KANSAS CITY PARTICIPATES IN SEVENTH ANNUAL NATIONAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE REPORT

Written by Doug Riley

Wednesday, 23 July 2003

Kansas City, MO (July 23, 2003) - For the first time in seven years, the national report on domestic violence for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community includes a narrative about Kansas City. The latest report for the 2002 statistical year, published by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), is being released today. The Kansas City Anti-Violence Project (KCAVP), the local NCAVP member organization, was formally established in June 2003 and is sited as an emerging program in the report.

The purpose of NCAVP's report is to document incidence rates, survivors' stories and legal implications of domestic violence (DV) in LGBT communities across the country. Fourteen member organizations representing eleven geographic regions throughout the U.S. participated in collecting data in 2002.

According to the report, "In part, the purpose of this report is to 'bear witness' to the reality of and voice to some of the individuals within LGBT communities experiencing DV. There remains an extraordinary lack of awareness and level of denial about the existence of this type of violence, both by those who are part of the LGBT community, as well as those in the 'mainstream' anti-DV movement, in which services are primarily oriented to heterosexual women." The 2002 NCAVP report can be viewed and downloaded in its entirety from www.kcavp.org.

Doug Riley, executive director of KCAVP explains, "KCAVP's mission, like other NCAVP member organizations, is to provide previously unmet services to LGBT victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and educate the community at large about how to respond to and, eventually, prevent these crimes." Riley continues, "Through the process of introducing KCAVP as a new nonprofit organization serving the metropolitan Kansas City area, the reaction has often been one of surprise that LGBT individuals are victims of these crimes at all. By compiling statistical data and real world stories, my hope is that this report will begin to transform surprise into awareness and action in support of KCAVP."

Since the beginning of 2003, KCAVP has received several calls from LGBT victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. With increased funding, KCAVP plans to offer additional services including emergency assistance, court advocacy and increased community education and outreach by the end of the year. KCAVP will also submit statistical data to NCAVP for the 2003 report on domestic violence.

KCAVP is a Missouri nonprofit corporation committed to providing services, advocacy and education for LGBT-related domestic violence and sexual assault within the five counties that encompass the metropolitan Kansas City area.