Whether you’re searching for woman-to-woman mentorship or looking for an outfit to help ace your next job interview, these five local organizations have your back.
IMAGE COURTESY STOKKETE VIA ADOBESTOCK
Women Helping Women
Serving women in Hamilton and Butler counties, WHW works to prevent gender-based violence and empower survivors through crisis intervention and support services ranging from a 24-hour hotline and hospital accompaniment to legal advocacy and professional training. The organization serves more than 15,000 clients each year and provides sexual violence crisis services to women in Brown and Adams counties.
This mental health collective offers individual, women-focused therapy delivered by licensed clinical psychologists and behavioral health experts in a positive, comprehensive environment. Join one of the collaborative’s “Thrive Circles,” small groups that gather regularly for eight-week sessions to work through a variety of topics, from burnout and body peace to postpartum life and coping with chronic illness.
Through individualized, one-on-one mentorship and programming, this Mason-based organization aims to lift single, low-income mothers out of poverty. More than 90 percent of the 100-plus moms who have graduated from the multi-year program remain financially self-sufficient.
Dignity and respect—that’s the promise made to each woman at Dress for Success, the local nonprofit that has provided workwear to tens of thousands of job-seeking Cincinnati women since its founding in 1999. The interview outfitting StyleHER program remains a hallmark of DFS, but the organization has broadened its services to include career development programming for unemployed and underemployed women.
Our chapter of the world’s oldest and largest multicultural women’s organization provides a wide variety of programming and assistance programs to help women thrive. More than 900 professionals have been honored as part of the YWCA’s Rising Star Leadership Program, a five-month program shaping the city’s future leaders in gender and racial equity.
An upswing of domestic violence was a feared consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. Now Hamilton County has evidence for it.
Women Helping Women, the southwest Ohio nonprofit that advocates and cares for victims of gender-based violence, reported Thursday it had registered a 23% increase in the number of clients from March 16 to June 30 compared to the same period a year ago.
The agency’s analysis also showed calls to its hotline jumped 53% this year over the same 14 weeks when compared to the 2019 time frame.
“COVID doesn’t cause gender-based violence. Economic stress doesn’t cause gender violence,” said Kristin Shrimplin, the agency’s president and chief executive officer. “It just adds fuel to the fire.”
In March, Shrimplin said, calls for help rose rapidly, about 20%. After the stay-at-home order was issued in mid-month, the calls dropped because, Shrimplin said, fewer domestic violence survivors could feel safe calling a hotline while at home full time with a perpetrator.
Lt. Col. Mike John of the Cincinnati Police Department works with Shrimplin on a dedicated unit that responds to domestic violence calls with police and WHW advocates. John said that even though police haven’t seen a jump in criminal reports, he is not surprised by the increase in hotline calls.
“It’s not like a simple assault at a bar,” he said. “We are very much dedicated to finding who that aggressor is and removing him from that situation. They (Women Helping Women advocates) are left to pick up the pieces.”
Women Helping Women provides that support, he said, no matter if the survivor decides to press charges.
Domestic incidents have been more violent
Shrimplin said she found another cause for alarm. More people calling the hotline had experienced brutal assaults that can be omens of fatal violence in intimate relationships.
“Strangulation, sexual assault, use of weapons, they were all up,” Shrimplin said.
Women Helping Women, like many such agencies in the United States, uses the Danger Assessment tool, a system of identifying particular domestic violence – non-fatal strangulation, for example – that can lead to femicide, the killing of a woman.
The dedicated group of WHW advocates and Cincinnati police working together is called Domestic Violence Enhanced Response Team, or DVERT. Advocates go on domestic violence calls with police to help survivors.
“What we were hearing on those calls, what we were seeing on scene with survivors, they were getting increased red flags to be killed compared to last year,” Shrimplin said.
New victims
The Women Helping Women report also found people who’d never before experienced physical violence at home now calling for help.
It’s an unsurprising development. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s report on intimate-partner violence during the pandemic notes that loss of jobs, income in general, a disconnect of social services and help groups, a fear of getting COVID-19 and other issues now “may stimulate violence in families where it didn’t exist before and worsen situations in homes where mistreatment and violence has been a problem.”
The April shootings
In April, six female-identified victims were fatally shot in Hamilton County, compared to five for all of 2019. The Women Helping Women report said, “While COVID-19 was not cause of death, the impact on how society functioned greatly increased the harm and lethality of individuals who were already facing long standing system barriers to safety and resources.”
Shrimplin said criminal reports will lag the number of calls to the agency’s hotline. “If people show up to hospitals and work with us, if we show up at different community points, if they call our hotline, that doesn’t mean that the survivors engage with the justice system.”
John of the Cincinnati police said of WHW, “That’s why their expertise is so important.”
How can victims get help
Women Helping Women has stepped up its services.
In April, with no additional funding, the agency added text-ability to its hotline.
Its volunteers bring masks, hand sanitizers and other personal protection products to the survivors it serves.
When possible, the agency provides families gift cards for groceries or Lyft rides.
The state of Ohio is funneling new money to programs for domestic violence survivors.
Attorney General Dave Yost announced $8.75 million from the federal CARES Act would go to support rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters, in addition to $1 million to combat COVID-19 scams throughout the state.
Gov. Mike DeWine also announced that 66 local victim service projects have been awarded a total of $3.2 million to support victims of crime. The projects will be funded by grants through the Family Violence Prevention & Services Act grants program.
If you are threatened or harmed or know someone who may be in danger, call or text the Women Helping Women hotline: 513-381-5610.
CINCINNATI — The city of Cincinnati’s 6,000 employees can feel a bit safer these days.
That’s because the city has enhanced its policies addressing gender-based violence with the help of Women Helping Women and its WorkStrong program.
Women Helping Women used WorkStrong to help city officials examine and strengthen Cincinnati’s administrative regulation protecting city employees. The effort also included training city employees and department directors to recognize the signs of gender-based violence and help co-workers who experience it.
“Any workforce that size in this region, state and nation is going to be experiencing gender-based violence,” said Kristin Smith Shrimplin, Women Helping Women’s president and CEO. “What we’re really trying to do is empower our coworkers in the community to respond: ‘I believe you. It’s really not your fault, and there’s help.’”
Assistant City Manager Sheryl Long said city leaders were drawn to WorkStrong because it offers a tool kit for managers and employees in addition to the training the program provides.
The city regularly reviews policies and procedures to ensure they are consistent with best practices and reflect the world in which we live, she said.
“Anything we can do to provide our employees with resources is always helpful,” Long said. “We all want to make sure that they have an environment where they can come to work and feel safe and do the work on behalf of taxpayers.”
The problem of gender-based violence enters the workplace in many ways, ranging from lost productivity to homicide, Smith Shrimplin said.
Gender-based violence results in $8.3 billion in lost productivity nationally, according to Women Helping Women. In addition, the agency notes that:
Almost half of all full-time working adults work alongside a survivor of intimate partner violence.
More than 87% of employees who experience sexual harassment do not file a complaint.
56% of employees who experience gender-based violence are late to work at least five times in a month.
25% of rape survivors lose their jobs within a year of an assault.
And 67% of people who experience gender-based violence report that the perpetrator came to their workplace.
“We know violence against women and girls and just gender-based violence exists. We know that,” Smith Shrimplin said. “What we don’t all know is that there are innovative, workable solutions that we can all have a piece in activating.”
Women Helping Women and the city hope to publicize their work together in advance of October, which is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
“When you have one out of three women in their lifetime experiencing gender-based violence, when you have one out of four teens before the age of 18 experiencing sexual violence, when you have one out of three teens experiencing dating violence, it’s a public health epidemic,” Smith Shrimplin said.
“WorkStrong is part of a movement to really say it’s on all of us, whether you’re a corporation, a workforce, a government entity, a nonprofit, whether you’re a coach, a student, a campus — how are we all going to lean in and understand that absolutely, unequivocally gender-based violence is preventable?”
Long said city leaders hope the city’s participation in the program will encourage other employers in the region.
“There’s a lot of people usually suffering in silence with this,” she said. “Things like this make people feel like they’re not alone.”
Smith Shrimplin said the goal is to reduce gender-based violence.
The city of Cincinnati also has committed to work with Women Helping Women in October for a social media campaign designed to raise awareness about the effects of domestic violence and gender-based violence both inside and outside the workplace.
“We don’t need to keep getting 11,000 calls on our hotline every single year at this agency,” she said. “Not every city in America is doing this, and I am proud of Cincinnati in being part of that movement to lead from the front and lead from the edge and say, ‘We don’t have to wait until there’s a horrific issue to put this on the map. We’re putting it on the map now.’”
More information about Women Helping Women and WorkStrong is available online. If you or someone you know is experiencing gender-based violence, you can call the Women Helping Women 24-hour hotline at (513) 381-5610.
Lucy May writes about the people, places and issues that define our region – to celebrate what makes the Tri-State great and shine a spotlight on issues we need to address. To reach Lucy, email [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @LucyMayCincy.
The partner of my aunt, an elementary school teacher, once used his meaty fists to break her face, leaving her face a bloody, unrecognizable mess.
This wouldn’t have been the first time he hit her, but it certainly was the most damaging. My aunt suffered grave injuries that required hospitalization. The whole town knew it. Yet, her abuser was walking the streets the next day.
As the pretty young wife of a jealous husband, my aunt’s daughter was a survivor, too. Her skinny husband executed a bloody attack on a hot afternoon in front of a group of terrified and petrified kids. Another cousin’s husband cracked her skull with a brick. Thankfully, she lived. All the of the abusers remained free.
I attended the Women Helping Women 2nd annual breakfast Thursday. Women Helping Women offers resources to deal with domestic violence and sex crimes. If only my kin had such support — especially when they could not count on the law to be on their side. Back then, it was not uncommon for a local lawman to help the abuser “cool off” by driving him around for a while.
Sadly, in Greater Cincinnati, the need is increasingly significant. Women Helping Women in 2017 reported helping nearly 5,800 new survivors. So far this year, it has served nearly 6,000 survivors with more than two months remaining in the year. The #MeToo movement and the U.S. Supreme Court hearing spurred more people to tell their truth. In September, the group helped 1,028 survivors.
President and CEO Kristin Smith Shrimplin reflected on the national conversation around gender-based violence. “The national narrative has changed in its belief of survivors and its treatment for survivors,” Shrimplin said during the breakfast. “Supporting survivors is not open for political debate.”
Women Helping Women volunteers are doing yeoman’s work. They go to victims’ homes with police to remove them. They staff a crisis line 24 hours a day, every day. They meet rape survivors in hospital emergency rooms. They support survivors in court. They train leaders in the workplace to recognize a victim of gender-based violence on their team.
They have campus advocates at Miami University and the University of Cincinnati.
They help families. In February, the organization partnered with the Cincinnati Police Department to start the DVERT program. So far, the program has helped 472 adults and 588 children out of domestic violence.
The insidious thing about gender-based violence is its stealth. Horrified victims don’t tell other people what they are going through. When they miss work or are chronically tardy, an HR issue arises, and the real problem is masked. They may not have visible evidence of abuse, but their scars show up in other ways.
All of us need to be better equipped to spot someone who may be suffering, to engage them and be an advocate for them. The numbers in our community are trending upward across the board. And today, largely because of organizations like Women Helping Women, a strategic approach to help is available.
No one needs to suffer in silence anymore.
Byron McCauley writes about education and family life. He also serves on the Enquirer editorial board. Email: [email protected]. Social: @byronmccauley.
Citing a growing number of reported gender-based violence cases in Greater Cincinnati, Women Helping Women President and CEO Kristin Smith Shrimplin says there is a disturbing pattern with the way victims are treated.
Smith Shrimplin spoke Thursday at the organization’s annual Community Leader breakfast at The Westin Cincinnati. She says Women Helping Women is not a political agency, only commenting on policy and actions that negatively affect survivors.
Referencing the #MeToo movement she said, “The national narrative has changed in its belief of survivors and its treatment of survivors. Supporting survivors is not open for political debate.”
“We have had enough of the fundamental disrespect and disregard, the violation and victimization in our region and in the U.S. of survivors,” Smith Shrimplin told a crowd that broke into applause.
The Numbers Continue To Go Up
So far in 2018, Women Helping Women says it served 5,939 survivors compared to a total of 5,792 in 2017. Smith Shrimplin says this is the new normal. This year a new team of volunteers, DVERT, is helping as they respond to calls with police and take survivors and their children to safe places.
Assistant Cincinnati Police Chief Michael John also spoke Thursday, citing numbers for the last three years. He says in 2015 there were 1,700 reports of gender-based violence; 1,800 in 2016; and 1,943 in 2017. Nine people died in 2017.
Gender-based violence on college campuses also continues to be a problem. Women Helping Women increased its services there by 60 percent.
At the Thursday breakfast, the organization also called for businesses to take on a greater role in identifying possible victims by participating in the program WorkStrong.
In working to continually find better ways to prevent and respond to cases of sexual harassment, assault and misconduct, the University of Cincinnati is adding to the range of options it already offers in the form of advocacy, training, prevention and resources related to
In a new agreement between UCs Division of Student Affairs and Women Helping Women (WHW), the community organization will provide an on-call, confidential campus advocate/response to provide comprehensive support to those who have or are experiencing (or have witnessed) gender-based violence, such as sexual assault, domestic violence or stalking. That 24/7 on-call service begins this week, and will be available to all students, not just women. The service will also be available to all faculty and staff.
WHW will provide confidential services that are focused on the survivor and include individual crisis intervention, hospital accompaniment, campus reporting assistance, accompany students through Title IX and law enforcement or legal processes, assist with campus-based accommodations, provide referrals for health and wellness services, and assist survivors who seek interim measures. Again, while primarily focused on serving students, the advocate will also be available to campus faculty and staff as well.
An on-call campus advocate from Women Helping Women can be reached 24/7 at 513-381-5610, the WHW hotline.
By Oct. 30, a full-time WHW campus advocate will be housed on campus, in an office in the Steger Student Life Center.
With the start of the new school year, UC is also expanding prevention options with new bystander training.
With the start of the new school year, UC has developed a Support Services Coordination Team to bring together all those addressing gender-based violence and sexual assault.
UC has added two Title IX investigators and just hosted (on Aug. 15-16) a level one Title IX investigator training session, led by the Association of Title IX Administrators.
Annually, incoming UC students take ‘Think About It’ online training highlighting the role alcohol often plays in terms of sexual assault. That training also focuses on accountability and consequences, laws and policies governing sexual assault.
The new offerings add to those already available to students, including confidential medical services, UCPDs victim services coordinator, and UCs Counseling and Psychological Services Center 24/7 service to students in crisis due to sexual harassment, misconduct and assault. For a complete list of resources, visit UCs Title IX site.
Our new advocate, to be dedicated to serving the campus community, will provide confidential support for students. We believe survivors, and we support survivors. The advocate’s role is to listen to the survivor, outline options, link survivors to services that they want and to focus on empowerment,” said Kristin Smith Shrimplin, president and CEO of WHW.
According to Debra Merchant, vice president of UCs Division of Student Affairs, students need a variety of support options, and this new partnership with WHW provides another confidential support on campus, in the same way that there are counselors in UCs Counseling and Psychological Services who specifically provide assistance to survivors of sexual assault or harassment.
She stated, this adds to what we can provide to students. Some of the support is what we call confidential (like that offered by a counselor or this advocate). Some of it is what we call non-confidential or of public record, like going to UCPD. In order to provide the best service, it’s important to provide these confidential options as well.
The main responsibilities of the on-call campus advocate are as follows:
Provide direct crisis-intervention services to campus survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking.
Provide telephone and one-on-one crisis intervention, hospital advocacy, civil and criminal court accompaniment, campus-based referrals, and accompaniment to campus hearings.
Assist students with safety planning and provide information and referrals with each student as appropriate.
Accompany clients to proceedings/appointments/meetings as needed to provide information, advocacy, support and safety.
Advocate for survivors based on survivor-defined goals and with the consent of the survivor.
Additional Contacts John Bach | Director of Executive Communications | Marketing + Communications [email protected] | 513-556-2019
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womenhelpingwomen.org
September 11, 2026
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