Help on the way? Women looking for funding to combat domestic violence

Getting some help for victims of domestic violence is the goal of Barb Guthneck and Cookie Haidle.

On Wednesday, the women asked the Lincoln County commissioners for $11,000 to fund a domestic violence outreach coordinator.

The women volunteer with Lincoln County Crisis Solutions, but take on part-time and contract work to help make ends meet at the non-profit organization.

The proposal is for Haidle to become the outreach coordinator, Guthneck said.

“Help us save lives. We’ll do our part with your help,” she said.

“We need to find this somewhere in our budget. This is pretty critical,” Commissioner Mike Cole said. “We have a huge problem in our county.”

The commissioners asked the women to come back at 2:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9.

Guthneck said that domestic violence is a problem in the county, and said that it has the third highest number of domestic violence fatalities in the state behind Billings and Missoula based on 2015 figures from the Montana Fatality Review Commission.

“We get 1,200 crisis calls a year,” Guthneck said. “This year it doubled.”

She noted that men are also sometimes victims of domestic violence.

“People don’t realize how prevalent it is,” she said. “There are no income barriers. We need people to look out for the signs.”

The non-profit gets $24,000 a year in a state grant from the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, but that isn’t enough, Guthneck said.

Those funds are used to fund shelters in Eureka, Libby and Troy along with phones and utilities and some food and transportation for victims.

Haidle said she believes that methamphetamine is driving domestic violence in the county.

“It’s leaving people with an attitude,” she said of the highly addictive drug. “They no longer care.”

She said one could provide a meth addict up to four jobs but it often doesn’t make a difference.

Haidle said she’s working with four women who have had their children taken from them, and they haven’t made a move to get them back.

“It’s scary. We need to help save these kids,” she said.

Caleb Soptelean can be reached at 293-4124 or by email at csoptelean@thewesternnews.com.