Column: Verde Valley Sanctuary serves domestic violence victims

Over the past 30 years, Verde Valley Sanctuary has grown from a small grassroots organization with just six beds to a 32-bed pet-friendly shelter. Our services have expanded to include transitional housing, a 24-7-365 crisis hotline, lay legal advocacy, prevention education, and constant awareness and outreach by our community-based advocacy department. This growth is a testament to the support and dedication of our community, and we are proud to continue serving with the same care and concern as our founders envisioned.

Note: This article originally appeared as a “Guest Perspective” column in the Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2024, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News. To read the statement issued by Verde Valley Sanctuary in response to claims made by former staff in July 2024, please click here.

I began my journey in this line of work almost 25 years ago at a domestic violence shelter in Maricopa County, similar in size to Verde Valley Sanctuary. I spent the first decade of my career working directly with hundreds of survivors and children in shelters, and the criminal justice system. I took those years of direct service with me to the statewide level in the mid-2000s, where my experience was welcomed in writing statewide standards for domestic violence programs, all while being appointed to task forces, and publishing academic articles about survivors and housing, among other things. My 25 years of professionalism in this state, the operational and financial stability of Verde Valley Sanctuary, and most importantly, the quality staff and services to survivors in our community tell the story that should be listened to.

VVS has nearly the identical number of clients served in our emergency shelter over the past four years, averaging between 162 and 173 “Survivors” in shelter every year, according to annual reports. Clients remain safe and secure in our care, and in fact, our crisis hotline (928-634-2511) has seen an uptick in calls over the past three years, from 718 in 2021-22 to 1,010 in 2023-24. During the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency shelter staff answered more than 2,000 calls in 2020-21 when domestic violence situations saw an increase of 8.1% across the country due to pandemic-related lockdowns, according to a report by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice.

Furthermore, transparency is vital to us at Verde Valley Sanctuary. That is why you can find our annual third-party financial audits and IRS Form 990s posted at VerdeValleySanctuary.org and client grievance forms posted throughout the shelter for clients to access and turn in anonymously if they choose.

With about 90% of our employees being survivors, some of whom received services from Verde Valley Sanctuary, we strive daily to protect clients going through one of the most difficult and challenging times of their lives. Providing a safe place for survivors is our mission, one we all take personally and seriously. Whether it’s sorting and steaming donations at a thrift store, answering the crisis line at 2 a.m., teaching a group of rambunctious kindergartners about empathy, cutting a check for a survivor’s rent and security deposit on a new safe place to live, sitting with a survivor to prepare to face their abuser in family court, transporting a survivor to the bus line to relocate them out of state for safety, or spending thousands of dollars every year on weekly grocery runs, these acts of service are just a tiny part of what Verde Valley Sanctuary does for survivors, and our community every day that I have the absolute privilege to witness.

In the fiscal year 2023-2024, we provided 7,700 services to over 1,300 survivors of domestic and sexual violence. This represents an increase from the last fiscal year and why Verde Valley Sanctuary continues to thrive. We remain focused on continuing to offer our match savings programs to survivors in our transitional housing program, expanding our pet-friendly area at the shelter and transitional housing, increasing services for survivors of sexual assault in the Verde Valley, expanding our annual Teen Maze project to include schools in Yavapai County that have never had the chance to participate before, and increasing the number of available transitional housing units for survivors and their families in the face of an affordable housing crisis in the state.

With October being national Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we sincerely hope that you will join us in our mission, which is to provide safety, services, and comfort to survivors of domestic and sexual violence.

If you or someone you know needs help or someone to talk to, anonymous help is available, including the Verde Valley Sanctuary at (928-634-2511), the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (800-799-SAFE), the Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Helpline at (602-279-2980), and Arizona 2-1-1 at (211).

— Jessye Johnson, Executive Director, Verde Valley Sanctuary