Peace at Home Family Shelter leaders will present the organization's Courage Award to KC Tucker of Fayetteville and Doug Sprouse of Springdale at their Courage Award Virtual Event set for Feb. 5. The event will be livestreamed from 11 to 11:30 a.m. on their Facebook page and posted on YouTube following the event.

The group gives the award "to honor individuals or groups who have shown fortitude, strength and dedication to empowering domestic violence survivors and their families."

Along with the awards presentations, organizers say the virtual event will "provide an inside look at Peace at Home programs and how we are still serving survivors of domestic violence during covid-19."

Founded in 1977, Peace at Home Family Shelter was the first program in Arkansas to provide safe shelter for abused women and their children. Each year, the safe emergency shelter, crisis hotline, housing assistance, counseling and legal services empower hundreds of families to leave abuse and establish non-violent homes.

Eva Terry, Peace at Home development director says: "In 2020, Peace at Home provided:

• Safe shelter to 199 people escaping domestic violence -- 109 adults and 90 children.

• Housing assistance for 95 families to move into new, safe homes and 53 families to maintain their housing (providing almost $230,000 in direct housing assistance alone).

• Legal services to 358 families, including divorce and child custody representation and assistance obtaining orders of protection.

• Professional counseling services to 65 survivors of domestic violence trying to recover from the abuse they experienced.

• A listening ear and assistance to the 1,074 crisis calls through the hotline.

In total, Peace at Home provided confidential and free support to help over 1,000 neighbors in our community flee domestic violence."

-- CARIN SCHOPPMEYER

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