NEWBERRY COUNTY — Last week, Beth and Les Hipp welcomed Sistercare of Newberry County into their home as an opportunity to allow the community to learn about the services offered by Sistercare.
Sistercare is a nonprofit organization which has been serving five counties, including Newberry, since 1981.
“We serve victims of domestic violence and their children — we wanted to have this event tonight just so people in Newberry know that we’re here because we have a staff member who is here full time. Our shelters are in Columbia and Lexington so a lot of people may not know we’re here and that we’re available,” said Leah Wicevic, director of grants management/public relations specialist with Sistercare.
Hipp (Les) also serves as a Board Member for Sistercare — Wicevic said Hipp did not know if people in Newberry knew about Sistercare, which is one of the reasons why the event was held.
For those unfamiliar with Sistercare, Wicevic describes it as having two arms.
“We have our emergency shelter, those are for survivors of domestic violence who are in emergent, scary, nowhere else to go — really fleeing for their lives, trying to avoid homelessness. They come to our shelter, they come from Newberry County as well — we provide 24 hour shelter, food, clothing, etc.,” she said. “The other arm of Sistercare are community-based services. So in Newberry County, if you don’t have a need to go to a shelter you can still contact Sistercare and we can help you with legal advocacy, with career development and financial counseling to help get you back on your feet. We have a hospital accompaniment program, rural services when we do case management — just really working one-on-one with the survivors to help them become self sufficient so they don’t have to live a life of violence. We provide counseling free of charge for survivors, for their children and then we also do them together as well.”
Misty Cooper, Sistercare advocate, said that in 2018 Sistercare served 166 adults and 208 children in Newberry County.
Cooper said Sistercare offers services anywhere from children’s counseling, adult counseling, group counseling and a court advocacy program. Sistercare also has attorney’s on staff as a resource for a number of legal hearings.
One of the biggest services Sistercare offers, according to Wicevic, are orders of protection — which help keep the children and survivors safe.
“To piggyback off of what Leah was saying, our court advocate would meet with them prior to filing orders of protection — to take safety measures as far as not being the best move for them to do, to make sure that the abuser doesn’t know where they are, but definitely help walk them through the process,” Cooper said.
Helping survivors throughout the process is always a goal for Sistercare to ensure they are able to live a violence free life.
“We try to be there from start to finish for all of our services and do everything we can so that these women and children don’t have to become homeless and go back to their abusers — become self sufficient, have a job, violence free,” Wicevic said.
Wicevic said Sistercare also has a large volunteer base many of whom have been impacted by domestic violence.
“Whether it’s their mom, their friend or cousin, but we have so many survivors that want to give back to Sistercare and the cool thing we have is our Volunteer Speakers Bureau and we have survivors come and they speak. They really make an impact in the community because people can see first hand the strength these survivors have and also what Sistercare has done to help them,” she said. “South Carolina is sixth in the nation for the rate of women killed by men. To have these survivors come out and tell their stories, be so brave and create that awareness and outreach makes a huge difference.”
Those in attendance were also able to hear from a domestic violence survivor, who wished to remain anonymous. She told the story of how over 20 years ago she was in an abusive relationship — it took four years for her to decide to leave the relationship which is considered the most dangerous time to leave for a woman.
At the time, she said she didn’t feel like she needed the services Sistercare had to offer — knowing she did need them. She took advantage of the therapy Sistercare offered and said it really helped her. Fast forward to today and she is now married, changed careers and has become a mom.
Sistercare Executive Director Nancy Barton said, “it is not unusual for someone to say ‘you went back to him?,’ ’ how long have you been together?’ ‘you have children and you let them see this?’ — it can be subtle and that is yet another obstacle for what we call survivors of domestic violence.”
She added that should someone know an individual exposed to domestic violence to share Sistercare with them and utilize the services Newberry County has to offer.
“It is a process to leave an abusive relationship and is the most dangerous time. When you hear the news, when you read, it’s a former girlfriend, an estranged wife, someone leaving the abusive relationship so it’s complicated,” she said. “We don’t want to forget about the little ones. We also have services for the children who have grown up in violent homes as we refer to it, they have been exposed to domestic violence. We need to try to get in as early as possible with the children, teens and pre-teens.”
Haley Floyd, chairman of Sistercare Board of Directors, said domestic violence has always been a problem and commended the support received from Newberry County from churches to local businesses.
“The problem is also it’s been something no one talks about and for a variety of reasons: Embarrassment or shame, guilt. For a long time, it just wasn’t discussed. Sistercare has been doing a terrific job and continues to work extremely hard for the benefit of the domestic violence victims,” she said.
Hipp expressed his thanks to everyone who took the time to learn more about Sistercare saying some many people are not even aware it is in Newberry County. He also told a story of how domestic violence can happen anywhere, even in Newberry County.
“When the horrible thing of domestic violence comes up, at least you’ll know about an organization that is there to help,” Hipp said. “I was reading in the Charleston newspaper about two instances this past week — luckily Newberry, the City of Friendly Folks, we don’t have to deal with domestic violence. I was reading where there were two instances, one where a guy attacked his estranged ex and ran her off the road, shot at her — at least no one was killed. There was another instance where there was a hostage situation with a man and lady and SLED had to come in and intervene and rescue her before they were able to get him and again, fortunately no one was killed — but I just lied to you, that wasn’t Charleston, that was Newberry, that was the City of Friendly Folks — right here in our community where nothing like that ever happens.”
He reiterated that the goal of the event was to show people in Newberry County that Sistercare is available and willing to help.
For those who need access to Sistercare, there is a 24 hour crisis line which can be reached at (803)-765-9428 where a trained advocates will be on the line to assist. Information can also be accessed at Sistercare’s website, www.sistercare.org.
