creating hope, healing lives, changing community
It is not your fault.
Anyone can be a victim of violence, abuse, or exploitation regardless of age, gender, sexuality or socio-economic class. Responsibility for the crime lies with your attacker. It is not your fault.
Safelight offers programs that give survivors a fresh start.
Interpersonal Violence, also called domestic violence or intimate partner violence, is abuse that occurs between people who know each other. It can occur within or outside of a family. Safelight serves anyone who is currently experiencing interpersonal violence or who has a history of abusive relationships.
Reported cases of interpersonal violence, abuse and exploitation are increasing. 1 in 3 women and 1 in four men experience severe intimate partner violence nationally. Every 9 seconds in the US, a woman is assaulted or beaten (over 10 million adults per year). In North Carolina, 42.9% of women and 19% of men will experience intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner sexual violence and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes. In a 2022 report, the NC Council for Women and Youth Involvement reported 75,556 clients received in-person or remote services for domestic violence.
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Sexual violence is a broad term covering many types of victimization. It happens to people of all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, and incomes. Safelight serves anyone, man, woman, or child, who is a survivor of sexual assault, rape, sexual harassment or any other type of unwanted sexual contact.
According to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, more than half of women and nearly 1 in 3 men in the United States have experienced sexual violence involving physical contact during their lifetimes. 1 in 6 women and 1 in 26 men have been the victim of an attempted or completed rape. Every 68 seconds someone is sexually assaulted and every 9 minutes that is a child. One (1) in 3 girls and 1 in 7 boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18. In a 2022 report, the NC Council for Women and Youth Involvement reported 11,933 clients received in-person or remote services for sexual assault in NC. 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 13 boys worldwide report they were sexually assaulted before age 18.
We recognize that each survivor's experiences are different. We offer a range of services to help individuals find the program or programs that best meet their immediate and long-term needs.
Additional Resources
National Sexual Assault Hotline (rainn.org)National Sexual Violence Resource Center
Each year in the United States nearly 600,000 children experience abuse, and over 10 million witness domestic violence. Every 68 seconds someone is sexually assaulted and every 9 minutes that is a child. One (1) in 3 girls and 1 in 7 boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18.
We have especially seen the large impact that interpersonal violence has on the children and youth in our community, as they are consistently over 40% of our clients served. Both experiencing and being exposed to violence can have long-term effects on a child's physical and mental well-being, behavior, relationships, academic success, and, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, their likelihood of juvenile justice involvement. Witnessing violence, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, can increase the likelihood of substance use and other rebellious behavior in adolescents. Interpersonal Violence is also often cyclical and intergenerational. After experiencing violence or abuse as a child, there is an increased likelihood that they will either perpetrate violence or be re-victimized by another individual in the future. Programming that breaks these cycles, and mitigates the effects of violence, like the ones Safelight offers should be a priority in our community.
Through our Child Advocacy Center, Counseling Center, Camp Hope America Program and Shelter, we offer services directly tailored to help support Children and youth in our community. These services help to limit re-traumatization, while helping the children heal and find pathways to a hopeful future.
Elder Abuse includes the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse, financial exploitation, and neglect of individuals over the age of 60. It can be perpetrated by family members, health care providers, strangers, and other caregivers.
Older adults have specialized needs that increase their risk of experiencing abuse. 95% of adults 60 years and older have one chronic condition and 80% have two. This need can create dependency, and through that an increased vulnerability to abusive systems or abusive caregivers. Only 1 in 24 cases of elder abuse are reported and so many individuals go unsupported or without justice.
1 in 10 older adults experience abuse, and 1 in 2 older adults with cognitive impairment experience abuse each year. In NC alone there has been a 150% increase in calls to Adult Protective Services. 5% of our clients are also over the age of 60, and we anticipate this number increasing as our population continues to age. Our programs are available to individuals of all ages.
Human Trafficking involves the use of force, fraud or coercion to obtain labor or commercial sex. Victims can be any age, race, ethnicity, gender, sex, or nationality, and they can come from any socioeconomic background. Human trafficking happens everywhere - across our communities in cities, suburbs and rural areas. Any minor (under the age of 18) engaged in commercial sex is a victim of human trafficking according to federal law, regardless of whether there is force, fraud, or coercion.
Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing crimes in the country and one of North Carolina's (NC) most pressing current issues. NC is among the most affected states as major interstate highways, a large and transient military population, numerous rural agricultural areas with a high demand for cheap labor, and an increasing number of gangs all contribute (NC Department of Administration). In 2022, the Human Trafficking Institute reported 183 new criminal cases for trafficking including 5 forced labor and 178 sex trafficking. Of these, 6 were from NC and 1 was from Western NC. In 2023, The National Human Trafficking Hotline named NC tenth in the country for human trafficking cases.
Community members are vital when it comes to decreasing the number of human trafficking cases both locally and nationally, and prevention trainings for our community is a great opportunity for prevention and increase linkage to care. Safelight operating a 24/7 hotline allows for a consistent link for community members to safely report concerns.
We are proud members of the Henderson County Human Trafficking Response Team.
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