Hope is there for sexual assault and domestic violence victims

While this Ohio story is particularly horrific, the reality of domestic violence and sexual assault its victims can be found in any community, including Pacific County. Fortunately for residents in this area, the Crisis Support Network offers hope for individuals – mostly women and children – trying to escape from their own violent situations.

Kris Camenzind, executive director of the Crisis Support Network, has personal and professional knowledge of domestic violence and its victims. Camenzind became involved with the Crisis Support Network 14 years ago; first as a volunteer, then leading into paid positions. In 2006, she became the executive director – and she began taking the agency into new directions.

Her experience with domestic violence, however, began at home, years ago, when she was a young mother with an infant and a toddler. The walk she walked in those early years taught her far more about the impact of domestic violence – as well as its cohorts, sexual assault and general crime – than any school could have offered.

“My first marriage was abusive. We lived in Olympia. I left several times and went back,” she recalled. She said the first clue to her jealous, controlling ex should have been on her wedding night when her new husband told her to sleep on the floor in her wedding gown because she had danced with too many men at the reception. “Everybody wants to dance with the bride,” she said of the reception.

At that time, she didn’t know it was just the beginning of a marriage made up of power and control, fear and danger. When her first son was born, she said her ex “held a rifle to my head for several hours when the baby was 2 or 3 weeks old because the baby wanted to nurse and the baby was getting more attention than he was.”

She knew then that she needed to leave, but it was difficult. “One time I flew out of state under an alias, but he found out where I was working and called me. He was very charming and apologetic; he said we could work this out.

“When I got off the airplane, I was expecting a happy little reunion. That was in the days when people could meet you at the gate. He grabbed me by the back of my hair, and took the baby. He pulled me around the airport by my hair, and nobody stopped him. I wasn’t able even to hold the baby for three or four days, and the baby was still nursing at that time. That was the hardest part, hearing the baby cry and not being able to feed him.”

In spite of the horrible treatment Camenzind suffered in that marriage, she didn’t permanently leave her first husband until her stepfather – a prosecutor who was familiar with her ex-husband’s run-ins with the law – intervened on Kris’s behalf. Today Camenzind has a lifetime restraining order against her ex-husband.

That’s why, now, she takes every client’s situation seriously.

In the Crisis Support Network’s earlier years, focus was primarily on domestic violence victims much like Kris, with young children who need protection. While the agency still sees and helps this group of individuals, the victims have expanded to include others. In the past year, for instance, the Network has seen older women whose children are “grown and gone” and the husband is at retirement age. This group of older women often has no place to go outside of the home, and just as often no job skills to become independent.

In Pacific County, they turn to the Crisis Support Network for help. The cry for help comes more often now, too.

“Ten years ago, from 2001-2002 year, we had 15 sexual assault clients in comparison to 85 in the year 2010-2011,” Camenzind said. “In 2001-2002, we had 67 domestic violence cases compared to 139 in 2010-2011.”

The growth isn’t entirely due to more incidents of domestic violence or sexual assault.  It’s also due in part to the way the center deals with some issues. “In the past, we screened out people with chemical dependency or mental health issues,” Camenzind said. “When I came in, we screened them in, because they often are the most vulnerable.”

For those needing temporary housing at the domestic violence shelter, “we increased their days from 30 days to 90 days. A domestic violence victim can’t go through the grieving process, the legal process… nobody can do it in 30 days. If they need to stay longer than 90 days, we can extend that on a case-by-case basis.”

The growth in numbers of clients at the Network also can be attributed to other reasons, Camenzind said. “We’ve worked really hard to create positive relationships with the hospital, child protective services, law enforcement and others that just recognize when a victim needs support.

The growth in numbers of clients at the Network also can be attributed to other reasons, Camenzind said. “We’ve worked really hard to create positive relationships with the hospital, child protective services, law enforcement and others that just recognize when a victim needs support.

“We have a lot of people come to us by word of mouth from people who have used our services. People who are now living free of broken bones, and free from hiding from the community are now sending others our way.”