BOISE, Idaho — The Women’s and Children’s Alliance (WCA) has served the Treasure Valley for 110 years. The nonprofit offers a secure emergency and transitional shelter program for families.
“The program provides safety, healing and freedom from domestic abuse and sexual assault," WCA executive director Beatrice Black said.
Domestic abuse and sexual assault cases, and emergency intakes by organizations like the WCA, have increased in Idaho, Black said.
"That's an emergency intake. In 2020 we've seen 17, in 2021 we've also had 17 of those,” she said.
In 2022, Black said the cases have more than doubled compared to pre-pandemic years. WCA has partnered with Lime Transportation to collect donations through their Lime Hero Initiative.
"We started to look at the community and look at organizations who were making big impact who were serving a population that sometimes gets overlooked by federal funding or public funding," said Hayden Harvey, Lime Manager of Community and Government Affairs.
E-scooter and e-bike riders will be able to opt-in for a good cause and help fund the services WCA offers.
"It's essentially a crowd funding mechanism where our customers round up the price of their ride and that amount that is rounded up gets donated to a local organization in this case the WCA,” Harvey said.
Lime has also committed to donating $50 gift cards and provide free or discounted rides to WCA’s clients.
"A lot of people who are fleeing domestic violence are transportation-limited, and shared, affordable, carbon-free mobility is a low-cost way to get around Boise to get what folks need, like appointments, health care, grocery shopping, things like that,” Harvey said.
This initiative will be available throughout the year. Even with winter in full swing, Harvey says he’s hopeful a lot of people in Boise will still use Lime transportation.
"We are seeing several hundred rides a day, depending on the weather, and -- when it gets up to the 60s -- even a thousand rides a day, so folks are still using Lime to get around with this weather,” Harvey said.
"I think that we all need to be working together to foster that community, and it is programs and partnerships that are providing the visibility that is going to help us get there,” Black said.
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