A Columbia shelter for victims of crime has recently been awarded a grant that will help expand the organization’s programs.
A federal grant of 3 hundred thousand dollars was recently awarded to True North. Executive Director Barbra Hodges said in January that True North lost its previous grant that funded its Outreach program’s female staff member. She said this employee was responsible for educating female high school and college students in preventative matters regarding sexual and domestic crime and to identify and assist victims of sexual assault.
“So we were down to just one staff person doing all of the outreach which obviously limited what we could do to a great deal, and limited what we could do with females,” Hodges said.
Hodges said this grant will be split between two years and will fund a full time female Outreach employee, as well as two more male employees, one full time and one part time.