Hyde County Hotline has been awarded funding by the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence to support services to adult and child victims and build community capacity to collectively respond to incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault.

The Enhancing Rural Strategies grant was awarded to NCCADV by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women. The Enhancing Rural Strategies Project is collaboration between NCCADV, the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault and 10 North Carolina domestic-violence and sexual assault-service provision agencies.

The goal of the Enhancing Rural Strategies Project is to support and enhance Hyde County’s capacity to provide a strong system of direct assistance to survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence and build community capacity to prevent these crimes from occurring. Hyde County Hotline will work to achieve this goal through the creation of a Coordinated Community Response Team/Sexual Assault Response Teams.

A CCR/SART is an organized effort that includes representatives of diverse sectors of a local community coming together to work collaboratively to address domestic violence or sexual assault. The creation of a CCR/SART will increase the community’s ability to provide coordinated, safe and effective services to victims and to reduce the impact of these crimes.

NCCADV is a statewide agency that works to strengthen the network of North Carolina agencies working to provide victims and their families with safe and effective services through public awareness raising, advocacy and public-policy efforts. Currently, Hyde County Hotline coordinates an emergency shelter, provides 24-hour crisis response, court advocacy, advocacy with other community resources, support groups, transportation, outreach and prevention education, hospital response for victims, referrals for therapy, safety planning, referrals for legal assistance and assistance with filling out victims compensation forms. Through the Enhancing Rural Strategies project, Hyde County Hotline will work to enhance coordination between community service providers, including victim advocates, law-enforcement officers, pretrial service personnel, prosecutors, judges and other court personnel, probation and parole officers, survivors and leaders of faith-based and community organizations, to create SART and CCR teams in Hyde County. These teams will increase the identification, assessment of and appropriate response to child, youth and adult victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

For more information about the project, call 252-926-5481.