Peace House receives $500,000 grant to boost survivor services in Summit County
A new three-year federal grant will strengthen Peace House’s helpline, rural outreach and survivor coordination across Summit and Wasatch counties.
Peace House will use a new $500,000 federal grant to strengthen the 24/7 lifeline it provides to domestic violence and sexual assault survivors across the Wasatch Back, with a focus on faster coordination, better protocols and stronger reach into rural parts of Summit and Wasatch counties where help can be harder to access.
The award, from the U.S. Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women, is designed to fill service gaps and improve how survivors are connected to support when danger is highest. That matters in a region where some residents can face long travel times, limited transportation and fewer confidential places to ask for help. When a person screens as high danger, law enforcement or other responders can call the Peace House helpline and connect the victim to help right away, a process the new money is expected to reinforce.
Peace House Executive Director Kendra Wyckoff said the grant is the first direct OVW grant the nonprofit has received. She said the organization was “really, really proud” of the effort, which required substantial coordination with community partners. The three-year grant should also deepen Peace House’s links with police, hospitals and other responders who handle crisis calls across the region.
The funding arrives on top of an already wide service network. Peace House operates an emergency shelter, a 24/7 helpline, transitional housing, counseling, case management, legal advocacy and sexual assault crisis counseling. During the fiscal year that ended June 30, the organization said 1,468 people from Summit and Wasatch counties received support and resources through its emergency helpline. In 2022 and 2023, its transitional housing provided 9,269 nights of safety for victims of domestic violence, and the group said it served more than 120 adults and youth survivors of sexual assault.
The grant also underscores how central Peace House has become to public safety in the Wasatch Back. The nonprofit marked its 30th anniversary in 2025 and has also pushed prevention work in schools, saying a prevention specialist reached 3,476 students and faculty across 178 presentations in the 2024-25 school year. Even with the new federal money, survivors in rural and hard-to-reach parts of Summit County will still face the same core barriers of distance, transportation and privacy, but the award gives Peace House more capacity to respond when the call comes in.
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