school districts reaching 4,913 youth. In addition, Lacasa provided 19 community awareness events regarding; dating violence, sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse reached 3,815 individuals. Transitional housing services Lacasa provides transitional housing and support services to domestic violence victims and their dependent children. 11,088 nights of safe, affordable housing were provided along with supportive services (counseling and case management) for 42 clients (18 adult females and 24 children) in 2022. Assailant counseling services Lacasa provides counseling to adult and youth who perpetrated violence in their families or community. In 2022, the domestic abuse intervention program provided psycho-education services for 74 individuals who use violence, threats and/or force in their relationships (64 males and 10 females). Approximately 396 volutneers provided 21,650 hours of sevice for Lacasa.