LiveSafe Resources helps and empowers victims of physical and sexual assault.
By Cory Sekine-Pettite
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, on average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. This equates to more than 10 million women and men per year. The organization reports that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 9 men experience severe intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner contact sexual violence, and/or intimate partner stalking with impacts such as injury, fearfulness, post-traumatic stress disorder, use of victim services, contraction of sexually transmitted diseases, etc. Moreover, a report from the Council on Criminal Justice shows that domestic violence incidents in this country increased by 8.1 percent following the imposition of lockdown orders during the 2020 pandemic — and they’ve yet to decrease.
This article, however, does not concentrate on the negative. Instead, it shares a story of hope, resiliency, and organizational support for those impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault within our community. This is the story of a non-profit that, for the past 107 years, has served the citizens of Cobb County tirelessly — first as a civic organization providing different educational and social activities (mostly for women and children) during times of war, and then as an emergency shelter for victims of domestic violence in the State of Georgia. Today, this group still provides shelter, but they also offer transitional housing, healthcare, counseling, and more. This is the story of LiveSafe Resources.
Since first receiving its charter in 1917 as the YWCA of Northwest Georgia (YWCA), LiveSafe Resources has built a rich history serving citizens of Cobb, Cherokee and Paulding counties. They opened their first emergency shelter in 1978 — the first such facility in Georgia — and through 2007, the YWCA provided a variety of programs and services, including emergency shelter and transitional housing options, the county’s first licensed childcare facility for preschoolers of homeless families, the Paulding County Early Learning Center and the onsite public swimming pool. In 2005, the YWCA established the protocol for response to sexual assault in Cobb County in partnership with Wellstar Health System, local law enforcement, and the District Attorney’s office.
Under new leadership in 2007, the board of directors made the decision for the YWCA to focus entirely on its mission to deliver programs and services, increasing awareness and reducing the occurrence of domestic violence and sexual assault. All other programs were relocated to other local organizations. Then, in 2016, the board changed the organization’s name. In January 2017, LiveSafe Resources was established with an updated mission: To provide safety and healing to those impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault by offering services, creating awareness, and fostering support within our community.
“We are looked to as a strong partner with the state and other agencies to provide not just core services, such as housing and stabilization in an emergency, but also programming that helps provide our clients and their families safety planning and next steps in their lives where they can move forward and establish themselves as independent,” said Lisa Mello, Chief Executive Officer for LiveSafe Resources.
Mello, who has spent more than 24 years working in the non-profit sector for organizations including the American Cancer Society and the Wellstar Foundation, said over the past year, LiveSafe Resources has served more than 3,500 individuals, and she expects that number to be larger this year. “This year, so far, from January first through May 31, we’ve served 1,935 individuals with over 13,000 different services,” she said. Those services range from hotel stays to counseling and forensic exams for assault victims.
LiveSafe Resources’ free counseling services for victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and their family members are provided by licensed staff and contract counselors — a program the organization is working to expand with more full-time, onsite professionals; their solution-focused brief counseling approach includes 12 individual counseling sessions, group support and family counseling, and other therapeutic modalities that are tailored to address the client’s needs. Services also are available in Spanish. “We partner with organizations like with Ser Familia to provide culturally appropriate counseling for our Spanish-speaking clients … about 15 percent of our clients are Latino or Hispanic,” Mello said. “We want to make sure that we provide appropriate, culturally relevant counseling where clients will feel open to being able to work with the team.”
Mello shared the need for behavioral health and mental health services is on the rise among all age groups. From a domestic violence and sexual assault standpoint, she said specialized services, including suicide prevention, are needed not only for adult victims but for the children that they bring. “When you think about our clients, usually, if they are a single individual, that’s one focus area for our counselors. But on average, our clients bring four children with them,” Mello said. “Annually, 60 to 80 percent of our clients are children. So, we focus on child advocacy, ensuring we have the appropriate child play therapy in place. …Those services for us, from a health perspective, truly are a core service of LiveSafe Resources. And then on the other side of it, from our sexual assault programming, of course, we employ nurses.”
The organization has two staff nurses and 10 on-call nurses who run the sexual assault program (available to clients 24/7). In the program, advocates will sit with clients going through examinations, and they will work with law enforcement. “Our advocates help patients map out what’s next and what they may need because that need is sometimes safe shelter,” Mello said. “Depending on their circumstances, clients might need additional follow-up care, so we partner with Cobb Douglas Public Health for additional testing and things of that nature that go outside of our walls.”
It should be noted that LiveSafe Resources has additional healthcare partnerships with Wellstar Health System in Cobb and Paulding counties, as well as Northside Hospital System in Cherokee County. “It really does take all of us to be able to provide these services,” Mello said. “We offer them 24/7 for free, so that anyone who is experiencing these emergency situations can come to us, work through our crisis management program, and not receive a bill.”
As an independent 501(c)(3) organization, LiveSafe Resources’ fundraising and development activities are supported by in-kind resources from corporate sponsors, grantors, and individual donors, as well as special events and fundraising campaigns. The organization is primarily supported by public and private grants, program income, and voluntary contributions. Current corporate partners include S.A. White Oil Company, Genuine Parts Company, Wellstar Foundation, Cobb EMC, Verizon, Atlanta Women’s Foundation, and Georgia Power. “We have a lot of great partnerships in our community and beyond that really help support our core services,” Mello said.
One of the goals of LiveSafe Resources is to increase awareness of the gravity and impact of domestic violence and sexual assault in Northwest Georgia. Anyone interested in volunteering with the organization can do so in a multitude of ways, including as administrative or front desk volunteers or working in specific LiveSafe Resources programs such as the children’s program, elder abuse visitation, shelter advocate, court advocate, and more. Volunteers go through 40 hours of state-mandated training, and they become so-called mandatory reporters because LiveSafe Resources works with children; the law designed to prevent children from facing further abuse. “Volunteering with us takes a special individual, and we actually are growing in our volunteer program, which is really nice to see,” Mello said.
Additionally, donations can be made through the LiveSafe Resources website at livesaferesources.org/donate.
Mello said if there’s one thing readers take away from reading this article, it is that by supporting LiveSafe Resources, you can help to break generational trauma for victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. “We help break generational trauma by focusing on these children and providing their parents the ability to stabilize, to seek jobs and schooling. Our partnership with Marietta City Schools allows us to keep those kids in school and provide that stability.”
The majority of programs offered by LiveSafe Resources impact the children directly because their parents are working to break cycles and remain focused. “It breaks your heart, but it also gives you hope when you know that the programs that we have really do make an impact,” Mello said. And they wouldn’t exist without the community that is Cobb County.”
LiveSafe Resources
Administrative Offices:
48 Henderson Street
Marietta, GA 30064
770.427.2902
livesaferesources.org
Temporary Protective Order Office:
770.528.8024
24-Hour Crisis Line:
770.427.3390
