October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Kentucky has 15 programs across the state that offer shelter and support services.

Or Rogers spoke with Barron River Area Safe Space or Brass, which covers ten counties in south central Kentucky.

Brass is one of 15 member programs designated by Zero V, formerly known as the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence, a continuation of a grassroots effort to support victims of intimate partner violence.

They provide so many ways to protect you.

You will be really safe here.

Nadia Glassman arrived at Barron River Area Safe Space or Branch ten years ago for support and safety.

A native of Ukraine, she found herself in a new country with an abusive husband.

And the brass stay for me like second family.

They helped me to make first steps, like for babies.

They take my hand and provide me too many things.

That includes finding a place to live.

Opening a bank account and buying her first car.

I get my driver's license at 50.

Oh, my goodness.

At 57 years old.

You know, it was not been easy.

It's just been a big victory in my life.

I think the most important thing that we have to first do is to establish safety and security, where a person feels confident roaming around the world without that feel of fear, having to look over your shoulder every time you step outside.

Story HENNINGER says Branch Averages 11 Crisis calls a day.

I think we have a lot of resources.

I definitely don't think that we have enough there.

Shelter has 31 beds that stay mostly.

Full, just in my shelter alone.

We are at capacity about 99.9% of the year.

Since the pandemic, they've also had a hotel partner that's given them an extra 5 to 7 veterans a night.

Domestic violence is rooted in power and control.

HENNINGER says the perception has changed over the past 40 years.

And it's not just physical.

Abuse, emotional and psychological abuse where we get the term gaslighting, where a person no longer can trust their mind of what happened because they have been manipulated into a position that they cannot trust what they think.

She says an overwhelming majority of cases involves financial abuse.

Once someone arrives at breath, they are offered emergency shelter and connected to resources and referrals to live independently.

Navigate those on the job skills training, working with our community partners, on establishing assistance in budgeting, being able to navigate individuals into one of our housing programs where we can pay for short term assistance, you know, deposits and startup costs.

Or for some individuals, we're able to provide them ongoing long term indefinite rental assistance.

I am preparing now.

That was the case for Nadia, and she hopes sharing her story will inspire others in unsafe situations to seek help.

I would like to say don't wait.

I think everything that we do here is rooted in hope.

Hope is so integrally important and so easy to lose.

I have hope now because of breath.

Brach will host a community candlelight vigil on October 26.

They will honor the 23 people across Kentucky who have lost their lives to domestic violence this year, 15 of them to gun violence.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

Learn more about shelter programs and support services at zero v dot org.