On March 27, 2020, Governor Roy Cooper issued a stay-at-home order to keep N.C. residents
safe from the COVID-19 virus. But for thousands in Mecklenburg County, home is anywhere
but safe. While some of us were comfortably locked down with pizza and the latest Netflix
series, others were locked in with their abusers.
“Domestic violence and sexual assault have spiked during the lockdown,” said Caitlin Donley,
chief advancement and finance officer for Safe Alliance. “Calls to the Hope Line went up 45
percent in the first few days of the lockdown while Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department
reported a 20 percent increase in domestic violence over the same time period last year.”
Safe Alliance is a 100+-year-old organization that serves victims of domestic violence and
sexual assault in Mecklenburg County, with a 24-hour emergency Hope Line; a victim assistance court program to help with legal issues including restraining orders; a sexual trauma resource center providing one-to-one advocacy and counseling; and a domestic violence shelter that gives residents a safe place to stay as well as healing services.
Last spring, Safe Alliance received a $50,000 Women’s Impact Fund grant to provide hope,
healing and support for individuals impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault in the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg region.
“The WIF grant has meant hope for us. It came at a pivotal time when we didn’t know what the
future held. With all the unknowns, we had the capacity to say ‘yes’ to the things we needed to
do,” Donley explained.
Saying ‘yes’ meant pivoting from housing families in an 80-bed shelter with shared apartment
suites to operating two shelters to accommodate the increased need and house family units
safely together. It also meant keeping vital programs running in a pandemic environment–
using phone support, telehealth visits and plastic shields when clients and staff needed to meet
face to face.
Donley says Safe Alliance has lived its mission throughout these changing times: “Our mantra
has been to stay open and stay safe for clients and the staff who are there to serve our clients.”
Domestic violence affects every income class equally, but those with fewer resources have less
options to deal with it. Safe Alliance wants the community to know it is here for any victim of
domestic violence, any time. No judgement. Just support.
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