Page Regional Domestic Violence Services

PRDVS is dedicated to abolishing domestic violence and sexual assault by providing emergency services, legal advocacy, and comprehensive health treatment. PRDVS team members employ both traditional Native American healing techniques and evidence-based, trauma-informed care. Through culturally sensitive social services, PRDVS empowers each victim to lead an enriched, healthy, and independent life. PRDVS hopes that one day, we are violence free.

PRDVS provides services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault with emergency shelter (safe house), crisis counseling, case management, group education, advocacy, criminal justice support, emergency legal advocacy, assistance filling out compensation claims, and information, referral, and connection to community services. Founded in 1996 as a grassroots agency and opening its first emergency safe house in 1997, PRDVS responds to the culturally sensitive needs of domestic violence and sexual assault victims. Operating as a private, (501)(c)(3) non-profit charity, PRDVS provides regional services throughout northwestern Arizona, southern Utah, and the Navajo Nation. PRDVS serves approximately 280 clients annually,
with about three-quarters of its clientele being Navajo. PRDVS helps more than 5,000 victims with emergency shelter and crisis intervention services and encompasses an 80-mile radius around of the city of Page. PRDVS assesses the unique needs of each client and provides a wide-variety of services, including assessing victim safety and providing family, educational, and emergency
services. These services are offered in an effort to reduce clients' suffering, vulnerability, and risk for repeat and poly-victimization (e.g., victimization of two or more different types of crime, such as domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault). PRDVS services are designed to enhance clients' ability to effectively cope with victimization, likelihood of reporting and cooperating with police, and ultimately their recovery. Taken as a whole, PRDVS services are focused on restoring or building clients' sense of independence and empowerment.

Testimonials

Each year, hundreds of American Indian women living on the Navajo Nation reservation and in Page survive -
and thrive - because of Mr. Martinez. He oversees and facilitates services for nearly 300 women and their
children each year. Without him and Another Way, most of the American Indian women he serves would
continue to be terrorized, and perhaps even killed, by their loved ones. What is truly remarkable is what Mr.
Martinez accomplishes everyday - day after day. He directly trains and manages a staff of 15 (mainly
American Indian) men and women, who are among the fortunate few who are employed in the city of Page.
He operates the safe house where up to 30 women and their children can live safely while they work with staff
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to develop a long-term plan to escape violence. He manages and oversees the delivery of several education
programs (for victims and offenders), arranges childcare when clients need to pursue education or
employment, and he provides job training, transportation, and basic living essentials from Another Way's thrift
store (e.g., clothing, shoes, dishes). He also ensures the agency is financially healthy by applying for grants
and managing the budget. Mr. Martinez's day-to-day (and ever-changing) routine is the pulse that keeps
Another Way, and its clients, alive. Because the women and children he serves are mostly American Indian, Mr. Martinez incorporates culturally competent services that actively empower his clients to become resilient, self-sufficient, and violence-free. For example, he arranges spiritual healing for his clients and services to help clients reconnect with their tribe. But
finding the resources to help his clients is not easy. Resources are scarce in Page and among crime victims.
Yet, one of Mr. Martinez's particularly successful endeavors to expand access for victims recently has been to
secure grant funds to increase the amount of time that clients' can live at the safe house.