The
Hattiesburg Rape Crisis Center was founded in May of 1983 as a private non-profit
organization through the cooperative efforts of the Hattiesburg Police Department,
the Forrest County District Attorney’s Office, Forrest General and Methodist
Hospitals, and the Counseling Center and Department of Public Safety at the
University of Southern Mississippi. In working independently with rape victims,
each of these agencies had discovered the need for supportive counseling and
coordination of resources, and services subsequently provided by the Center.
After several years of operation it was increasingly apparent there was a great need for services for sexually abused children. The Hattiesburg Rape Crisis center joined with other area agencies in the formation of a Multidisciplinary Task Force on Child Sexual Abuse and extended its crisis and counseling services to children and their families.
In
April 1986, the Center’s service area expanded from the Hattiesburg-Forrest
county area to an 11-county region, thanks to receipt of a large federal grant
for victims’ services. Because of this change in the geographical service
area and because the center was now extending services to victims of all types
of sexual abuse, in August 1986 the name of the agency was changed to the
Sexual Assault Crisis Center, Inc.
In
1994, a program for families of homicide victims
was added to the center’s services. This addition came due to a staff
member’s brother being murdered in 1990 in the Jackson area. Our staff
member searched for a support group to help with the trauma of this event
and was unable to find one that met specific needs of homicide families. With
the permission of the center’s board of directors, a group was begun
on a voluntary basis in November of 1994. By July of 1995, 19 people were
involved, it became an official program called Sharing Our Strength (SOS).
Families who have missing loved ones are also included in this program, and
offered support as well.
Celebrating
our 20th anniversary in December of 2003, the agency’s name was changed
to The Shafer Center For Crisis Intervention. This name was chosen to honor
Dr. Bill Shafer, the Director of the Counseling Center at USM. He allowed
us to have a crisis line in his office and trained his staff to answer the
phone until the Center was able to establish it’s own location. Dr.
Shafer continued to be one of the strongest supporters of our Center until
his death in 1998. He presented at each of our volunteer trainings and was
a continual resource. He encouraged us, nurtured us, and cheered us every
step of the way until his death.
In
October of 2004, we added our website which is an additional resource for
victims looking for assistance.
In
2005, a suicide program was added to the services available from The Shafer
Center. The program's name is "Picking Up The Pieces."
As
of July 2007, the staff of the Shafer Center For Crisis Intervention has a
combined total of 55 years in victim services. We now have five full-time
staff members and numerous volunteers who continually assist in providing
services and support.
