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Grant to save Howard rape-recovery program
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Related Topics: Howard County
Howard County (Map, News) - A nonprofit’s grant is expected to rescue a Howard County trauma center in need of more counselors who comfort and assist rape victims in the hospital.
Without the $4,000 boost, the service “would be really depleted, if not completely done away with,” said Jeannie Dillingham, executive director of the Sexual Trauma Treatment, Advocacy and Recovery Center in Columbia.
Thirty years ago, STTAR had about 20 volunteers for this service; now, it has less than five, she said.
“This used to not be a problem,” Dillingham said. “People were really quick to volunteer. People are busy now.”
Counselors are on call 24 hours a day and seven days a week and help victims at Howard County General Hospital between four to seven hours at a time.
The grant from the Howard County United Way Partnership Board will pay counselors a stipend of a few dollars an hour to be on call and $75 to $100 per hospital case, Dillingham said.
The counselors not only provide moral support and resources for the victims, but are neutral outsiders to whom the victims feel comfortable talking, rather than the police or family members, Howard hospital nurse Beverly Dorsey said.
If the hospital lost this service, “we would be losing that community connection here,” Dorsey said. “While Howard County is big, it’s still small. To be able to connect locally to follow up means a lot.”
STTAR also is hoping to be awarded a grant in September from the state Department of Human Resources to pay for the counselors.
Dillingham said she did not know the amount of the state grant, but previous grants ranged from $65,000 to $100,000. STTAR has been awarded this grant for at least five years.
BY THE NUMBERS
Rapes in Howard County
40 in 2004
42 in 2005 and 2006
Source: Howard County Police
kseith@baltimoreexaminer.com
