Advocacy, shelter & support at VSS

LOS LUNAS — More than three decades ago, it started with a phone line answered by dedicated volunteers around the clock.

Now, 35 years later, VSS — originally known as Valencia Shelter Services — provides resources to survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault and abuse and child abuse, as well as their caregivers, family members and those who are offenders, with the ultimate goal of providing hope and justice to our community as families make the difficult journey of healing.

The most well known service the nonprofit offers is 24/7 emergency shelter to those experiencing violence in the home by an intimate partner. VSS also provides a wide range of advocacy services and counseling for adults and children, and long-term housing assistance. It also houses the Child Advocacy Center and SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) unit in Valencia County.

Sandi Martinez is the forensics services director, overseeing the CAC and SANE unit, while Catalina Munez, the clinical director, manages the emergency shelter, advocacy, housing and counseling departments.

“Advocacy services and counseling are a part of pretty much every department and service,” Munez said. “There’s a lot of overlap and intertwining branches.”

The VSS 24/7 emergency hotline — 505-864-1383 — is answered by advocates who help those in need find immediate shelter. If beds are available, “we’ll bring them in. If not, we have funds available to place them elsewhere,” Munez said.

“Either way, they will be getting all the services we offer. Do they need a restraining order? To file custody or divorce paperwork? We can help them get those started and we can refer them out to services like New Mexico Legal Aid or the Santa Fe Dreamers Project, if they need something for immigration status or documentation.”

VSS can house individuals at the emergency shelter up to 90 days.

Clients are connected to advocacy services, counseling and a variety of other services through VSS and partner organizations. Munez and Martinez emphasized they do not offer any kind of legal advice, but rather support, advocacy and guidance to clients who need to interact with the court system.

“We are kind of walking them through the whole process. Our advocates will stick with them through the whole restraining order process. If it’s a court case, we will accompany and support them. Help them get connected with the district attorney’s office for pre-trial interviews and things like that,” Munez said. “We are there for support but we do not give any legal advice.”

VSS also offers advocacy services for inmates in the Valencia County Detention Center and Central New Mexico Correctional Facility under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

“We could even bring them here for the SANE examination,” Martinez said.

In addition to the emergency shelter, VSS coordinates two different long-term housing programs. La Vida Nueva is for clients coming out of the emergency shelter, and they receive help finding a place to live, rental assistance for up to two years, as well as some food assistance and even furniture and other household goods for their new home. That program provides housing only in Valencia County.

VSS also partners with the New Mexico Coalition to End Homelessness in the Safe at Home program to help people who have experienced domestic violence, sexual assault or child abuse find housing anywhere in the state.

A lot of folks who have experienced this kind of violence are unhoused because they’ve experienced this violence,” said Munez.

VSS’ shelter coordinator Guadalupe Nuñez said the organization opened her eyes to the tremendous needs in our community.

“Specifically in our Hispanic and Indigenous communities as domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse are often looked at as taboo subjects. My mission is to empower all survivors and educate them on the importance of seeking help,” Nuñez said. “Women, children and men should not be ashamed and silenced.”

Seeing survivors and clients succeed is what drives her passion for her work, Nuñez said.

“Being a small part of their healing journey is beyond rewarding,” she said. “My goal, as a Hispanic woman, is to educate and empower my community members, give them the tools to leave abusive relationships without fearing the future.”

Services provided by VSS also extend to people who have been charged or convicted of harming someone through its Family Peace Initiative Group. The program consists of 52-weekly, 90-minute sessions.

“We offer all the same services for them because we understand when they are harming somebody else, it’s because they have more than likely been through something themselves,” Munez said. “The only difference is they can’t come into the building.”

The VSS offices, 445 Camino Del Rey Dr., Suite E, Los Lunas, are an “offender-free zone,” Martinez said. “We don’t allow anybody who’s been accused of child maltreatment, who are under investigation or who have ever been charged with the crime of child abuse in the building.”

The Child Advocacy Center provides services for families that have experienced child maltreatment, which can include physical and sexual abuse, as well as witnessing a crime, Martinez said.

“We conduct the forensic interviews in a child-friendly, developmentally-friendly environment, a safe environment,” she said. “We are specially trained to interview children in a non-suggestive and developmentally appropriate way. We are also a neutral person. We’re not a person of authority. We’re just somebody they come to talk to. We are a tool in an investigation.”

VSS also has personnel who tracks child abuse cases that have come to the CAC in the counties they serve — Valencia, Socorro, Catron and Torrance counties — to make sure clients continue to receive services and support as the case moves through the judicial system.

“We also provide expert testimony in civil and criminal hearings and trials,” Martinez said. “I’ve been an expert probably 30 times.”

The SANE unit provides medical forensic exams for victims of acute sexual assault, collects DNA evidence, provides exams for domestic violence victims and performs forensic photography of injuries.

Martinez is in the process of hiring two registered nurses for the VSS SANE unit as it prepares to take over sole operation of the program starting July 1.

When the SANE unit opened in 2021 at the VSS offices in Los Lunas, it was a satellite unit in partnership with the Albuquerque SANE Collaborative, with the goal to become independent in three to four years.

“People don’t want to think things like sexual assault and domestic violence happens in their community, but it does,” Martinez said. “We have to get the awareness out there. That’s how these things will get reported and people will get the help they need.”

VSS clinical coordinator for VSS Brissa Sotelo has been with the organization for six years and oversees the mental health/counseling department.

“My passion is the difference we get to make in our community, the whole hearted advocacy of helping a survivor start a new life free of violence and healing,” Sotelo said of working for VSS. “Our agency is unique. It is the constant ask of community needs, we are always listening and revolutionizing with survivor and community partner needs. I find that very inspirational.”

Martinez said the “why” that drives her passion for her job is “to be a voice for victims who don’t have one and to educate my community on the facts and the dangers of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault.”

For many of the VSS staff, these kinds of abuse are lived experiences.

“My sister was killed four years ago by an intimate partner. She’s my main ‘why.’ The last memory I have of seeing my mom go through it was in 1989,” Munez said. “To know that (VSS) started in 1989, it really is coming full circle.”

For more information about VSS and its programs, visit vssnm.org. The administrative offices and Child Advocacy Center can be reached at 505-565-3100, and are located at 445 Camino Del Rey Dr., Suite E, Los Lunas.