Local agency gets nearly $500,000 grant to combat sexual assault, abuse

The Southeast Missouri Network Against Sexual Violence will expand its staff and services next year, thanks to a nearly $500,000 federal grant.

“We’re so excited,” said SEMO-NASV executive director Kendra Eads on Tuesday. “It’s huge for our staff. We have about seven [staffers], so to have three new positions is going to be a big increase for us.”

The grant for $499,951 from the Office on Violence Against Women is to be used over a three-year period. Eads said it will enable the organization to reinstate mental-health services that have not been available since 2016.

The new positions will include a nurse practitioner to provide forensic exams of sexual-assault victims, a mental-health therapist focused on trauma and cognitive behavioral therapy and a prevention specialist for the organization’s school-based program, Green Bear.

The Green Bear program not only helps train educators and other mandated reporters but empowers children to help prevent sexual assault, from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade.

The organization plans to expand crisis and after-hours clinical services, provide direct counseling services and increase access to forensic exams.

Money also will be used to train multidisciplinary team members and work with representatives in law enforcement and the Missouri Children’s Division.

SEMO-NASV also is partnering with Southeast-

HEALTH, Southeast Missouri State University, local domestic-violence shelters and the Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center in East Prairie, Missouri.

Eads said her organization applied for the grant in February with the help of consultant Teresa Wilke and the Missouri Foundation for Health’s MoCAP program.

“We were kind of uniquely positioned to receive this grant because we serve both children and adults,” Eads said, adding they expect to receive about $149,000 in the first year. “I want to say it’s going to be about a 30 percent increase in our funding, so it is significant.”

SEMO-NASV annually serves about 600 individuals, both children and adults, Eads said.

She said the grant will be used in Perry, Bollinger, Scott, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Stoddard and Dunklin counties.

The organization also serves Cape Girardeau County, but the grant’s funds are allocated for rural counties.

Eads said the grant comes at a good time because the organization has dealt with programming and staffing issues in past years but is working to refocus its mission.

“It’s going well so far,” she said. “We are still here. I think this grant is going to be a big boost. ... We know there are victims out there; we just want to make sure they know how to access our services.”

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627