Skip to main content

Crisis center expands services, staff at new location

Lead Summary
By
Mavis Fodness, reporter

Last year the Southwest Crisis Center helped more than 780 people cope with abusive relationships or situations.
The Rock County office offered help in 73 cases representing at least one person, sometimes two, who reached out for assistance on a weekly basis.
The numbers, however, represent only one-fourth of the people involved in domestic or sexual violence incidents whose victims seek assistance, according to SWCC director Sara Wahl.
Both figures have influenced SWCC’s recent decision to expand services and staff in its five-county service area including the Luverne office.
“What we are trying to do is ensure that we have services available over the life spectrum, and having one person in a county is not enough,” Wahl told commissioners at their Jan. 5 meeting.
When she became the SWCC director more than four years ago, the agency employed six people. Now there are 19 positions.
The Luverne office is currently seeking to fill one permanent position and recently added a youth advocate to the office, thanks to additional state funding.
“The big focus shift is working with youth, working with prevention and working with early intervention,” Wahl said. “We are providing all the other services we always had.”
Sara Zix began as the youth advocate in the Luverne office the last week of December 2015. She will focus on working with individuals and groups, ages 12-24, in counseling sessions. She will also provide outreach services to schools and other organizations working with youth in Rock, Pipestone and Nobles counties.
Zix has worked with youth for more than eight years, most recently with Southwestern Youth Services in Magnolia.
She said in an interview last week she was ready to make more of a positive change in youth at an earlier point in their lives.
“I have worked in the aftermath of domestic violence and now I wanted to be on the prevention side,” she said last week.
Zix, who graduated from Luverne High School in 2000 (her maiden name is Timmer), lives in Luverne with her husband, Christopher Zix, who works with Rock-Nobles Community Correction. They have two children.
Besides Zix and the soon-to-be-hired full-time position, the Luverne office has the support of rotating staff on a weekly basis.
The rotating staff consists of Kari Voss-Drost, supervisor for Rock, Pipestone and Nobles counties; Chris Hebert, Nobles County coordinator; and Jennifer Lindsey, an on-call advocate.
The Luverne office moved from its McKenzie Avenue location to offices located within the American Family Insurance building at 114 W. West Main Street.
Signage will be added once temperatures warm into the 50s, Wahl said.

You must log in to continue reading. Log in or subscribe today.