Family Safety Center details polyvictimization, services and funding risks; new facility planned for October 2025

Suzanne Stewart, chief executive officer of the Family Safety Center, told the Tulsa Women’s Commission on April that polyvictimization — layered, lifetime experiences of different kinds of victimization — amplifies the health and safety harms she encounters in Tulsa County and drives demand for the center’s services.

The Family Safety Center serves people who have experienced intimate partner violence, sexual assault, stalking and related trauma. Stewart said the center provides emergency-protective-order assistance, danger assessments, safety planning, on-site forensic nurses who document injuries and evidence, and legal help through partner legal services. She said the Tulsa Police Department refers cases to the center and that advocates contact people in many cases.

Stewart said the center’s data and national studies show high rates of trauma and related symptoms among clients, including suicidal ideation and self-harm. She described “polyvictimization” as layered experiences — for example, child abuse, physical assault and homelessness stacked across a lifetime — and said the center used a Department of Justice–sponsored assessment developed with university partners to screen roughly 3,000 clients from 2019 through 2023.

Why it matters: Stewart said survivors who seek services are far less likely to become homicide victims than people who never sought help, citing…