October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and the Franklin County Domestic Violence Response Coalition (DVRC) is doing their part to help those who have been victims of domestic violence.

All month long the DVRC will be holding a supply drive to benefit Safeplace, Inc., which serves the counties of Franklin Colbert, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Marion and Winston and is one of 19 domestic violence shelters serving the victims of abuse in Alabama.

Schools, churches, and other groups in Franklin County are collecting items that will be used by those who come to Safeplace for help and who use the three transitional homes they have in the county.

Kathy Archer, a member of the DVRC, said that it is crucial to support Safeplace because it provides vital services to many people in the county such as shelter and counseling for families who are homeless due to domestic violence and outreach programs like court advocacy services, prevention education programs and batterers intervention programs.

“According to Safeplace statistics from January to August of 2012, the total number of victims, children and batterers that they have helped from Franklin County was 407, which includes 305 victims, 91 children and 11 batterers,” Archer said, “and these are unduplicated numbers, which means those were new people they had not previously served in the last fiscal year.”

Safeplace stats also show they received 153 crisis calls from Franklin County in that same timeframe, 466 in-residence referrals to support services for Franklin residents, housed 24 adults and 28 children from Franklin County, had 10 women who attended a support group and had 36 batterers from Franklin County who were sent to a PEACE program.

“With numbers like these, it’s evident Safeplace is helping many people, so we need to help them all we can,” Archer said.

She said each high school in the county and Northwest-Shoals Community College’s Phil Campbell campus have been collecting items along with 10 local churches and independent groups.

Archer said those in the community could help, however, by visiting the different banks and grocery stores in the area that have boxes to collect the following items: paper products, laundry detergents, dryer sheets, cleaning supplies, foil and plastic wrap, kitchen trash bags and dish washing liquid.

Archer said any donations would be appreciated.

For questions or to find out additional items that are needed, call 256-331-3486.