photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

A Douglas County Sheriff's Offie vehicle is pictured in January 2022.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office has received a federal grant to start a program to support survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

The Violence Against Women Act grant for $30,863 will be used to support the office’s advocacy staff and to train sheriff’s deputies as well as police officers in Eudora and Baldwin City to better aid survivors, according to a release from the sheriff’s office.

“I do think there is a way for advocacy work to have a spot within a law enforcement agency, so that we can support the civilians we are trying to help,” said Morgan Haney, the sheriff’s office community outreach and support advocate.

Haney will work with the Willow Domestic Violence Center to help people navigate the legal system after an experience with domestic violence or sexual assault.

Sheriff Jay Armbrister said the grant would allow the department to follow up with victims after a traumatic experience.

“We would respond to the initial call, and possibly make an arrest, but often no one reached back out in the short term to even check if the witnesses and victims were OK or needed anything, much less asked if they understood what was happening,” Armbrister said.

The Lawrence Police Department has had a staff member in a similar role for over a year, paid for by a VAWA grant, and now the county can offer that same support, Armbrister said.

In total, Douglas County has been awarded more than $210,000 in VAWA grants to aid victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

Two separate grants — a Federal Services, Training, Officers and Prosecutors Violence Against Women Act Formula grant for $46,860 and a Federal Sexual Assault Services Program grant for $69,441 — are recurring awards for the Sexual Trauma and Abuse Care Center, Executive Director Chrissy Heikkila said.

The center applies for them each year, and those grant dollars help the center to fund its therapy and advocacy services, Heikkila said. Advocates at the center provide supportive counseling, safety planning and other services. Therapy services are free of charge.

“It’s grants like these that make all of our work possible,” Heikkila said. “In 2021, we just had our busiest year to date, in the 50 years we’ve been in our community. Funding like this is more important than ever before to keep up maintenance and support for survivors.”

In addition, the Douglas County District Attorney’s Office got a renewed grant for $64,481. The grant supports the salary for a full-time prosecutor who focuses on domestic violence cases in Douglas County.

— Reporter Austin Hornbostel contributed to this report.