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 2023, 6,959 nights of shelter were provided for 105 survivors (63 females, 3 male, and 39 children). Lacasa's shelter provides a secure, confidential and non-violent environment safe from abuse. Lacasa's on-site animal kennel provided 911 nights of animal shelter for 25 family pets. The legal advocacy program provided 637 survivors (473 females and 164 males) assistance with the criminal justice system. Lacasa's legal advocates assisted 73 individuals with developing a personal protection order (ppo). Lacasa's 24-hour on-call service provided support to 222 survivors (173 females and 49 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 2,374 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. 302 adult survivors (290 females and 12 males) took advantage of these clinical services in 2023. 102 children received clinical services concerning domestic violence. All clients develop a safety plan while in services, including 73 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. 165 children (109 females and 56 males) received individual and/or group clinical services. Lacasa completed 188 forensic interviews (108 females and 70 males) through the child abuse response effort (care) program, which provides a safe and non- threatening environment for the children and adults. 172 children had the care project. In addition, 6 adults received a forensic interview. 7 children were referred for a trauma assessment at Lacasa (2 female and 5 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 14 schools; 145 educational workshops; and 1 public awareness community events. These activites reached 1,401 people in the risk education program, including 1,225 first grade students and 93 adults; 121 participants in the professional development trainings and programs, and participants at the awareness events. The 2023 cap month pinwheels for preventioncampaign had 50 adult attendees, 307 people searched cap month-related posts, 100 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 141 survivors (114 females, 26 males, and 1 transgender) in 2023. The sexual assault nurse examiner (sane) program provided forensic evidence collection and medical treatment for 36 victims (32 females and 4 male) 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 66 clients (34 adults and 32 children). In conjunction with the county department of human services, Lacasa's parent coach program provides supervised parenting time. 76 clients (14 mothers, 17 fathers and 45 children) received supervised parent coach services in 2023. The fathers' only parenting program offered one eight week parenting class that served 5 men. The nurturing parenting program conducted 4 ten week parenting classes that served 54 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 46 community presentations that reached 941 individuals from businesses, the faith community, criminal justice workers, human service agencies, medical personnel, child care providers, emergency response teams, and substance abuse providers. 166 youth presentations were provided in the middle and high schools throughout all livingston county school districts reaching 4,914 youth. In addition, Lacasa provided 9 community awareness events regarding; dating violence, sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse reached 690 individuals. Transitional housing services Lacasa provides transitional housing and support services to domestic violence victims and their dependent children. 12,151 nights of safe, affordable housing were provided along with supportive services (counseling and case management) for 55 clients (23 adult females and 32 children) in 2023. Assailant counseling services Lacasa provides counseling to adult and youth who perpetrated violence in their families or community. In 2023, the domestic abuse intervention program provided psycho-education services for 44 individuals who use violence, threats and/or force in their relationships (41 males and 3 females). Approximately 555 volutneers provided 10,720 hours of sevice for Lacasa.