AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Funding for victim's assistance programs across Texas has been down. It has been increasingly difficult for non-profit organizations to find backing. Without state funding and support from other sources, victims like Carrie-Anne O'Driscoll wouldn't have been able to receive the help that she so desperately needed.
Carrie-Anne O'Driscoll is not a victim, but a survivor. When she was nine months pregnant, she said she was brutally beaten by her husband. But she did manage to escape the abusive relationship. However, back in her hometown of Northeast Georgia, there was nowhere for her to receive the help that she needed.
Support Services here in Amarillo was able to provide Carrie-Anne with the assistance she needed to get through her situation. "When I found myself in Amarillo and I had started talking to Family Support Services and found out all of the things they did with counseling, I was just blown away," said Carrie-Anne. "If I had had the access to counseling, if I had had access to any of the assistance that is offered here, my recovery time would have been cut down immensely."
Now a Sheriff's Deputy, author and crisis advocate, Carrie-Anne says she understands the importance of state funding for victim's assistance. She states that the only way to stop crimes against persons like this is to increase awareness, education and to make an outlet for people to get out of the situations that they're in. "If the state does not offer those funds, then it's left up to private citizens and we can only give so much."
