Help Center Happenings
Help Center Director Retires after 44 Years
Our Director, Wendy Visscher, retired after 44 years of service to the Help Center. Read more about Wendy, her life and legacy HERE.
National News!
NBC News featured an increase in Lifeline calls after high-profile suicides and the Bozeman Help Center was highlighted!
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/they-want-help-crisis-hotlines-inundated-calls-after-celebrity-suicides-n881986
NBC News featured an increase in Lifeline calls after high-profile suicides and the Bozeman Help Center was highlighted!
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/they-want-help-crisis-hotlines-inundated-calls-after-celebrity-suicides-n881986
ABC Fox Interview
Our Community Educator provided and interview for ABC Fox Montana after a young child took their life in Butte recently.
http://www.abcfoxmontana.com/story/37718217/suicide-prevention-resources-available-for-montana-kids
Our Community Educator provided and interview for ABC Fox Montana after a young child took their life in Butte recently.
http://www.abcfoxmontana.com/story/37718217/suicide-prevention-resources-available-for-montana-kids
Community First Award
The Help Center was awarded KBZK's April Community First Award!
The Help Center was awarded KBZK's April Community First Award!
Pinwheels Popping Up to Raise Awareness for Child Abuse
April is Child Abuse Prevention month. Blue pinwheels are for sale at various locations around the community to help raise awareness!
KBZK Story>
ABC FOX>
April is Child Abuse Prevention month. Blue pinwheels are for sale at various locations around the community to help raise awareness!
KBZK Story>
ABC FOX>
March 2017
Child Advocacy Center Holds Grand Opening
After receiving accreditation, the Child Advocacy center held a grand opening to celebrate the momentous occasion! Read the Bozeman Daily Chronicle's article and watch the KBZK coverage.
Child Advocacy Center Holds Grand Opening
After receiving accreditation, the Child Advocacy center held a grand opening to celebrate the momentous occasion! Read the Bozeman Daily Chronicle's article and watch the KBZK coverage.
January 2017
Child Advocacy Center receives Accreditation
The Gallatin County Child Advocacy Center is a multidisciplinary team that works together to help child victims of sexual and severe physical abuse. In January 2017 they received accreditation! Read the Bozeman Daily Chronicle's article on the center.
Child Advocacy Center receives Accreditation
The Gallatin County Child Advocacy Center is a multidisciplinary team that works together to help child victims of sexual and severe physical abuse. In January 2017 they received accreditation! Read the Bozeman Daily Chronicle's article on the center.
October 31st, 2016
Thanks to everyone to who made Run for Your Life a success! We successfully hit our goal of raising $40,000!
Bozeman Daily Chronicle article about Run for Your Life 2016
A great article about our Race Director and board leader, Flora McCormick!
Thanks to everyone to who made Run for Your Life a success! We successfully hit our goal of raising $40,000!
Bozeman Daily Chronicle article about Run for Your Life 2016
A great article about our Race Director and board leader, Flora McCormick!
June 16th, 2016
You helped us raise $7,534 and win an extra $12,500 endowment for our suicide prevention & intervention work.
Thank you so much to all the generous donors who helped us win the Bozeman Area Community Foundation's Grand prize! and KBZK TV's Final countdown challenge during Give Big 2016. We ended up with 212 donors in total! Some were community members that we met for the first time on sidewalks or store fronts May 3rd. Other donors were ongoing friends/supporters who give to the Help Center regularly. We appreciate EVERY ONE of you! We are truly honored to be the recipients of the Endowment, and look forward to working with the Bozeman Area Community Foundation further. |
Thank you so much to these local businesses, for allowing us space for donation tables.
1. Town & Country Foods 2. The LARK Bozeman 3. Rosauers Food & Drug Center 4. The Baxter |
April 28th, 2016
Help Center Co-Director awarded the National Sexual Violence Resource Center Visionary Voice Award for Montana.
The NSVRC offers the Visionary Voice award, in conjunction with Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) each April, to recognize the creativity and hard work of individuals around the country who have demonstrated outstanding work to end sexual violence.
Christina Powell
Nominated by the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence
Christina Powell has tirelessly advocated on behalf of survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking for nearly 40 years, first by creating programming that provided access to help for victims through reproductive health facilities. For the last 25 years, Christina has advocated through the programs of Help Center, Inc., which provides crisis intervention services to 13 counties in Montana. Working with the infrastructure provided by Help Center, Christina is the founder and Program Director of the Sexual Assault Counseling Center (SACC), Montana’s only designated sexual assault center.
SACC was the first program or center in Montana to implement sexual violence-specific trauma-based services and is known for its cutting-edge advocacy and counseling practices. Christina’s research from her early days working on victim issues in the mid-70s was incorporated into the trauma approaches used in the center since 1996. Under Christina’s leadership and expertise, all services of SACC were trauma informed years before the rest of the country implemented trauma-informed practices as best practice. Recognizing the critical importance of trauma-based therapeutic practices to victims of sexual violence, SACC implemented the practice of “trauma recovery” models of therapy in the unique, integrated staff position of counselor/advocate created to minimize the traumatic exposure to victims found in the multiple retellings of their story. The impact of Christina’s work is felt daily in the collaborative structures and programs she helped to build, as well as in the lives of victims of sexual and domestic violence who go on to rebuild happy, healthy lives.
Christina sits on multiple teams and committees working in issues of concern to survivors of sexual assault, including 20 years on Montana Board of Crime Control’s VAWA. Christina's work includes her tireless efforts at building trauma-informed collaborations between systems and community-based agencies to ensure victims are treated with dignity and respect and offenders are held accountable. She helped start and currently chairs both the Gallatin County Sexual Assault Response Team and the Gallatin County Multi-Disciplinary Team (GCMDT) for Child Abuse. She also coordinated the efforts to found the Gallatin County Child Advocacy Center, which opened on March 30th, 2015, and currently works with the GCMDT on not only fulfilling national accreditation standards but also creating protocols that are trauma-informed — a complex endeavor when working on the broad issue of child abuse response.
Help Center Co-Director awarded the National Sexual Violence Resource Center Visionary Voice Award for Montana.
The NSVRC offers the Visionary Voice award, in conjunction with Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) each April, to recognize the creativity and hard work of individuals around the country who have demonstrated outstanding work to end sexual violence.
Christina Powell
Nominated by the Montana Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence
Christina Powell has tirelessly advocated on behalf of survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking for nearly 40 years, first by creating programming that provided access to help for victims through reproductive health facilities. For the last 25 years, Christina has advocated through the programs of Help Center, Inc., which provides crisis intervention services to 13 counties in Montana. Working with the infrastructure provided by Help Center, Christina is the founder and Program Director of the Sexual Assault Counseling Center (SACC), Montana’s only designated sexual assault center.
SACC was the first program or center in Montana to implement sexual violence-specific trauma-based services and is known for its cutting-edge advocacy and counseling practices. Christina’s research from her early days working on victim issues in the mid-70s was incorporated into the trauma approaches used in the center since 1996. Under Christina’s leadership and expertise, all services of SACC were trauma informed years before the rest of the country implemented trauma-informed practices as best practice. Recognizing the critical importance of trauma-based therapeutic practices to victims of sexual violence, SACC implemented the practice of “trauma recovery” models of therapy in the unique, integrated staff position of counselor/advocate created to minimize the traumatic exposure to victims found in the multiple retellings of their story. The impact of Christina’s work is felt daily in the collaborative structures and programs she helped to build, as well as in the lives of victims of sexual and domestic violence who go on to rebuild happy, healthy lives.
Christina sits on multiple teams and committees working in issues of concern to survivors of sexual assault, including 20 years on Montana Board of Crime Control’s VAWA. Christina's work includes her tireless efforts at building trauma-informed collaborations between systems and community-based agencies to ensure victims are treated with dignity and respect and offenders are held accountable. She helped start and currently chairs both the Gallatin County Sexual Assault Response Team and the Gallatin County Multi-Disciplinary Team (GCMDT) for Child Abuse. She also coordinated the efforts to found the Gallatin County Child Advocacy Center, which opened on March 30th, 2015, and currently works with the GCMDT on not only fulfilling national accreditation standards but also creating protocols that are trauma-informed — a complex endeavor when working on the broad issue of child abuse response.
Run for Your Life 2015: October 31st, 2015
A BIG thanks to the runners, volunteers, sponsors and supporters! Run for Your Life was a smashing success!
A BIG thanks to the runners, volunteers, sponsors and supporters! Run for Your Life was a smashing success!
October 30th, 2015
Help Center Co-Director Featured
Wendy Visscher, Help Center Co-Director, was featured in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle's Prime Magazine on page 8! READ MORE>
Help Center Co-Director Featured
Wendy Visscher, Help Center Co-Director, was featured in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle's Prime Magazine on page 8! READ MORE>
July 7th, 2015
Help Center Co-Director Honored
Christina Powell, Help Center Co-Director and Sexual Assault Counseling Center Founder and Program Director, was recently honored as the Outstanding Crime Victim Advocate from Montana Attorney General Tim Fox! See below for pictures from the award ceremony. CLICK HERE to read the Bozeman Daily Chronicle article about the award. A very well deserved award for one amazing woman!
