The Listening Ear Crisis Intervention Center of East Lansing, Michigan is the oldest all volunteer crisis center operating in the United States. The Listening Ear Crisis Intervention Center has been open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year since July 15, 1969 and has served more than 300,000 phone and walk-in clients. The center provides free and confidential service for telephone and walk-in clients in crisis. The center also provides free sexual assault counseling, advocacy and community education to survivors of sexual assault and their significant others.
The Listening Ear opened its doors at 5471⁄2 East Grand River on July 15, 1969. The first training session was designed by Dr. Dozier Thornton, a psychology professor from Michigan State University. The program ran for 40 hours (this quickly grew into the 65+ hour training of today).
The founders decided that they would stay open if they received at least 100 calls each month for the first three months. They received more than 1500. The annual operating budget was about $6000.
In July 1976, The Rape Counseling program, was established, providing free, short-term counseling to sexual assault survivors as well as advocacy and community education.
On April 13, 1990, The Listening Ear was named the 113th of 1000 Points of Light for its "Outstanding efforts in behalf of [the] community" by President George H. W. Bush.
In 2003, the organization's office manager embezzled more than $13,000, an amount greater than 15% of the annual operating budget. [1]
In June 2016, it was discovered that three volunteers at the organization were registered sex offenders taking calls on the hotline. The story was covered locally in the media, which incited some community backlash within the Greater Lansing area, and removal from the Capital Area Sexual Assault Response Team. [2] [3] On June 5, 2016, The Listening Ear removed the three sex offenders from their staff, and implemented a background check policy that precludes sex offenders from volunteering with the agency. [4] [5] It also inspired one state senator to quickly propose legislation to prevent people convicted of sexual assault from volunteering or working at agencies that serve sexual assault survivors and children. [6] [7] This legislation was opposed by the ACLU and by the end of the year was deemed unlikely to pass. [8] [9]
Telephone counseling refers to any type of psychological service performed over the telephone. Telephone counseling ranges from individual, couple or group psychotherapy with a professional therapist to psychological first aid provided by para-professional counselors. In-person therapists often advise clients to make use of telephone crisis counseling to provide the client with an avenue to obtain support outside of therapy if they cannot be reached in an emergency or at the conclusion of a therapeutic relationship.
The Diocese of Lansing is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory – or diocese – of the Catholic Church located in the south-central portion of Michigan in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of metropolitan Archdiocese of Detroit.
The Berkeley Free Clinic is a non-profit community clinic located in Berkeley, California, US. It is operated as a worker-run collective by more than 100 volunteers. It has provided free medical care since opening in 1969.
Rape crisis centers in the United States, usually capitalized as Rape Crisis Center and often abbreviated as RCC, are community-based organizations affiliated with the anti-rape movement in the U.S. Rape crisis centers in other countries offer similar services, but have different histories and vary in their organizational structure.
The Marjaree Mason Center is a non-profit, shelter-based, domestic violence program headquartered in Fresno, California. Named for an Easton, California woman who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, the center operates one of the largest shelters in California.
The Bahamas Crisis Centre is a private, non-profit organization located in Nassau, New Providence, Bahamas that is dedicated to treating victims of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.
As sexual violence affects all parts of society, the responses that arise to combat it are comprehensive, taking place on the individual, administrative, legal, and social levels.
Ozone House, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that works to "meet the needs of runaway, homeless, and high-risk youth and their families." Ozone House addresses these objectives through a variety of services and venues, including a 24-hour youth crisis hotline, emergency youth shelter, transitional living programs, a drop-in center, and street outreach. It is a state-licensed Child Caring Institution and a Substance Abuse Prevention provider. Ozone Houses offers support throughout the state of Michigan, but is focused more directly in the surrounding Washtenaw County area. The organization takes its name from the Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen song "Lost in the Ozone", owing to its roots as a drug-counseling program. Historically, it is among the first-generation alternative service providers that emerged in the 1960s dealing with runaways and the needs of at-risk youth.
A rape crisis centre, also known as a sexual assault crisis centre or sexual assault referral centre (SARC), is a specialised centre to support victims of rape or other sexual assault, both in the immediate aftermath of the assault and in the months and sometimes years following the attack. They are usually situated in a secure location and employ a multidisciplinary team of practitioners to provide medical, psychological, and practical support to the victim.
The anti-rape movement is a sociopolitical movement which is part of the movement seeking to combat violence against and the abuse of women.
Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) is a Los Angeles-based anti-human trafficking organization. Through legal, social, and advocacy services, CAST helps rehabilitate survivors of human trafficking, raises awareness, and affects legislation and public policy surrounding human trafficking.
The Women's Shelter of South Texas was established in 1978 to provide emergency shelter and support for victims of domestic violence. Services expanded in 1993 to include survivors of sexual assault. New facilities were built in 1994 that allows up to 65 clients. In 1995, the Batterers Intervention and Prevention Program (BIPP) was established. In 1987 the agency expanded to provide services to rural areas in Alice, Beeville, Kingsville, and Sinton. The Shelter wants to include offices and a full staff in each location. The organization continues to educate and prevent sexual assault in South Texas.
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) is an American nonprofit organization that addresses the causes and impact of sexual violence through collaboration, prevention, and resources. Working in collaboration with state and territory sexual assault coalitions, representatives from underserved populations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, and a host of community-based and national allied projects, NSVRC provides national leadership to address and prevent sexual violence.
The Pennsylvania Coalition to Advance Respect (PCAR), known as the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape from 1975 to 2023, is an organization that opposes rape and sexual violence in Pennsylvania and the United States, and advocates for victims of sexual violence.
The management of domestic violence deals with the treatment of victims of domestic violence and preventing repetitions of such violence. The response to domestic violence in Western countries is typically a combined effort between law enforcement, social services, and health care. The role of each has evolved as domestic violence has been brought more into public view.
Jan BenDor is a women's rights activist based in the Ann Arbor area of Michigan in the United States. Known as the "Founding Mother of the Rape Crisis Center movement in Michigan," she was named to the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1991.
Safe Horizon, formerly the Victim Services Agency, is the largest victim services nonprofit organization in the United States, providing social services for victims of abuse and violent crime. Operating at 57 locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Safe Horizon provides social services to over 250,000 victims of violent crime and abuse and their families per year. It has over 800 employees, and has programs for victims of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, and human trafficking, as well as homeless youth and the families of homicide victims. Safe Horizon's website has been accessible for the Spanish-speaking population since 2012. Safe Horizon has an annual budget of over $63 million.
John Gerald Geddert was an American artistic gymnastics coach, who was a head coach of the gold-medal 2012 U.S. women's Olympic team and regular coach of team member Jordyn Wieber. He retired when suspended by USA Gymnastics in 2018 after being implicated in the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal centered on his long-time associate Larry Nassar. Geddert committed suicide in 2021, shortly after being charged with 24 criminal charges, including 20 counts of human trafficking of a minor, one count each of first-degree criminal sexual assault, second-degree criminal sexual assault involving a minor, and lying to a police officer.
Womankind, formerly known as the New York Asian Women's Centre (NYAWC), was founded in 1982 by a group of volunteers led by Pat Eng. In 2017, the NYAWC changed its name to Womankind. It is a non-profit organization which aims to empower Asian survivors of gender based violence. Womankind was initially a community awareness program designed to educate families about domestic violence in Chinatown, and then developed into a 24-hour multilingual hotline that now includes 18 different Asian languages and dialects. Womankind also provides Asian immigrant women confidential services including an emergency refuge, shelter services, crisis counseling, 24-hour online free multilingual hotline, welfare promotion, support groups, parenting workshops, children's services, volunteer training, community education, and some English courses. Each year, the organization receives over 3,000 hotline calls.
The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel (ARCCI) is the umbrella organization of the nine rape crisis centers operating throughout Israel. The rape crisis centers provide assistance, counseling and support to victims and victims of sexual violence, and operate the assistance lines 1202, 1203 and Kolmila, which works via chat and WhatsApp.