User:Stopdv/sandbox

History
The Capital Area Family Violence Intervention Center, Inc. / Battered Women's Program began in the late 1970's as a result of a project of the Commission on the Needs of Women to perform a city-wide needs assessment of women in Baton Rouge. That survey revealed that domestic violence was a serious problem in our city and that no services existed to address it.

A Board of Directiors was fromed in 1979 with the purpose of opening an emergency shelter for battered women and their dependent children in Baton Rouge and the Capital Area Family Violence Intervention Center, Inc. (CAFVIC, Inc.) was created. By the time the shelter opened its doors to survivors of domestic violence in February of 1981, the mission of the Program was established. After training the first Battered Women's Program volunteers in January, a 24-hour, seven days a week crisis line became operational in early 1982.

Currently, the Program porvides emergency shelter, counseling, advocacy and a wide range of support services to survivors and their children. Services are proveded from the main office, theree off-site locations within East Baton Rouge Parish, as well as two outreach offices in outlying parishes, to maintain current services and increase emergency shelter and legal services availabilty.