Safe Berks

Provide Safe emergency shelter for up to 30 days within any six month period for victims of domestic violence and their children. While living in shelter, victims/survivors and children have the option of receiving supportive counseling, advocacy and referral, as well as education about various options and assistance during and after shelter in an effort to enhance safety and quality of life. In fy 2022-2023, Safe Berks provided 213 adults with 6,746 nights of shelter and provided 14,023 nights of shelter to 391 children. The shelter program operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

The community outreach and response department includes three community response specialists ("crs"). Crs advocates provide support services and advocacy to survivors of domestic or sexual violence on six of the local college campuses, at the Berks county jail, and maintain satelite offices at other community social service agenicies and organizations. The crs advocates provide on-site assessement, safety planning services, and referrals for other Safe Berks services and comummity resources as requested. Crs advocates provide prevention and awareness programming to college students, staff, administrators, and all other community members as well as attend tabling events throughout the county to share information about Safe Berks resources. Additionally, one of the crs advocates oversees the sart and lap initiatives. Within that role, the advocate provides support and advocacy to survivors of sexual assault within the various systems, attends the forensic interviews of child sexual assault victims to provide support and advocacy to their supportive caregivers, and offers specialized training of the lethality assessment program to all Berks county law enforcement officers.

The medical advocacy partnership program ("mapp") provides twenty-four hour response to our local healthcare facilities and hospitals. When a person presents to a healthcare facility or hospital as a patient and discloses, they have been a victim of interpersonal violence or sexual assault, the healthcare staff contacts our hotline for a mapp advocate to provide an in-person response. Upon meeting with the patient, the mapp advocate will assess the patient's needs, assist with safety planning, and connect them with other Safe Berks support services or appropriate community resources. In 2022-2023, the mapp advocates provided these services to 349 clients. In addition to the healthcare facility response, this department has two overnight rapid response advocates who provide support services to survivors at the Berks county courthouse while filing a petition for an emergency protection from abuse order. In 2022/2023, the rapid response advocate provided these support services to 478 clients. Mapp advocates also provide educational trainings to healthcare providers and their staff members. Providing education to healthcare professionals is a large part of this department's mission as well as tabling wellness or other community events.

The legal department is committed to providing quality legal services and advocacy to victims of domestic and sexual assault. Safe Berks attorneys represent victims on protection from abuse (pfa) actions. Legal advocates provide accompaniment to persons seeking emergency or temporary pfa's as well as to criminal court hearings and police interviews. In fy 2022-23, Safe Berks provided legal representation and advocacy to more than 743 victims of domestic and/or sexual assualt. The legal services program is free and available in english and spanish.

The counseling department provides support to victims of domestic and sexual violence and their families in understanding the dynamics and effects of abuse. In fy 2022-23, Safe Berks provided 3,653 hours to 311 adult victims, 148 hours of counseling to 34 children and 303 hours (62 individuals) counseling for significant others of victims. Additionally, 785 calls for immediate crisis response were handled. The counseling services program is free, and available in english and spanish.