Annaliese Nurnberg

Tressa Price(cq) is the executive director of the domestic and sexual violence shelter Agape House Incorporated, which serves 10 counties in the region along with one other shelter, Christos House. Price is a domestic violence survivor herself who came to Agape House Incorporated twenty-two years ago. After she found stability, she started working both day and night shifts at the shelter, managing it during the day and providing security and support at night. She became a court advocate, and as of YEAR, she’s been the executive director. She’s still on call four nights a week in case a survivor calls needing shelter. While most advocates consider it too risky to pick up a domestic violence survivor from anywhere except a hospital or police station, Price and her staff will pick up survivors wherever they call. Once she picked up a young woman who was sitting on the side of a dirt road waiting for her, Price said. The woman had walked all night to get away from her violent boyfriend who had passed out, giving her the opportunity to leave. Although it’s dangerous, Price knows that outside Mountain View city limits, help might be hard to come by. Rural areas are often county sheriff territory, and in counties with a small population, the department might consist of only three or four sheriffs with only one on duty at a time. On a bad day, Price has seen it take up to four hours for law enforcement to respond. (Annaliese Nurnberg/Missourian via AP)

Tags

As featured on