The Early Years
As with many grassroots movements, many of the details of how CVIC came into being have been lost; recording history took a back seat to handling crises, and little was written down.  But we do know that CVIC was incorporated in 1980 through the efforts of a few dedicated individuals who wanted to provide a safe place for people who were being abused in their homes. Then named Adult Abuse Community Service, Inc., the center offered support groups and temporary shelter in the homes of community members. Garage sales, car washes and bake sales, along with business donations and grant money, funded the center.  One local business allowed its secretary, who helped found the center, to answer a separate phone line for crisis calls at her desk.  In the early days, the group struggled to gain significant community support, until a local mother and her children were murdered by their husband and father, who then committed suicide.  This tragedy served to open the eyes of the community to the seriousness of family violence. 

Growth in CVIC’s first 10 years
The center expanded its services in 1982 to include sexual assault intervention and support, formerly provided through Grand Forks County Social Services.  In 1988, the center’s name was changed to Abuse and Rape Crisis Center to make it easier for people to locate services and provide greater visibility in the community.  Also in 1988, we launched the Family Violence Intervention Program, initially working in conjunction with Red River Human Service Center in Fargo to provide treatment for perpetrators of family violence.  (This service was enhanced in 1995, requiring 26 weeks of treatment and extensive collaboration with the criminal justice system to hold offenders accountable; it is now named the Domestic Violence Offender Treatment Program.)  Our services were further expanded in 1990, when a woman named Hilda Ahlers donated $10,000 to initiate a program that would provide court advocacy for victims and witnesses whose crimes were being prosecuted by the court system.  Ahlers’ daughter had been murdered, and with funds from a settlement she was helping to start victim witness programs.  This seed money was used to obtain additional grant money for the program, which continues today as our Crime Victim Witness Program.

During CVIC’s first 10 years, the center’s operations were often in crisis mode themselves, with a handful of staff struggling to respond to the great need and scrambling to find funds to keep its doors open. Needless to say, there was little internal structure, and in the latter half of the decade, we worked diligently to set up systems, policies and procedures to stabilize and streamline operations – amidst responding to crisis calls day and night.  In the late-1980s, we moved from small offices in the police department to 111 South Fourth Street (now underneath the current county office building) in the former Skipper Kelly Bar.  Funded by Community Development Block Grant funds, we rejoiced over new private offices in which to counsel clients and were surprised by occasional visits by the old Skipper regulars, coming in to find a drink and wondering what on earth happened to their beloved bar.

Program Expansion and Community Collaboration
The center’s second decade saw the beginning of major program expansion, giving birth in 1993 to the center’s first support group for children living in violent homes, and adding staff to meet the rising local need in the areas of family violence and sexual assault.  The center focused on professionalism, requiring human service degrees and statewide certification for staff working with clients.  As our internal operations began to run more smoothly, we were able to focus outward toward the community, emphasizing collaboration as a core element in our work.  In 1995, CVIC initiated the Greater Grand Forks Domestic Violence Task Force, bringing together professionals of many backgrounds to address issues of concern.  In 1998, the task force spearheaded the Coordinated Community Response (CCR) Project, which has generated unprecedented collaboration among agencies to improve our response to domestic violence.  The project began with an intensive assessment of 11 core agencies and has grown to include signed agency agreements, comprehensive education and training, committees that meet regularly with agency staff at all levels to improve coordination, and implementation of a computerized data monitoring system to track domestic cases through the system.  We are participating in other collaborative projects, as well: the DELTA (Domestic Violence Prevention Enhancement and Leadership Through Alliances) Project, begun in 2003 as part of a nationwide effort to prevent first-time intimate partner violence, and many other local and statewide boards and committees that address issues pertaining to those we serve.

The 1997 Flood and Onward
In 1997, after the Red River Valley Flood destroyed our offices, we launched our first capital campaign, raising $1.95 million for new office and counseling space, our Light of Hope Shelter, Wishing Well Child Visitation Program, career counseling and Little Souls Children’s Services, as well as a victim support endowment, planting the seed for future organizational stability.  This historic effort was made possible by the great generosity of our community, with hundreds of individuals participating through volunteering and contributing financially to the campaign.  Light of Hope Shelter, Wishing Well and other new services were begun in 2000 and, because of the increasing demand for education on violence, we initiated the Prevention and Education Program in 2001.  This program has since grown by leaps and bounds, providing education and training to as many as 10,000. In 2004, we received federal funding to initiate the Hope Transitional Housing Project, providing four transitional housing units and intensive support for single-parent families who are homeless because of violence, as well as legal representation and support for victims of violence in protection order and other civil cases. 

Now with 35 full- and part-time staff members and 100 volunteers, CVIC addresses violence in most every capacity, promoting justice, healing and self-sufficiency for victims; preventing violence by providing treatment to batterers; sparking new ways of thinking by providing education and training, and contributing to societal change through collaborative work to improve our community’s response to violence.