Anna Marie's Alliance

Shelter | 24-hour hotline:anna Marie's Alliance shelter provides 24-hour safe emergency shelter for women and their children who are experiencing domestic violence. Located in st. Cloud, mn, Anna Marie's shelter is a safe place where victims receive information, referral, and advocacy services. This 36-bed facility serves a five-county region in central Minnesota including benton, stearns, sherburne, wright, and mille lacs. During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, 1,662 unduplicated adult and child victims were served by advocates of Anna Marie's shelter, 123 women and 96 children resided at the shelter. The 24-hour hotline and non-residential services provided additional support to 1,018.statistics from residents of Anna Marie's shelter:31% identified as homeless32% were assisted with hro and ofp orders 68% identified as bipoc77% reported earnings below $1,000/month

Community advocacy:criminal justice intervention program advocates offer victims assistance and education about the criminal justice process. They provide insight into navigating the criminal justice system in stearns and benton counties. Anna Marie's Alliance cji program monitors system policies, procedures, and responses to victims of domestic abuse. Cji advocates conduct training for law enforcement officers. Cji advocates play a key role in the stearns county domestic violence partnership designed to increase offender accountability and victim safety. During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, advocates responded to 359 lethality reports from law enforcement referrals, assisted 376 clients with filing orders for protection or harassment restraining order paperwork, provided walk-in assistance to 91 individuals, and assisted 46 individuals with lease breaks.

Youth services:children's advocates at the shelter work to provide a sense of normalcy and stability for children who have witnessed or experienced domestic violence in the home. Advocates also support parents whose children have been traumatized by witnessing or experiencing abuse. Services offered include physical and mental health assessments, referrals to address identified needs, safety planning, childcare, recreational activities, parent education and support, and child support groups. During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, 71 children received child advocacy services. Prevention education advocates restructured the way services and programming are delivered to area youth. The focus is on teaching healthy relationship skills through educational support groups, individual support, and classroom presentations. During 2022-2023, 65 presentations were delivered to 1,460 youth at area elementary and middle schools and 11 pre-schools reaching 270 youth. Presentations were given at 2 post-secondary institutions with 65 individuals in attendance. School counselors refer junior and senior-high students identified as being at risk of being in an abusive relationship for life choices groups. In 2022-2023, 226 middle school and high school youth participated in building healthy relationship groups. Community education is focused on building individual and community awareness about domestic abuse in order to grow a community where domestic violence is not tolerated and healthy relationships are the norm. Community education and professional training are provided to area businesses, faith, human services, civic organizations, education community, and the public at large. In 2022-2023, staff presented at 2 community/special interest groups with 50 in attendance, 11 businesses with 414 in attendance, 2 law enforcement trainings with 108 in attendance, and staff attended 16 tabling events reaching around 700 people.

Anna Marie's pet safe home provides a safe place for the pets of the women and children staying at the shelter. Families have immediate access to the animals, learn basic care techniques, and learn about respect for animals. In 2022-2023, the pet safe home housed 10 dogs, 8 cats, 1 fish and 1 bunny. The on-scene program provides an immediate response. After law enforcement has secured the scene of a domestic violence situation, the officer can request an on-scene advocate from Anna Marie's Alliance to assist the victim. On-scene advocacy is available to both men and women. During 2022-2023 Anna Marie's Alliance responded to 87 victims. Advocates also assisted 122 clients with safety planning.the jill eckhoff transitional house provided safe, supportive housing to 10 clients - 6 women and 4 children - needing to stabilize their lives and develop self-sufficiency skills during the 2022-2023 fiscal year. Volunteer services encourages and coordinates opportunities for women, men, young adults and children to contribute their time and talent to the needs of women and their children going through domestic violence. During the 2022-2023 fiscal year, 54 volunteers contributed 3,763 volunteer hours. Holding hope visitation center served 23 families including 36 adults and 31 youth. The center was opened in august of 2022, and saw the first visitations in november of 2022. The program has successfully conducted over 353 supervised visits and 9 safe exchanges since opening.