Our Story

Survivors, partners, donors and community members who come to CAPSA, have likely noticed a prominent plaque adorning one of the cornerstones of the North entrance.   

Etched on that plaque is a fitting tribute to our “founder” and “friend.” Jenny Box, a lifelong Cache Valley native, was one of the original founding members of CAPSA and continues to be a driving force for building CAPSA into the organization it is today.   

Jenny Box – A Brief History of CAPSA

 Following 2 high profile rape cases occurring on USU campus, Jenny, along with USU staff, students, and various community members, established the Cache Valley Rape Crisis Team. A team made up of devoted volunteers, Box and others stepped forward to fill a serious need in the community.   

As she helped those in crisis, Jenny learned that many survivors of abuse and their families needed a means of escape. A safe and stable place to heal. In 1976, Jenny came to her husband and informed him that they would be sheltering families in crisis, using their own home.   

With both in agreement, perhaps without knowing the full scope of the task they were undertaking, Jenny and Thad housed 3 families within the first week of opening their home as a shelter. Thad would later state “I’m a slow learner, but I figured out pretty fast that domestic violence was a problem here in the community.”   

Stepping Forward – CAPSA Today  

Since then, CAPSA has grown and flourished, serving as a local resource for survivors of abuse in both Cache and Rich County. This growth is due in part to CAPSA’s mission to unite the members of the community in taking a stand against domestic violence and sexual assault.   

During the April 2011 Women in Business event, Jenny Box said of CAPSA:  

“I can only conclude that this organization exists because it needs to exist, because it was meant to be. When the need is greatest, someone in our community always steps forward and saves the day.”  

-source: https://wib.usu.edu/newsletters/2011April.pdf  

Jenny Box Memorial Plaque  

The philosophy of stepping forward to save the day personifies Citizens Against Physical and Sexual Abuse, and without Jenny Box stepping forward to help establish CAPSA, it would not be the valuable resource to the community it currently is.   

As such, Jenny Box will be forever honored on the cornerstone plaque of the CAPSA building, symbolizing her key role of building CAPSA into what it is today. 

Domestic violence and sexual assault is hard to talk about. We want to make a difference in society, and we want survivors to feel like they can talk about their feelings and experiences, but it’s scary.

It’s scary for the survivor of abuse to open up about what happened to them, but it’s also scary to hear.

I presented to parents and their children today, and I had no idea what to say. I wanted to teach the kids what CAPSA is so they can be a resource for their peers, but I also didn’t want to introduce them to a world they may never have been exposed to. For those who came from loving families, I didn’t want to be the one to tell them that some parents hit their children and their spouse. I didn’t want to tell them of the policeman who called CAPSA because a man threatened to kill his mother-in-law. I didn’t want to be the one to take away a child’s innocence. That’s part of why I didn’t want to talk about domestic violence today. But what other reasons do we have for not talking about abuse? Can I suggest a few?

Not in my…

Just like we don’t want to shatter the innocence of children, we also don’t want to ruin the reality we’ve created for ourselves. Even though we know abuse happens, we don’t want to own up to the fact that our society and our families are imperfect. We want to believe that our family’s better than that; our neighborhood’s better than that; our state’s better than that; our church is better than that, but abuse happens to everyone and anyone. It is no respecter of person’s, and though we can take steps to prevent it, we can’t ignore it when it does exist.

I should have known

We also may not want to talk about abuse because we don’t want to feel guilty or like we should have known. When a brother, sister or neighbor tells you they’ve been abused, you don’t want to be the one thinking, “If only I had known…” You also don’t want to be thinking back on your interactions and wondering how you missed the signs. That happened to me once. A co-worker unexpectedly disappeared and said she’d moved to Texas. She’d been inconsistent in her work recently, and I just thought she had a more whimsical, care-free personality than I did. I later found out she’d been taken by her partner to Texas and kept hostage in an apartment. She secretly sent a message to her parents letting them know her location, and with the help of police, they rescued her and brought her home.

Even though she was free from her abuser, he still called asking for her at work. I was always the one to answer the phone, and I didn’t know if it was better to tell him she no longer worked at the office or to tell him she was unavailable. I wasn’t sure what would be safer. But I still look back on that situation and think about how my coworker’s partner was always on Skype. We’d be in a meeting and he’d Skype in, and she had to answer it. He made her wear a ring on her left hand, and we all thought she was engaged or married, but she just said it was a promise ring. I look back and I see all these signs of abuse. How did I not notice them before? But although I was interning at CAPSA at the time, I was still caught in reason number one of why we don’t talk about abuse. I thought nothing like that would happen to my family, friends or co-workers. I may even have underestimated how common abuse is in Logan. Even being an intern, I may have thought, ‘well yeah, it happens to some people, but not my kind of people. Not people who are working where I am, pursuing a master’s degree and living a successful life.’ I was wrong.

Though it’s scary to talk about abuse, and it’s sad to think about individuals like my co-worker kidnapped and trapped, it’s important to talk about abuse, because you never know who’s going to talk to you about it. You also can’t end abuse if you don’t know what it is or what it looks like.

How to talk about it

Here are a few tips for discussing abuse with your family and peers:

  • Use the media. TV shows, songs, music videos, movies and video games all provide opportunities to discuss domestic abuse and sexual assault. The National Network to End Domestic Violence has a list of more than 60 popular movies with domestic violence themes in them. Use this resource to know how and when to talk to children about what they’re seeing.
  • Allow children to express themselves. Sometimes children won’t want to talk to you about domestic violence, but they may find it helpful to draw a picture about it or write in their journal about their feelings. Allow them to learn in whatever way is beneficial for them.
  • Ask questions. Ask your peers about their dating lives. Talk about concerns and frustrations. Allow individuals to share their feelings with you freely.
  • Do service. Providing service for CAPSA, or a similar organization, can be a good way to introduce people to domestic violence. If doing a coat drive, individuals may ask why we need coats. If helping in daycare, explain to those around you why CAPSA has a daycare, and how it helps clients.
  • Refer to the experts. If you don’t know how to talk about a certain issue, you can always give CAPSA a call at (435) 753-2500, and we’ll help you out. We understand you may not know all the statistics, legal terms or complications associated with domestic violence or sexual assault. We’ll help you understand these things, as you have a desire to learn more.
KATIE STRINGHAM | DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT COORDINATOR | KATIE@CAPSA.ORG

Board meetings and board members, what are they for? A non-profit governing board serves many purposes. First and foremost, the board oversees financial and legal decisions. CAPSA’s governing board approves new hires and salary increases. They also make new policies such as our Donor Privacy Policy. CAPSA board members have also testified before the state legislature about the need for funding to ensure continued use of the LAP.

Board members provide support for CAPSA, it’s employees, it’s events and it’s mission. CAPSA board members assist the organization by helping organize and facilitate events. Throughout December, board members open and close the CAPSA gift wrap. During the spring, members help plan and execute the 5K, and members make invitations to friends, family and associates to attend events such as CAPSA’s Wine Pairing and Trivia Night.

Our board consists of university professors, accountants, law enforcement personnel, business owners, stay-at-home moms and lawyers. The diversity of our board members should be reflective of the valley. It should also allow for in-depth discussions about how CAPSA’s policies and practices will affect various community members. Domestic violence is no respecter of persons, and neither is our board. We want to know what the challenges and barriers would be to both a businesswomen and a police officer facing a domestic violence situation. By having a variety of backgrounds represented, a healthy dialogue can be created.

Board members are constant representatives of CAPSA. Board members tell their friends, family and colleagues about CAPSA and it’s latest initiatives. Board members invite their connections to Lunch with CAPSA or on a tour of our facilities, so that men and women throughout the valley can learn more about our services, and how we can help them. Board members are also advocates within the community.

Truthfully, our board members do a lot. There is no limit to their influence on CAPSA and it’s employees, and there’s no adequate way to express our gratitude for them.

Thank you to our board members: Beth Foley, Brad Franke, Chris Guymon, Christy Glass, Donna Alder, Jan Stander, Kacie Malouf, Mike Guthrie, Ronda Callister, Scott Stettler and Tara Williams. You all are amazing and do tremendous work on behalf of CAPSA.

To learn more about how a non-profit board should run, visit Nonprofits Are Messy by Joan Garry Consulting.

 

In 1976, two high-profile rape cases occurred on Utah State University’s campus. This troubled many community members, and deciding to act, they created the Cache Valley Rape Crisis Team. The team was a hotline and calls were directed toward the university’s Women’s Center.

In 1979, Utah passed a spousal abuse act, which made domestic violence illegal. With this legislation, both the need and funding for domestic violence shelters increased. The response team changed it’s name to Citizens Against Physical & Sexual Abuse, and community members began housing individuals within their own homes.

It wasn’t until 1984 that CAPSA gained enough monetary support to allow a shelter to be purchased. The board then hired CAPSA’s first five full-time employees, and on Valentine’s Day of 1985, CAPSA began serving clients.

Also in 1985, Somebody’s Attic was formed to address CAPSA’s need for continual funding. A CAPSA board member created the organization with the idea that all sale proceeds from the items donated would go to CAPSA. Since its inception, Somebody’s Attic has raised more than $1 million to help end abuse. In 2017, CAPSA received more than $60,000 from Somebody’s Attic.

With this new source of funding, CAPSA was able to form the Mobile Crisis Team in 1992. Team members then and now meet with victims of abuse and stay with them as a rape exam is completed or as they recount what happened to law enforcement personnel. Members of the Mobile Crisis Team are seen as both advocates and friends to the victim, and they are there when family, friends, roommates and others cannot be. When the crisis team was created in 1992, it was the first of it’s kind in the state of Utah.

Ten years after the Mobile Crisis Team was created, a new shelter opened in 2002. This shelter nearly doubled the capacity of CAPSA’s previous shelter and allowed for two new living room areas and kitchens.

In 2017, CAPSA expanded again, when it opened the Gail Bird Weinshenker Therapy Center and the Mary Flynn Palley Children’s Center. These needed additions aid CAPSA staff as they provide therapy and other services to all individuals in need within Cache & Rich Counties.

To learn more about CAPSA’s expansions and current initiatives, follow us on Facebook or contact Katie Stringham at katie@capsa.org.

By now, I hope you’ve heard of the #MeToo social media campaign. It was started by Alyssa Milano on Sunday, October 15, as a way to show all of us how prevalent sexual assault and sexual harassment are.

Milano tweeted, “If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet.” She then shared a photo which read, “Me too. Suggested by a friend: ‘If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote, ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.'”

Personally, I think that goal has been accomplished. My co-workers, family members, neighbors, friends and casual acquaintances have found their voice, and stated, “Me too!”

One post I found most interesting came from a local clergy member in Cache Valley. He shared an article written by a female pastor in California. This pastor, Jennifer, told the stories of her colleagues who have been harassed in church, some have been harassed by congregation members and others have been harassed by congregation leaders. It was a reminder to me that, unfortunately, sexual assault and domestic violence happen everywhere.

Maybe along with declaring, “Me too,” we should stand up to say, “Here too!” It happens in our churches. It happens in our schools. It happens at parties. It happens at work. Unfortunately, it may feel like there is no safe place to turn to, because everywhere people are being assaulted. But I don’t want you to feel unsafe. Even if it is Halloween in a week, I don’t want you constantly looking over your shoulder wondering when something bad will happen. Instead, I want you to first, recognize it happens everywhere, and it’s not your fault. If you’ve been abused, please don’t add to your pain by retracing your steps and just thinking if I hadn’t have gone there… If I hadn’t gone to that party, if I hadn’t gone to his apartment, if I hadn’t gone on that date… It happens everywhere. You are not at fault. There are people who believe you, hear you and care about you. Seek help, and find peace.

Second, I want you to recognize it happens everywhere! If something looks or feels out of place and inappropriate, it definitely might be. Don’t just think because you’re at church, at school, at work or at a friends house that you’re safe. Logan is not a big city. It is a generally safe town, but Logan and Cache Valley are not immune to violence. Please don’t be nervous to walk outside your front doors, but please don’t be oblivious to people’s safety, and don’t just assume we’re safe because we’re in Logan or we’re with friends or we’re at a university sanctioned event. Unfortunately, abuse happens everywhere. It happens in our homes, which seem like they should be the safest places possible. For this reason, we have a responsibility to educate ourselves on signs of violence, and realize how we can stand up for those who we think might be in danger. In that vein, Loveisrespect.org has warning signs and resources for helping a child, a co-worker, a friend, an acquaintance, etc. utilize these resources, and help stop abuse.

#MeToo showed us the prevalence of sexual assault within our communities. Hopefully, thinking about #HereToo can help us realize our role in both not blaming victims of abuse, and helping those in need. Abuse happens everywhere, but kindness and hope are kindled everywhere as well.

Thank you to all who have supported CAPSA.