Telluride’s San Miguel Resource Center hosts 15th annual Fling, 2/6

The San Miguel Resource Center and The Telluride AIDS Benefit fight a common misconception: Not in my backyard. In rebuttal, numbers from the Resource Center talk, muzzling the naysayers and providing hard reasons to support the non-profit’s overriding objective: promote healthy, loving relationships  – that’s why the Fling is scheduled so close to Valentine’s Day – and put itself out of business by ending interpersonal violence in our greater community through education and support services.

It doesn’t matter where. It doesn’t matter who: sexual assault and domestic violence ignore cultural boundaries, race, even gender – although women are more often victims than men. The harsh fact is these twin horrors are equal opportunity offenders.

Nationally

• Intimate partner violence occurs across all populations, irrespective of social, economic, religious or cultural group.  Young women and those below the poverty line are disproportionately affected. (Violence by Intimate Partners. In: World Report on Violence and Health.  Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization, 2002, 9. 87-121.)

• Four  million American women experience a serious assault by an intimate partner during an average 12- month period. (Issues and Dilemmas in Family Violence: Report of the American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family.  Wash, DC: APA, 1996.)

• Nearly 5.3 million intimate partner victimizations occur each year among U.S. women age 18 and older.  This violence results in nearly 2 million injuries and 1,300 deaths. 75% of these victimizations are against females.  (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control: Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the US, Atlanta, GA.: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003.)

 • One in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner.  Abused girls are significantly more likely to get involved in other risky behaviors.  They are 4 to 6 times more like to get pregnant and 8 to 9 times more likely to have tried to commit suicide. ( Dating violence against adolescent girls and associated substance use, unhealthy weight control, sexual risk behavior, pregnancy, and suicidality, Pediatrics, Aug, 2004.)

San Miguel Resource Center:

208 total clients served in 2009.
155 were domestic violence victims in 2009 (75%)
45 had a primary language other than English in 2009.
32 were sexual assault victims (15%), both adult and children, in 2009.
21 (10%) other (assault, suicide, stalking, child physical abuse).
15 adults and children were safehoused for 35 nights in 2009. 
1, 833 phone service calls and 1200 face-to-face contacts in 2009.

The San Miguel Resource Center (then Tomboy House) was formed in 1992 by a group of locals as an non-profit victim services agency dealing primarily with domestic violence and sexual assault. By 1994, Tomboy House had established a 24-hour hotline to help domestic violence victims through crisis intervention, information, and referrals. Today, in addition to a hotline, the Resource Center provides a a wide range of services in English and Spanish including community outreach/education, crisis intervention, professionally facilitated support groups, advocacy (to help clients with court services, employers, housing, transportation).

The Resource Center gets 1/3 of its funding from local and state organizations 1/3 from larger government grants specifically geared to organizations that provide victim services, and 1/3 from fundraising, including the Fling.

To learn more about the San Miguel Resource Center organization and remarkable work, click the “play” button and listen to co-director Melanie Montoya’s podcast.

If you would like to support the SMRC with a donation please call 970-728-5842 ext. 4# or email director@sanmiguelresourcecenter.org. If you want to volunteer for this event please email ninianderson@mac.com. With further questions, please call 728-5842 ext. 4#.