YWCA during the Pandemic

Tammy Killin joins us to talk about the YWCA.

Mostly sunny skies 82 on saturday i think chances for rain will be sunday morning and monday morning and we could see a few showers on tuesday and temperatures towards end of next week will be in the 60s.

>>> the ymca is a trusted source for women and children in northwest missouri.

And joining me tonight is tammy.

Welcome.

>>reporter: how do social distancing and isolating affect victim services?

Assuming that's a great question and one that scary on our end to think about with victims potentially being in a home with their abuser that's a big concern for us.

Hotline calls are down.

In many places but for us as well, we still get quite a few calls but we do think those numbers are due to the limitation and restriction that's put on them in order to get out and call and i think it's a big concern during these times.

>> do you know the percentage of people who are victims of abuse in our community and maybe.

[indiscernible]?

>> i don't.

There are so many statistics about women however been sexually assaulted and abused.

That can be 1 to 6, 1 to 4.

I don't know what the current number is because it changes so much and i don't put a lot of emphasis on those numbers.

We know that reporting is typically in underreporting situation i don't know that we will ever have a true understanding of how abuse impacts our life in our community.

>> being underreported makes sense so thank you.

Can you give us a snapshot on how the agency is operating since the lockdown during coronavirus because i know it changed your operating procedures.

>> we are still surveying of that so we want the community to be aware of.

We are still providing shelter outreach services and phones and case management and telehealth and we just want to get the message that the ywca is still providing service.

Our numbers are down due to the mandates that are put on this with shelter in place and so with that as social distancing we can try to put residence to a family to a room we are taking temperatures like most places twice a day with child care at the shelter women and children are wearing masks upstairs sanitizing i think none of us have pretty hands anymore from all of the sanitizer we are using but we are doing the best we can i think it's important to know that in any situation we have an opportunity to try to make lemonade out of lemons and not to undermine what's going on at all because is a serious issue but we