After a domestic violence arrest in Lansing, Lansing Township, Meridian Township or East Lansing, the CARE response team will inform victims of the resources available to them. If the victim is an MSU student, staff member, employee or is partnered with someone who is MSU-affiliated, then CARE can refer them to MSU Safe Place.

CARE offers many services, including responding to victims whose attacker has not been arrested via phone contracts and/or dispatched by local hospitals, assessing a victim’s risk of further injury and providing education on power and control dynamics.

MSU Safe Place is located on MSU’s campus and gives shelter, support groups, counseling and other services to survivors.

Advocacy Coordinator Erica Schmittdiel said there’s a misconception that Safe Place only provides shelter and is only available for very serious domestic violence cases.

However, advocacy is their most requested service.

“People really need that kind of help talking through options,” Schmittdiel said. “We’re not here to tell people what to do or make decisions for them, but we can discuss options and help people decide what it is that they want to do.”

Both programs’ services are free and confidential, and they recently received more funding.

“During the pandemic, we've been stretched thin,” Schimttdiel said. “We've been understaffed for years, and then the pandemic made that worse, so we had to kind of scale back.”

A grant from the Victims of Crime Act, or VOCA, funded three new staff members that started in December and January, allowing them to do more outreach on MSU’s campus and serve more non-MSU survivors, Schmittdiel said.

Sexual assault and domestic violence expert Katie Gregory said programs like Safe Place that do not use a “one-size-fits-all” approach help survivors remove more obstacles from their healing process.

“Everybody’s path to healing looks different,” Gregory said. “When it comes to a survivor, they know what's best. They know what's safest. They know what things they need more than anything to get them to where they want to be.”

Gregory noted a survivor's potential struggle in paying bills and said that flexible funds from Safe Place can be used towards anything that can aid a survivor’s healing process.

The CARE program received a grant from Domestic Violence Services for $164,897 and another from the Michigan State Police Justice Assistance Grant for $127,992, according to the Lansing City Council.

Short-term hotel lodging, prepaid cell phones, gas cards, home security items and hiring a new employee are some of CARE’s plans for the funds.

“It’s really about listening to somebody and hearing what they say they need,” Gregory said.