The Friendship Center Highlights Services and Community Support in 2025

The Friendship Center’s recent annual report highlights the reach of their services and the impact of community support in 2025.

(HELENA, Mont., Mar. 20, 2026) – The Friendship Center served 733 known individuals in 2025. In their recent annual report, they highlighted their impact as the only agency serving victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking (DVSAS) in Lewis and Clark, Broadwater, and Jefferson counties.

Other than dialing 911, The Friendship Center is the only place area residents can call when they are in immediate crisis due to interpersonal violence. In 2025, The Friendship Center fielded over 3,700 conversations through their 24/7 crisis line and provided 8,259 services, including legal advocacy, in-hospital response for survivors of sexual assault, safety planning, emotional support, community referrals, and more. They also provided 13,929 nights of shelter to 168 individuals fleeing violence.

Community support in 2025 helped The Friendship Center meet client needs in new ways, engage the public with education, and expand partnerships with the following highlights:

• The Friendship Center hosted an April 2025 screening of a documentary about a groundbreaking federal class-action lawsuit, the first to argue that sexual assault isn’t prosecuted because it’s a crime that predominantly affects women. The screening was followed by a talkback with staff from key agencies working to address and respond to sexual violence locally.

• After piloting a new approach to staffing their 24-hour crisis line with dedicated crisis line advocates outside office hours, holidays, and administrative closures in 2025, The Friendship Center is expanding the new structure to include weeknights in 2026.

• The Friendship Center piloted housing pets in their onsite shelter in 2025, and they will continue exploring ways to more comfortably welcome pets in shelter. About 20% of domestic violence shelters nationwide can accommodate pets, and 20-60% of survivors will delay leaving a dangerous situation because they don’t know where to place or how to protect their pets.

• Launched in 2025, The Friendship Center's new video learning series is intended to expand access to educational content on topics like how the reality of stalking contrasts to how it’s depicted in popular media, risk factors indicating a domestic violence victim is likely to experience severe harm or homicide, and why victims stay in abusive relationships.

• In partnership with the emergency department at St. Peter's Health, The Friendship Center expanded their hospital response beyond sexual assault in summer of 2025 to now include strangulation, a felony crime that can cause severe harm and injuries to victims and has a high correlation with fatalities in intimate partner violence cases.

Along with new collaborations, expanded services, and opportunities to bring people together around prevention and healing in 2025, The Friendship Center and nonprofits across the community experienced real challenges in addressing rising needs in the face of unstable and diminishing resources.

"Our clients have fewer resources to turn to as capacity in our community dwindles," said Gina Boesdorfer, Executive Director of The Friendship Center. "Shifting state priorities have resulted in places like Career Training Institute closing, changing policies at partner organizations, and affordable housing continuing to be a thing of the past."

The agency’s largest funding partner, the federal government, also posed significant challenges. “Thanks to lawsuits in place, all of our current federal funding remains intact,” said Boesdorfer. “We are cautiously optimistic of our ability to continue applying for those funds in the future, but we have continued to notice delays in the opening of solicitations for different funding programs.”

The Friendship Center’s funding comes from federal grant programs, private foundations, and the contributions of individual and corporate donors. Over $1 million of the agency’s funding in 2025 came from government grants, with the next largest funding sources coming from over $380,000 in individual and corporate contributions and over $116,000 in private foundation support.

“Some private foundations that used to fund us have shifted their priorities and that funding is no longer available,” said Boesdorfer. “While we are overturning every rock to seek other private foundation support, we have not yet backfilled that gap. Fortunately, our individual and community supporters continue to be the bedrock of our agency, ensuring that we will remain viable and here to serve.”

Visit thefriendshipcenter.org/annualreport25 to see highlights from 2025 and download infographics showing the impact of The Friendship Center’s services, plus a snapshot of their operational costs and funding sources.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, sexual assault, and/or stalking, contact The Friendship Center anytime at 406.442.6800.

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About The Friendship Center

Founded in 1971, The Friendship Center is the community resource for addressing and preventing domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking through advocacy, education, and outreach in Lewis and Clark, Broadwater, and Jefferson counties. Learn more at thefriendshipcenter.org.

Contact:

Kim Patterson, Development Director

406.442.6800

kim.p@thefriendshipcenter.org