Our Impact
Our Impact
Through our programs, Anna Marie’s Alliance reaches thousands of people in the five counties surrounding St. Cloud, Minnesota. Each year, our 36-bed emergency shelter houses nearly 500 women and their children as they flee domestic violence. Our Prevention and Education initiatives reach approximately 4,000 school-age youth, teaching them valuable relationship skills and ways to create healthy boundaries. Our Community Advocacy programs provide 24-hour crisis support, on-scene advocacy for women immediately after an incident takes place, criminal justice system advocacy, and victim support services that continue throughout the court process and until families are settled safely in their new, violence-free homes.
Our impact can be seen in the faces of women who have finally broken free from abuse; in the children whose lives are filled with a new sense of peace; and in the next generation, who have the opportunity to learn early in life which behaviors are healthy and which cannot be tolerated.
Allison’s Story
Allison is one of the many remarkable, strong women who turned to Anna Marie’s Alliance during the most difficult period of her life. When things fell apart in her marriage, Allison nearly lost her life; her five children, their mother. Today, Allison is safe, independent, and committed to making sure that what happened to her won’t happen to another woman.
On-Scene Advocacy
Anna Marie’s Alliance’s on-scene advocacy program serves as a resource for law enforcement agencies throughout Stearns, Benton, Sherburne, Wright, and Mille Lacs Counties. When officers are called to the scene of a domestic violence incident, they have the option to request an advocate meet them at the home of the victim. There, advocates are able to provide support to the family and act as an important liaison between victims and police, often helping to ensure complete, accurate reports are made so that abusers are held accountable and families are kept safe.
Jason’s Story
Jason was a child when his family was thrown into crisis, and his memories of his mother removing him from their abusive home and into Anna Marie’s Shelter are difficult, traumatic, and at the same time filled with hope and gratitude that the services we provide exist in our community. Families like Jason’s continue to find the resources and support they need in order to break free and start new lives, free of violence.
Our Impact
Since 1979, Anna Marie’s Alliance has provided shelter for nearly 20,000 women and children in central Minnesota. Stories like Allison’s and Jason’s are the reason that we exist. Anna Marie’s Alliance will always exist, until the day when our services are no longer needed.
Our impact ripples beyond those directly affected by domestic violence. When there is violence in a community, it harms everyone living in it.
The costs of intimate partner violence are huge. Medical services for victims cost an estimated $4.1 billion each year in the United States alone. In Minnesota, 35% of law enforcement calls are due to domestic incidents. This says nothing about the much greater damage done to children and families for whom violence is cyclical, becoming harder to interrupt the longer it persists in homes across our communities.
To learn more about Anna Marie’s Alliance’s impact and how we progress toward our goal of creating a community where violence is not tolerated, check out our programs pages.