Usually I go home from work feeling good. If I've been able to help one person, it's worth it. Then it takes me a long time to go to sleep. It has been been 4 years since the National Domestic Violence Hotline started taking calls. Created by Congress through the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, the hotline is the only number in the country where people can get comprehensive information about what is available for victims of domestic violence.
Few people know it, but the hotline's headquarters are in Austin.
At the end of July, the hotline logged its 500,000th call. That's quite a milestone. But then again, a half million people who are in trouble, or who know someone in crisis, is not something domestic violence experts necessarily applaud. Out of that half a million calls, we have touched many peoples' lives and made a difference. That's what the celebration is about.