Social Services Organizations Keep Employees on the Job

Ruthanne Hill’s day at The Crisis Center in Springdale consists of receiving calls like this:

“My dad sneaks into my room at night when my mom goes into work early. He said he’ll kill me if I tell, so the only way out is killing myself.'”

Hill, the nonprofit organization’s executive director, said her office has to explain that if a sexual abuse victim gives up and doesn’t report the problem, most likely the abuser will just go after someone else.

The Crisis Center handled more than 8,200 local calls last year (700 per month), about 30 percent of which dealt with sexual abuse, mostly adult males abusing younger females. But it’s not just young girls who dial the center’s hotline. The organization also deals with everything from domestic violence to a variety of mental health, financial and relationship problems.

“We try to help people deal with all of the emotional garbage that’s going on in their head so they can be good employees,” Hill said. “If they can work through the turmoil before they come to work, they’re going to be more mentally present. That helps reduce workplace accidents, absentee days and turnover. We keep employees at work.”

Northwest Arkansas is annually lauded as one of the nation’s best places to live, but what if services like The Crisis Center were no longer available? Thrifty giving in a stalled national economy is forcing many philanthropic programs in the area to prioritize their services.

“We’re in a cautious mode,” Hill said. “We deal with a lot of donations, and corporate and other contributions are extremely important to us. Without those, we would be hurting considerably in some program areas. Right now the word is just cautious.”

Hill’s office employs 11 people and raised $300,000 last year. She will not be expanding her staff in 2001, despite an obvious need to do so. The program housed at the Jones Family Resource Center has grown annually, thanks to grants like last year’s $18,000 from the Northwest Medical Center Auxiliary. About $8,500 of that was allocated for marketing. That afforded The Crisis Center some rare TV time.

“Retailers know that you either market yourself or die,” Hill said. “We got some TV time last year, and the calls to our crisis hotline increased 55 percent. That tells you that there is a phenomenal need out there, but people before just didn’t know who to call.

“What philanthropic readers [of the Business Journal] should understand is that the need is so phenomenal, but we could wind up having to have to cut service,” Hill said.

This year’s total grant from the hospital auxiliary is $12,000. Additional marketing initiatives such as paycheck stuffers at local manufacturing plants could be a replacement for lost TV advertising. Hill said the stuffers have caused a spike in hotline calls before.

“In retail, you always want more sales,” Hill said. “In our world, we know the customers are out there, but we don’t always have the money to hang a giant sign like Wal-Mart. Our profits are clients, and if they’re down, that means more people out there are suffering.”