Commissioners Proclaim April Sexual Assault Awareness Month

Blue Ridge, Ga – Fannin County Board of Commissioners presented a proclamation recognizing April as Sexual Assault Awareness month to the North Georgia Mountain Crisis Network (NGMCN).

The proclamation, read by Chairman Stan Helton, “encourages all citizens to make [April] the beginning of the end of sexual violence.”

By naming April Sexual Assault Awareness month, the Commissioners helped to spotlight the efforts of NGMCN and spread its message to the community.

The organization serves survivors of domestic violence across Fannin, Gilmer, and Pickens Counties and educates the community by focusing on four major areas.

• Sexual Assault. Through NGMCN victims of sexual assault are provided counseling and support services to help navigate them through a very difficult time.
• Domestic Violence. While NGMCN offers the counseling and services to victims of domestic violence as it does to victims of sexual assault, it also offers shelter to house these victims and their children.
• Legal Advocacy. NGMCN has a trained staff that will help victims navigate the sometimes daunting legal system.
• Education Awareness. NGMCN helps to spread the word of domestic and sexual violence through community outreach. This includes working hand in hand with law enforcement, hospitals, and different organizations that provide services to these victims.

NGMCN Treasurer Howard Sloan had this to say about the work they do for the community,

“Unfortunately, we cannot publicize our works due to the fact that we take care of women, children, and men who are victims of domestic violence. We can’t send pictures to the press, when we relocate somebody to a new apartment or when we put somebody on a bus to go two or three states away to be with family.”

In 2018, NGMCN housed 129 residents at their shelter. This accounted for 3,173 bed/nights (a measure of occupancy for one person assigned to one bed for one night). Residents of the shelter were also provided with well over 10,000 units of service. So far in 2019, the charity has already provided 380 bed/nights, 87 hotline calls, and 600 units of service. When speaking of individuals who help make NGMCN possible, Sloan said, “I want to really commend these ladies on the fine work they do.”

They hope by promoting education and awareness in these areas that eventually the cycle of abuse will come to an end.