HINESVILLE, Ga. (WSAV) – Tri-County Protective Agency is the only agency in five counties where victims of domestic violence can go to get help and feel a sense of normalcy again.

The agency works with victims in Evans, Bryan, Liberty, Tattnall and Long counties to make sure they are able to live a life violence-free and to maintain a sense of normalcy while on the journey.

“Just because you are a domestic violence victim doesn’t mean your life should be upturned and out of whack,” said Chandra Cox, executive director of the Tri-County Protective Agency.

Tri-County helps victims from the first phone call. As soon as you call the agency, you are placed with a case worker who will identify what your needs are and how they can help you.

“There’s 44 certified shelters in Georgia, and we work with other shelters, and there may be incidents where a victim needs to escape and come to a different area,” Cox explained. “We work together with a system called case worthy and it tracks bed availability.”

Tri-County is able to house 12 women and children in their shelter at one time, and Cox says victims have nothing to worry about except healing.

“We do anything we can and provide anything they need in shelter, any basic needs, food, school, anything they need,” Cox said. “And in the last year, we have served 145 clients in shelter, and that was 3,862 bed nights, so that comes out to 88% occupancy rate for our shelter.”

Tri-County is the only shelter in the Fort Stewart area, and Chandra says women who are military spouses have a few more options when it comes to getting help.

“The abuser can be remanded to the barracks,” she said. “They could get an NPO, which is a protective order on base, and off base, they have TPO, which is all over the United States. There’s a little more services offered to the military due to FAP’s involvement but they don’t have to go to FAP if they don’t want to, they can just come to us.”

Cox says she knows this is a hard topic to discuss, but victims should never be embarrassed — and help is a phone call away.

“A lot of times it’s taboo to talk about domestic violence,” she said. “It’s embarrassing for a lot of people.

“I just want to let people know we don’t judge and it comes from all walks of life and we are here to help anyone in a domestic violent situation.”

Federal funding is how agencies like Tri-County are able to save lives and with cuts continuing to happen all over the state, Cox tells News 3 they really need the community’s support with monetary donations and basic necessity donations.

If you or someone you know is in need of help, you can call 912-368-9200 or 1-800-33-HAVEN.

If you would like to donate, you can email donations@tcprotectiveagency.org.