{"id":151062,"date":"2018-08-09T17:03:23","date_gmt":"2018-08-09T22:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=151062"},"modified":"2018-08-10T10:01:38","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T15:01:38","slug":"heitkamp-tours-marys-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=151062","title":{"rendered":"Senator Heitkamp tours Mary’s Place"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jamestown\u00a0 (Sen. Heitkamp’s Offce) \u2013 <\/strong>U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp Thursday toured Mary\u2019s Place, a new facility to provide emergency shelter, resources, and transitional services for victims of domestic and sexual violence in the Jamestown area. Following the tour, Heitkamp convened Mary\u2019s Place staff, local law enforcement, health care professionals, and Jamestown leaders to discuss the needs of the community as it works to address domestic violence and provide shelter and services for survivors.<\/p>\n

Like many other communities in North Dakota, Jamestown\u2019s affordable housing opportunities have decreased\u2014 which exacerbates the difficulty in finding safe transitional or permanent housing for victims of domestic or sexual violence. After opening in June 2018, Mary\u2019s Place now provides additional safe housing opportunities for victims in Stutsman, and\u00a0 Foster, counties.<\/p>\n

Heitkamp talked about how critical it is to combat domestic violence at both the local and federal levels. She also discussed with the group the progress that has been made to stop domestic violence and better support survivors as a result of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) \u2013 legislation Heitkamp helped implement statewide when she served as North Dakota\u2019s Attorney General. Reauthorizing VAWA was one of the first bills<\/a> she cosponsored and helped pass as a U.S. senator in 2013. She worked to include a key provision in VAWA to strengthen existing programs and provide tribal governments the authority and tools necessary to prosecute non-Indian perpetrators who commit these crimes on tribal land. Largely due to VAWA, according to the Justice Department, the annual incidences of domestic violence have\u00a0fallen more than 60 percent<\/a>\u00a0since 1993.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cSince my time as Attorney General and in the U.S. Senate, I\u2019ve continued to see the urgent need to help domestic violence victims find safe and reliable housing to escape their abusers,\u201d said Heitkamp<\/strong>. \u201cIn addition to providing women and children with safety and residential stability, we also must focus on giving victims and their families the counselling, legal services, and other resources they need to get back on their feet. Today, I heard from community leaders, victims\u2019 advocates, and law enforcement about how the important services offered at Mary\u2019s Place will give the Jamestown community additional tools to provide critical transitional housing and other services for victims of domestic violence in the area. Community efforts like this one\u2014 combined with federal efforts I\u2019ve supported like the Violence Against Women Act\u2014 make huge differences in reducing incidents of domestic violence, keeping our communities strong and safe, and giving hope to those looking to leave dangerous and traumatic situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cToo many victims of domestic violence don\u2019t receive the comprehensive support they need to escape the violence and permanently leave an abusive relationship,\u201d said Lynne Tally, Executive Director, Mary\u2019s Place at Safe Shelter<\/strong>. \u201cThankfully, the Jamestown community has graciously stepped up to help address this challenge, and Mary\u2019s Place will provide temporary housing options and wraparound services that best support survivors in our area. We greatly appreciate Senator Heitkamp visiting the new facility today and working to raise awareness about the need for emergency and transitional housing and supportive services across North Dakota. As we work together to stop the spread of family violence, she continues to stand up for domestic violence survivors and their families in our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In one survey,\u00a051.5 percent<\/a>\u00a0of U.S. domestic violence victims who sought housing services did not receive them, meaning they may have been forced to stay in or return to an abusive environment. And on just one day in 2016<\/a>, 80 percent of unmet requests for emergency domestic violence services in North Dakota were related to housing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Heitkamp has continued to prioritize transitional housing for domestic violence victims in North Dakota while seeking justice against their abusers. In December 2017, Heitkamp introduced her bipartisan bill\u2014the HEALS Act\u2014 <\/em><\/a>\u00a0to increase transitional housing support and encourage community housing options that best support survivors. And in October 2017 as part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Heitkamp\u00a0toured the Minot Domestic Violence Crisis Center<\/a>\u00a0and helped present additional funding for its transitional housing facilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamestown\u00a0 (Sen. Heitkamp’s Offce) \u2013 U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp Thursday toured Mary\u2019s Place, a new facility to provide emergency shelter, resources, and transitional services for victims of domestic and sexual violence in the Jamestown area. Following the tour, Heitkamp convened Mary\u2019s Place staff, local law enforcement, health care professionals, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31894,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jamestown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151062"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151102,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151062\/revisions\/151102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}