Quarterly Newsletter

Volume 1 - Issue 1                                                                       Spring 1995
Volume 1 - Issue 2                                                                       Fall 1995
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      In the fall of 1994, battered women's community advocacy programs in Economic Region 8: Womanspace in Marshall (now WRAP - Lyon County), Yellow Medicine Women's Center in Granite Falls (now WRAP - Yellow Medicine County), Cottonwood Crisis Center in Windom (now WRAP - Cottonwood County), and Southwest Crisis Center in Worthington conducted a survey with the assistance of the Gender Violence Institute of St. Cloud. The survey was designed to determine what kind of program for Region 8 battered women would best meet their needs. Region 8 encompasses the Southwestern Minnesota counties of Lyon, Yellow Medicine, Redwood, Lincoln, Murray, Cottonwood, Jackson, Nobles, Rock, and Pipestone.

      There were three categories of survey respondents: 1) agencies, 2) community members, and 3) battered women.

      101 agencies, 43 community members, and 74 battered women responded to the survey. Fifty-two of the survey respondents were from Lyon County and 166 were from other Region 8 counties.

      Twenty-four of the agency respondents identified their agencies as the type that serves battered women, either directly or indirectly. Twenty-six identified themselves as law enforcement/criminal justice agencies, and 33 agencies described themselves as "other".

      Sixty of the battered women respondents were formerly battered and 14 identified themselves as "currently battered". Eleven community members also identified themselves as battered women.

      The majority of battered women who responded were white, between the ages of 21 & 50, and low income (earning under $15,000/yr). Twenty-one (24.7%) of the battered women were women of color.

Survey Results

      Respondents were asked to rate which of three types of programming would be most helpful for battered women. Their choices were:

Community Advocacy Programs: The First Choice

All Survey respondents--agencies, community members, and battered women--rated a Community Advocacy Program as most helpful. When asked to compare the three types of battered women's programs, half of all the respondents showed a preference for a community advocacy program, as defined above.

      Respondents were also asked to state a preference between either a shelter or a community advocacy program. When choosing between those two options, the total percentage of those who selected community advocacy as preferable went up to 62.8%.

      Agencies selected community advocacy programs as preferable 61.6% of the time when given the choice of all three options. When given two options, however. they chose community advocacy as most helpful 68.7% of the time. If the agency was not located in Lyon County, a preference for community advocacy programs went up to 76.6%.

      Note: It was assumed that Marshall and other Lyon County respondents would respond to a shelter more favorably because the factor of distance would be neutralized. This proved to be true across all groups of respondents, to a varying degree.

      Agencies that directly or indirectly serve battered women, such as existing battered women's programs, human services, law enforcement, and criminal justice agencies rated a community advocacy program highest of any of the three types of respondents. Regardless of county location, agencies selected community advocacy 80% of the time, even when choosing between three options.

      Community members selected a community advocacy program as most helpful 48.8% of the time. Community members from outside of Lyon County were more likely (62.5%) than Lyon County (45.5%) to rate community advocacy as most helpful, when comparing the three options. When their choices were narrowed to two, the rate went up to 56.1%. This figure went up to 81.1% when the community member was not from Lyon County.

      Battered women, when given 3 choices, did not rate community advocacy as highly as the other respondents. 39.2% rated community advocacy programs as most helpful. However, battered women rated a CJI program almost as highly (33.8%), and both were considered more helpful than a regional shelter, which they rated as most helpful only 24.3% of the time. Lyon county battered women were the most likely to rate the shelter highly (47.1%), while 75.8% of the rest of the battered women selected a Marshall shelter as least helpful. When given two choices, however, between either shelter or community advocacy, all battered women selected community advocacy at a much higher rate (63.5%) than when given three choices.

      Race did not significantly affect battered women's preferences, but battered women earning under $10,000 per year, who represented almost 40% of the sample, rated a CJI program as most helpful (42.4%) of all three choices.

Conclusions and Recommendations

      Among survey respondents in Economic Region 8, the survey showed a preference for accessible community advocacy programs that use safehousing. It is recommended that:

      Additionally, considering the strong need for criminal justice reform expressed by battered women, it is recommended that this work begin immediately. It is also recommended that a criminal justice intervention program be initiated in Marshall and that as funding becomes available, additional CJI's be developed in the region.

Editor's note: Since this survey was performed, many of the recommendations have been put into effect. WRAP now has offices in Redwood and Lincoln counties, and cover Murray county as well. There is also a CJI office in Marshall, which is part of WRAP.