March 13, 2025
VIROQUA, Wis. – Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson recently posted on social media that several members of the Coordinated Community Response Team met eith community stakeholders at the Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday. Torgerson said a CCRT is a community-based approach to domestic violence and sexual assault. According to End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, domestic violence is a community issue that requires engagement from the entire community to address.
Also in attendance were Judge Timothy Gaskell, Clerk of Court Sheila Olson, and the court commissioner who needed to return to the courthouse prior to the photo.
The CCRT is a grant funded program that is a collaboration between Vernon County and several local organizations. Below is our previous story from May of 2023 explaining the origins of the program.
Previous story
May 19, 2023
VIROQUA, Wis. – On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. That is impacting thousands across the country, including right here in Vernon County.
Family & Children’s Center’s Domestic Abuse Project, a program of Family & Children’s Center, along with the Vernon County Sheriff’s Department, local law enforcement, and Stonehouse Counseling, are bringing a volunteer opportunity Help End Abuse Response Team (HEART) to Vernon County.
Amy Oliver is a grant writer for Vernon County and gave an update to the Vernon County Board of Supervisors about the origins of the HEART program and several others that were funded recently. Oliver said Susan Townsley with Stonehouse Counseling and Sheriff Roy Torgerson with the Vernon County Sheriff’s Office were instrumental in landing a $200,000 Rural Violent Crime Initiative grant. The grant will used to fund programs aimed at domestic violence.
Susan Townsley
“Shout out to Susan Townsley with Stonehouse Counseling and Sheriff Roy Torgerson with the Vernon County Sheriffs Office who put together this wonderful project,” Oliver said. “We actually applied for $150,000 and got $200,000. In my years of grant writing that doesn’t happen very often so this must be one compelling program they put together.”
Oliver said the funding will support not only the HEART program but also a local batters group that will help train two local technicians (currently there are none) to help change their pathway. The funding will also help provide SANE training (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners). Currently that resource not available for victims of sexual assault in Vernon County and victims of sexual assault have to be transported to La Crosse for examinations. The funding will help train local health providers to provide those services in Vernon County. And the funding will help fund a Coordinated Community Response Team to help drive all of the initiatives.
A Domestic Violence Volunteer Community Response Team is a group of trained volunteers who take turns being on call and accompanying local law enforcement on domestic violence calls to offer services to the victim at the scene.
According to Mary Jacobson, Family & Children’s Center Director of Wisconsin Programs, “It is rare for victims to call for help, but when they do, it is important to get needed services to the victim at that moment. The goal is to have law enforcement secure the scene and then they will call the volunteer on duty to come to the scene and support the victim” adds Jacobson.
In order for this program to work in our rural area, there will need to be a group of volunteers in a 15-minute radius of each area of the county, so that they can arrive at the scene rapidly.
The first training session will be May 23 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Vernon County Sheriff’s Office, 1320 Bad Axe Court, Viroqua.
Anyone interested in taking part is asked to register by May 17.
If you are interested, don’t hesitate to contact Janice Turben by email at jturben@fccnetwork.org or by calling her at 608-668-2312.
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