Two service-learning students are hosting a donation drive for personal care items through Monday. The donations are for the Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse (ATVP) 24-hour shelter from sexual and
domestic violence.
ATVP is the only organization on the Palouse that provides 24-hour advocacy for individuals who are victims of intimate partner violence including sexual assault and domestic violence, said Lysa Salsbury, Director of the University of Idaho Women’s Center.
“They have a whole host of services that they provide: individual counseling and advocacy, support groups, legal advocacy … they have an office in Moscow and an office in Pullman,” Salsbury said. “The office in Moscow is staffed by just two people and they serve our entire Latah
County community.”
Jessi Smith and Andrew Schaffer are the two service-learning students in Sociology 301: Introduction to Diversity and Stratification. The pair organized the donation drive for ATVP as their project for the course.
“Part of the class is that you have to do a service learning project,” Schaffer said. “And so our project is with the Women’s Center and we’re working with them to do a donation drive for Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse. So, we’re setting up this donation drive and then over a period of a couple of weeks we are collecting feminine, personal hygiene products for women and girls.”
Donations can be dropped off at the brown paper bags found in a variety of locations around campus. They can be found outside the Volunteer Center on the third floor of the Idaho Commons, inside the Student Union Building near the information desk, in most of the residence halls, inside the Student Recreation Center and in the Women’s Center.
The donation drive is for personal care items. Specifically, the shelter needs things like shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, feminine hygiene products, razors,
said Schaffer.
“They need the donations year-round, though,” Smith said. “We’re just trying to bring attention to that. But, anyone can donate year-round because they always
need products.”
The ATVP shelter is primarily donation based. Much of the organization’s federal funding has been cut and the rest of their funding comes from grants and donations, Salsbury said. She said the organization is suffering a massive shortfall to fund the shelter and its services.
Amber Evans Pinel can be reached at [email protected]