A North Texas organization that helps victims of domestic violence has launched a new program that addresses the issue before it becomes violent. They're this week's KRLD Difference Makers.
Unfortunately, this is a common story.
“That escalation…it’s verbal and then it becomes aggressive and then it becomes physical and then physical violence can lead to homicide,” said Lori Nelson, Director of Community Engagement at Denton Friends of the Family. “There were 200 domestic violence homicides in 2020.”
Denton County Friends of the Family is the sole provider of services to those impacted by domestic violence and sexual assault.
“We provide a variety of services but we are probably most known for our emergency shelter and then we have a 24 hour crisis line, which his 940-382-7273. Beyond those emergency services we provide services like advocacy and case management, legal assistant and lots of therapy. We also have our community outreach to provide education and training to really bring awareness to domestic violence and sexual assault,” said Lori.
But while the organization focuses on helping victims, it recently launched a new program that educates batterers and potential batterers.
“Our Batterer Intervention and Prevention Program, or BIPP, is a unique 28-week program that does some psychoeducational groups for those who use power and control. What is probably most valuable is that as they go through this program they can start to see patterns of their behavior or identify where these beliefs came from. If battering a learned process, then they can work on changing that and learn something different,” Lori said.
Related
The unique BIPP program aims to prevent possible violence rather than react to it.
“Changing that pattern and those belief systems with batterers is homicide prevention,” Lori said. “If you can stop that escalation, you are truly saving lives.”
We're proud to call Denton Friends of the Family this week's KRLD Difference Maker.
If you know someone making a difference in the community send us an email at differencemaker@krld.com.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow NewsRadio 1080 KRLD