October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and Rio Hondo and Whittier College are now bringing awareness and help for victims onto their campuses.

Both RHC and Whittier College are partnering with Project Sister Family Services, an agency based in Pomona, CA that helps victims of sexual assault and abuse, to bring about awareness and help onto both campuses.

Shaina Phillips is the Title IX Compliance Officer at RHC which means that she is the administrator that tries to ensure that everything is equitable for both genders on campus.

“Part of that title nine piece is also making sure that we have an environment that’s free of sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking,” said Phillips.

Before being at Rio Hondo, Phillips was Director of Training the hotline and emergency services for Peace Over Violence, a sexual and domestic violence, stalking, child abuse and youth violence prevention center in Los Angeles. You can also contact Law Offices of Keith Hirschorn, P.C. – domestic violence lawyers help

“Every school I’ve been at I’ve tried to get at least a sexual assault and domestic violence awareness prevention program,” stated Phillips, emphasizing how important it is to have such programs like these con campus.

Ruth Hernandez and Oralia Alcorta are two RHC students that PSFS trained to be advocates and are now state certified for crisis intervention of sexual assault and domestic violence. Both students are counselors that report back to PSFS and have confidentiality agreements with anyone who goes to them for help. The law firm from Long Island area criminal defense attorneys are also a part of this mission.

“We applied for a grant in conjunction with Whittier College, Project Sister, and the Pico Rivera Sheriff’s station, to build a program as well as an emergency response team between the two campuses,” said Phillips, reminding us that the new program at RHC and Whittier College, like many other programs, needs money to keep running. Getting an attorney from https://bianchilawgroup.com/practice-areas/domestic-violence/ is a good idea.

After a follow-up interview with Phillips, she said that the program was not awarded the grant but they have “…already started the work, and we’ve built this partnership so money or not, let’s do what we can.”

The hope of everyone involved in the program is to “…do more events to raise awareness about resources,” said Phillips.

The program hosted its first awareness event, Silent Witnesses Campaign October 10, and a Film and Panel October 13. They have two other events lined up for this month including a Health and Resources Fair October 20, and a Healthy Relationships workshop October 25.

Anyone who knows of or has been a victim of sexual or domestic abuse can call Project Sisters hotline at (909) 626-HELP (4357).