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“When I lost my daughter,
I joined the Victim Witness Program (coordinated by Joan
Coleman) and went into churches and schools and talked about
violence. But the funding ended,” recalled Jones. He went on
to join the Lucas County Domestic Violence Task Force,
comprised of shelter staff, law enforcement, government
employees and agency leaders. He also joined the board of
Bethany House, the only long-term shelter in Lucas County
for victims of domestic violence and their children. He
served on the board for 10 years, eight as the chairman.
During his tenure, the shelter evolved from a place
featuring dormitory-styles housing for victims into a
facility with apartments for women and their families.
Last year, the Task Force,
with the assistance of the Toledo YWCA, joined the national
“No More” campaign in order to persuade victims of domestic
violence, and others, to start talking about domestic
violence.
“My focus is to make woman
and young girls aware there is an avenue out,” says Jones of
his work with the Task Force. “If I talk about it – victims
know there is help.”
The impediment to getting
the word out to everyone who needs or might need help is
money. “Truly the need is financing for an awareness
campaign,” Jones notes. “It we don’t get the funding,
nothing is going to happen.”
To that end, the Task
Force holds a dinner fundraiser titled Waiters Night Out
(April 23 at Real Seafood) and a walk (July 14) – events
Jones pushed as a means to reach out to the public.
Recently Jones has raised
about $4,500 from a variety of sources such as the Lucas
County Commissioners, the Lucas County Sheriff, Mayor Wade
Kapszukiewicz’ campaign, among others, to further his
awareness efforts. As he increases the fundraising, he
intends to use it for media, billboards, printed material,
and so forth. His fundraising goal is $25,000 per year.
There is clearly a need
for raising awareness of the issue of domestic violence. As
Jones notes, in 2016 of the Toledo Police Department’s more
than 213,000 calls for assistance, 14,903 were domestic
violence-related and there were 11 domestic violence-related
homicides.
The national “No More”
campaign provides resources and guidance to those who have
experienced sexual assault or domestic violence. Locally the
campaign has established its own hotlines to provide such
help. The Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-888-341-7386; the
Sexual Assault Hotline is 1-866-557-7273; the Human
Trafficking Hotline is 1-888-373-7888.
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