24 Hour Crisis Line: (919) 403-6562 or Email the Crisis Line
About Us
For more than twenty years, the Durham Crisis Response Center has been the sole provider of comprehensive shelter and support services in the Durham area, providing counseling, legal advocacy, support groups, and shelter to survivors and their families in the aftermath of domestic or sexual violence. DCRC also offers youth prevention workshops and training to schools, the general public and professionals throughout the Triangle. Over the years, DCRC helped more than 20,000 women and children. Last year alone, 170 women and children found safety at the Durham Crisis Response Center shelter, and another 1100 learned they have an ally who can help them stop the violence.
Mission
The Durham Crisis Response Center works with the community to end domestic and sexual violence through advocacy, education, support and prevention.
History
Durham Crisis Response Center: Domestic and Sexual Violence Services is the result of the merger of two long-standing community agencies that together served the Durham community for over twenty years: Rape Crisis of Durham (RCD) and the Orange-Durham Coalition for Battered Women. In February 2001, the Boards of both agencies voted to create one comprehensive agency to provide domestic and sexual violence services. Planning for the merger began in 1999, and the Boards finalized the merger on October 15, 2001. Durham Crisis Response Center(DCRC) is now the only agency in Durham dedicated to providing advocacy, shelter and support services to victims of domestic and sexual violence. Our ultimate goal is to ensure every victim is a survivor.
Summary of Services
DCRC’s continuum of service includes a 24-hour, confidential crisis line for victims of domestic and sexual violence, short-term emergency shelter, hospital and court accompaniment, legal clinics with local attorneys, support groups, short-term individual counseling, and referrals for job training, housing, childcare and other community services--all direct services are offered to the community free of charge. We also offer educational workshops and professional training for service providers, churches, schools, police, hospitals, civic groups and other community members. For more information, click services.
Highlights from FY 2003-2004
Sexual Assault Investigation Training for Durham City Officers
Throughout the summer and fall of 2003, DCRC staff spent every Monday and Tuesday with a group of veteran officers from the Durham Police Department. Over 367 officers received 12 hours of intensive training on victim presentation, offender profiling, forensic evidence collection, and effective interview and response protocols for sexual assault crimes.
New Hospital Response Protocols for Duke Health Systems
Throughout the fall of 2003 and spring/summer of 2004, DCRC worked with an interdisciplinary team to create a Domestic Violence Screening and Response Protocol for Duke and Durham Regional Emergency Departments. DCRC assisted in the training of all ED staff in both hospitals-over 30 training sessions for hundreds of nurses, physicians, EMS personnel, and nursing assistants. DCRC also developed an information packet for patients who disclose trauma-over 500 packets were distributed in the first year.
Evaluation of DCRC Programs
In January of 2004, DCRC compiled an independent safety audit of all its programs and services. The review looked at all the processing routines of the agency through staff interviews, community surveys, victim focus groups, record reviews and on-site observations of staff and volunteers collected over a 12-month period from 2002-2003. The results were then compared to a set of best practice standards developed from information from the Pennsylvania Battered Women's Coalition and the Family Violence Prevention Fund. Currently, DCRC is implementing the audit recommendations to ensure victim safety is always at the center of its practices and improve the overall operation of the agency.
For more information about the agency, including recent 990s, please see our listing through GuideStar.
