HELENA — The Friendship Center recently released its 2025 report highlighting its impact as the only agency serving victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking in Lewis and Clark, Broadwater, and Jefferson counties.
In 2025, the Friendship Center served 733 people who were impacted by interpersonal violence across the tri-county area. They also provided 13,929 nights of shelter to 168 people fleeing these situations.
“Our services are very critical because after something has happened, it is important to have someone there to get that help, get those resources, be with you at the hospital, things like that,” Executive Director Gina Boesdorfer said.
Other than dialing 911, the Friendship Center is the only place in our area where residents can call when they are in an immediate crisis due to violence.
In 2025 alone, they fielded over 3,700 conversations through their 24/7 crisis line and provided 8,259 services.
Boesdorfer noted, “We had about one thousand more calls last year than the previous years.”
With that, the crisis line program and staff are expanding, “we have hired stipend based postitions so that we have dedicated staff for the crisis line on evenings and weekends, and this year we are expanding to week nights as well,” Boesdorfer said.
The Friendship Center also piloted housing pets in their onsite shelter in 2025, and they will continue exploring ways to more comfortably welcome pets.
“We have a lot of clients that don’t want to separate from their pets, and so we have been able to move in at least three cats since we now allow pets in the shelter,” Boesdorfer shared.
According to the annual report, the Friendship Centers says only about 20 percent of shelters nationwide take pets, which makes the Friendship Center unique, considering research shows 20 to 60 percent of survivors will delay leaving a dangerous situation because they don’t know where to place or how to protect their pets.
The Friendship Center also says that with federal funding freezes and other government impacts, there are concerns this year.
It has definitely been a lot of uncertainty and a lot of unknown,” Boesdorfer said. “Helena recently lost our rural designation status, and so one of our major grants is something we will not be eligible for this next year, so we are grappling with how to navigate that loss.”
Losing this designation means the center will lose around 250 thousand dollars, or 30 percent of its annual budget.
For more resources and how you can help, you can visit this link.
