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Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to considerable cloudiness and fog after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 55F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..
Tonight
Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to considerable cloudiness and fog after midnight. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low around 55F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.
Detra Betts, new executive director of Family Abuse Services of Alamance County.
Times-News
Isaac Groves
Detra Betts, 42, is the new executive director of Family Abuse Service of Alamance County.
Worked with domestic violence victims, human trafficking victims and at-risk youth for the past 10 years, most recently as executive director of the Haven of the Dan River Region in Danville, Va.
Liberty University master’s degree in human services counseling; Southern Adventist University bachelor’s degree in family studies.
“I always want to do something to help families be functional,” Betts said.
Betts was first exposed to domestic-violence work as a court advocate, where she learned there is more to domestic violence than physical abuse.
“Anything that will keep that victim under that perpetrator’s control,” Betts said, “to the point where that victim only knows they can depend on that perpetrator.”
Emotional – “making someone feel less than who they are,” Betts said, using insults, minimizing their feelings, threatening to keep children from them
Financial – making victims financially dependent on the abuser taking control of income sources, keeping them from having a job or making them lose a job
Spiritual – using a victim’s beliefs to keep them in an abusive relationship
"I’ve had a family member who was going through a domestic violence situation and when she reached out to her church for help, other church members told her to pray about it. It took about nine years for her to get out of that relationship.” Betts said. “The community should know how to approach a victim of domestic violence.”
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Education about healthy relationships should start early, Betts said. Even as early as kindergarten we can give children the wrong message when we say a boy picking on a girl is a crush and not bullying, teaching her that bullying is love.
“I think it starts at an early age,” Betts said.
Two Alamance County women were murdered by domestic violence in 2021, according to the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence, there were more than 130 of those murders statewide, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety, more than any year going back to 2011.
Family Abuse Services, a non-profit agency founded in 1985 working to prevent and stop domestic violence by educating the public and helping victims.
Budget of about $1 million, as of 2020
Located in the Family Justice Center, 1950 Martin St., Burlington, which houses multiple public and private domestic violence services including electronic filing of domestic-violence protective orders without going to court
“A victim is able to get services in one location,” Betts said, “versus having to go throughout the county to get assistance.”
How FAS helps:
Court Navigator Program staff and volunteers worked with 445 victims in 2020 going to civil and criminal court with them more than 600 times
Lethality Assessment Program helped more than 700 clients evaluate how dangerous their situations were using the Burlington Police dedicated line 1,685 times during 2020’s pandemic restrictions
FAS breaks services into four major categories, Betts said:
Housing – helping victims and their children find a place to stay when they leave abusive situations
Support – connecting victims with government and private resources like food stamps so they can become independent of their abusers
Outreach – community education to schools, churches, etc. to make people aware of what domestic violence really is and
Underserved populations – communities, the Hispanic community in particular, where there traditionally hasn’t been as much outreach and awareness of domestic violence
Isaac Groves is the Alamance County government watchdog reporter for the Times-News and the USA Today Network. Call or text 919-998-8039 with tips and comments or follow him on Twitter @TNIGroves.
