Laurel House was among 1,648 domestic violence programs throughout the United States country that participated in a national project called Domestic Violence Counts: A 24 Hour Census of Domestic Violence Shelters and Services. It is coordinated through the
National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), and this is the 4th year for the project.
Shelters are asked to track their statistics for one day (which Laurel House does every day for funding requirements). The results, released today in recognition of International Women's Day (but with the full understanding that domestic violence does not discriminate against gender), are shocking.
83% of the country's domestic violence programs collectively tracked their statistics for one designated day, September 15, 2009.
Within those programs,
65,321 adults and children were assisted through shelter, transitional housing, and advocacy.
23,045 hotline calls were answered (that's over 16 calls every minute!)
30,735 people were trained at 1,468 community education sessions.
9,280 requests for services went unmet because of a lack of resources or staffing. 60% of the unmet requests were for emergency shelter or transitional housing and 40% of the unmet requests were for non-residential services.
17,445 children under the age of 18 spent the night of September 15, 2009 in a domestic violence shelter or transitional housing program - far more than the approximately 11,000 children born every day across the U.S.
7 babies were born in a domestic violence shelter or transitional housing program.
For the full 2009 report and state summaries, please go to
www.nnedv.org/census.
