October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Across Riverside County, we will wear purple, share resources, and speak about the importance of ending abuse. Those actions matter. But awareness must lead to investment in the services survivors turn to when they need help.
At NORA, formerly the Riverside Area Rape Crisis Center, we see that need every day. In September alone, our team served 159 people, answered 118 crisis hotline calls, and provided 69 counseling sessions. Twenty-seven children received services, our children.
Our records also show an increase in people served who experienced domestic violence: 65 in September, compared with 47 in July.
These numbers represent our neighbors. They are parents trying to protect their children, young people searching for safety, and adults confronting trauma they may have carried for years. Behind every number is someone whose dignity, healing, and future deserve our attention.
Yet the resources supporting this work are shrinking.
NORA lost a longstanding child abuse treatment grant that provided approximately $257,000 annually. Broader funding pressures have required us to reduce organizational expenses by approximately 20 percent.
A loss of this magnitude reaches beyond a balance sheet. It affects staffing, counseling capacity, and the time available to help survivors navigate difficult circumstances. Careful management can stretch resources, but it cannot replace them.
As CEO, I am responsible for confronting these realities honestly and pursuing a sustainable path forward. We are reducing expenses, seeking grants, strengthening partnerships, and developing opportunities to bring our expertise in advocacy, prevention, and training to a broader audience.
Our staff continues to serve with remarkable compassion and skill. But their dedication must be supported by dependable funding. We cannot build a sustainable response to violence on the expectation that committed people will continually do more with less.
I am asking Riverside’s business leaders, corporate partners, foundations, and residents to make a financial commitment to NORA now.
For businesses, that means establishing an annual corporate contribution, funding a matching gift campaign, or making a substantial unrestricted gift that supports the people and operations behind survivor care. Bring NORA into your community investment budget. Invite your employees and customers to participate and match their generosity with your own.
For individuals, that means making a gift today and becoming a monthly donor. Consistent contributions help us plan, retain skilled staff, and sustain services beyond a single fundraising event.
For foundations and major donors, it means investing in the full cost of this work through flexible, sustained support. Counseling requires trained professionals. Crisis response requires available advocates. Coordination with legal and safe housing partners requires time and follow-through. These are essential investments in care.
NORA provides free, bilingual services and works with community partners to connect survivors with additional resources. Keeping those services accessible requires a community willing to finance them.
Domestic violence and sexual assault touch families, workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods throughout our region. Supporting survivors belongs within our shared responsibility for community well-being. Local businesses have a meaningful role to play because the people seeking help are also employees, customers, family members, and neighbors.
My experience as both a nonprofit CEO and a foundation trustee has reinforced a clear conviction: investing in survivors helps create the conditions for healthier families and safer communities. It also affirms that people deserve support when their lives have been profoundly disrupted.
I often say that leadership is the stewardship of possibility. Today, that means making difficult decisions, protecting the quality of our work, and asking our community directly to help sustain it.
This October, let our recognition of domestic violence be reflected in the resources we commit to addressing it. The need is here. The people are here. Our investment must be here, too.
More information: Visit callnora.org today to make a contribution. Business and philanthropic leaders, contact NORA to establish an annual giving commitment or a matching gift partnership.
By Adriane Lamar Snider- Adriane Lamar Snider is chief executive officer of NORA, serving survivors and families in Western and Southwest Riverside County
