April 7, 2020 — Mendocino County has been under a shelter in place order since March 18, and already, violent crime is on the rise, according to Sheriff Matt Kendall. While calls for service are down by about 18%, assaults are up 20%, child abuse is up 36%, and physical domestic violence has risen by 20% since March of last year.
That’s not a surprise to Dina Polkinghorne, the executive director of Project Sanctuary, a non-profit organization that advocates for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. (Polkinghorne is on the KZYX board of directors, but this interview was initiated by the news department.) “We’ve been watching this whole global crisis from afar,” Polkinghorne said; “...in other countries and other communities to see what’s been happening with domestic violence under these circumstances, and across board there is an increase. It’s like a pressure cooker.”
Project Sanctuary counselors are working with clients over the phone and by video conference, using a system with medical level confidentiality settings. But group therapy is off, and so are all the prevention efforts through the schools. April is sexual assault awareness month, which means the organization was gearing up for a lot of educational activities. But the most challenging part of protecting survivors during the shelter in place order is finding shelter. And the Project Sanctuary shelter was pretty close to being full before the lockdown started.
Kendall says there are more deputies on patrol, due in part to the fact that the physical operations of the courts are shut down, so the deputies who worked as court bailiffs are now patrolling.
But the logistics of doing the legal work to protect survivors at Project Sanctuary, all individually, all remotely, are a huge time consuming hassle for advocates. Polkinghorne says not all the staffers have an adequate office at home, so someone has to bring equipment and the old-fashioned disc containing the software that’s necessary to file restraining orders.
Polkinghorne herself is running her organization from quarantine. The question came up pretty quickly: how would domestic violence centers keep survivors safe from their abusers and the virus in a group home setting? “But all kinds of things come up,” she reflected; “so if you have someone self-isolating in their room with symptoms, how do they access the shared kitchen? You know, how do they get food? So we’ve already reached out to the county and were able to get some motel room help for clients with specific health risks. So right now we’re able to meet the need, but my fear is, if it goes up.”
In spite of the additional challenges, Polkinghorne wants survivors to know they can still call Project Sanctuary, and that services are still available, at 463-HELP inland and 964-HELP on the coast. She’s working to find more shelter for her clients, and she’d love to have antibody testing, to find out if anyone on her staff is immune. For now, though, everyone, whether they’re fighting crime or protecting its survivors, is focused on one thing.
“We’ve got to continue doing everything we can to keep everyone healthy,” Kendall said. “Because I’m just not seeing the resources for Mendocino County that we would see in other counties. And that’s why it’s so important that we continue to really put a shoulder into this, follow the orders of the health officer, do everything that we can to keep everybody around us as healthy as we can be.”