Utah gets grant for rural communities
 Money will be used to help domestic violence victims in polygamy colonies
 
By Patrice St. Germain
The Spectrum
 
HURRICANE -- A grant in the amount of almost $700,000, announced Monday, was set aside to help domestic violence victims from polygamous and rural communities in Utah and Arizona.

Utah Attorney General spokesman Paul Murphy said the goal of the grant is to reach those in underserved, rural areas and said the Attorney General's office couldn't think of a more underserved population than those living in the polygamist communities of Hildale and Colorado City.

But the Safe Passage Program, as it is called, will help domestic violence victims statewide, Murphy said.

"This grant will give the sheriff's office another deputy, provide another case worker and extend the domestic violence hotline hours," he said. "This will help a lot of people but the focus is to break down barriers to reach people who have not been getting the services they need, don't have a voice and don't have access to help."

The program, in addition to law enforcement and social services, will provide legal aid, housing and transportation and is provided by the Justice Department's Office of Violence Against Women, which allocated the $698,636 grant. The Utah Attorney General's Office is the fiscal agent for the grant but will partner with the Utah Division of Child and Family Services, Utah Domestic Violence Council, DOVE Center, Washington County Sheriff's Office, St. George Police Department, Utah Legal Services and the Mohave County Sheriff's Office in Arizona.

Using the grant, the sheriff's office will be able to provide additional patrol to the area in the form of another deputy, to be hired exclusively for that area of the county along with the needed vehicle and equipment.

"We are grateful for the money," said Washington County Sheriff Kirk Smith. "This will give us one deputy for an area that has not been given too much attention over the years."

Smith said the Washington County Sheriff's Office is hoping to have a small office, possibly in Colorado City in a space shared with the Mohave County Sheriff's Office which may mean some deputies would have to be cross-deputized.

The grant will also enable the DOVE Center to hire an additional social service worker to assist victims and their children and upgrade its security system.

DOVE Center Executive Director Lynda Whitlock said the center has seen an increase of 74 percent overall this year over last but could not specify where those needing help are coming from. And she stressed that the center is not treating a religion but treating abuse.

Whitlock said abusers tend to isolate their victims and a closed society, such as Hildale and Colorado City, can be very conducive to abuse.

"It's a culturally sensitive population in the time of chaos and we are just starting to see the consequences," she said. "These people are isolated, they have a strong belief but are afraid of the unknown. The fear is very natural."

Through the Division of Child and Family Services, the grant will allow the division to hire a program manager who will coordinate training for social services providers and law enforcement officers to better assist victims from polygamous backgrounds.

Utah Legal Services will receive funds to provide legal services to victims who need assistance with contested divorce and custody cases and the Utah Domestic Violence Information and Referral Line will expand from its current 11 and a half hours a day to a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week service.

While the steps will be in place to help those victims of domestic violence in the underserved areas of Hildale and Colorado City, the grant money and the plans could be for naught if no one takes advantage of the services. That's why public education is also on the list of tasks.

Murphy said the first tasks for the program manager hired will be to get the information about the Safe Passage Program into the communities it is geared to serve.

"We are still looking at the public education and different ways to get the information out," Murphy said. "As of yet, we don't have a clear plan but we are thrilled we received the grant."
 
TheSpectrum.com
Originally published Tuesday, August 31, 2004
 
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