By Mary Loden, Of the News-Tribune

The Iowa Voices Project, an idea sprung from the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, was launched last year share the stories of 31 survivors of domestic violence The stories, including real names and portraits, appeared in newspapers and on websites across the state and reached more than 600,000 readers.

This year, during October's Domestic Violence Awareness Month activities, a traveling photography exhibit featuring the portraits of the 31 participants, as well as a portion of their story, will travel to nine Iowa cities.

This exhibit will make its stop in Forest City on Tuesday, Oct. 21, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Waldorf College and is open to the public. The author and photographer of the Iowa Voices Project, Katie Thompson, will be on hand to answer questions and for comments.

When asked how they got the author of two thriller novels (pen name is Kate Iola) to head up their project Sarabeth Anderson, of the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV), laughed and said, “She found us! She wanted to help.”

In January 2007, right after her second book was released Anderson said Thompson called them, told them she was a domestic abuse survivor and asked what she could do to help. Thompson wasn't satisfied with just donating to a fundraiser, she told them she could write.

That is how the Iowa Voices Project came about. Thompson traveled across Iowa to find 31 women, one for each day in October, who would be willing to share the most intimate details of their horror.

It might have ended there if it weren't for the photographs. “They were just such amazing portraits,” Anderson said. She said as the portraits were laid out side-by-side they created a, “powerful and emotional visual effect.”

“That could be my mom's friend or my sister in college,” Anderson said she imagined and she knew others felt the same way.

“We wanted to do something different, something we've never done before,” she said, they wanted to take the portraits on the road and exhibit them in cities of different size to demonstrate that domestic violence can happen anywhere.

“This was a big step to take for the CoalitionŠ “We've been telling everyone, ‘it's not your fault,' but then we protected women from the press and public eye and later we wondered why.”

Anderson said she wasn't surprised that women wanted to talk, some of them talking about their experience for the very first time, but she was surprised about their willingness to open up.

The exhibit has helped the 31 women as well. “The bonds the women are making with each other as they come to the exhibitsŠ it's helps the healing process,” Anderson said.

The Iowa Voices Project is a visual and physical reminder of why the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV) and the Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault (Iowa CASA) were formed.

The two coalitions, along with their member programs across the state, such as the Crisis Intervention Service in Forest City, over 26,000 victims were served in FY 2007 alone according to information provided by Barbara Benson at the Forest City office.

Today the two coalitions are in jeopardy, they have run out of money to operate. Since 2002 nine dual domestic violence and sexual assault programs, including one in Algona and Waterloo, have closed or been forced to merge with other programs in the state. Essential funding allows for service to children, community education, legal assistance, focus on prevention in addition to crisis response, victim transportation, longer term shelter, experienced staff retention, increased victim outreach, prevention education, support groups and hotlines.

The Funding Restoration Project is a partnership between ICADV and IowaCASA to ensure vital state funding for sexual and domestic violence services in Iowa so that no victim finds the door to safety closed. An appropriation of $4 million is necessary to provide these critical services at their current level.

Domestic Abuse Facts:

Between January 1, 1995 through September 26, 2008 192 Iowans have been killed in domestic violence murders.

- 124 were women were murdered by an intimate partner

- 23 were men murdered by an intimate partner and

45 were bystanders who were killed because they were on the scene of a domestic abuse crime or were murdered in an incident related to domestic abuse.

The public information in these lists came from the Iowa Attorney General's office and was provided by Barbara Breen, of the Crisis Intervention Service in Forest City.