WHO WE ARE

ABOUT US

The WoMen’s Rural Advocacy Programs, Inc. (WRAP) is a non-profit tax-exempt organization which received its determination letter on May 29, 1997 from the Internal Revenue Service. The main purposes of WRAP are to provide safety options, shelter, and advocacy and referral services for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and their children, and alleviate domestic violence in the communities of Southwest Minnesota. This grass roots network of women helping women began in October 1979.

The Womanspace and Yellow Medicine Women’s Center programs were started in Lyon and Yellow Medicine counties in 1994. WRAP operated as a corporation, with the Committee Against Domestic Violence (CADA), Mankato, Minnesota as its fiscal agent, from July 1, 1994 until June 30, 1997 when it obtained its own 501(c)(3) tax-exempt determination. Services to Lincoln, Murray and Redwood counties were added at this same time. In 2019, services for Murray county were designated to a different program.

WRAP operates Community Action Programs (CAP) for anyone affected by domestic violence  and human trafficking/exploitation in four Southwest Minnesota counties as well as anyone affected by sexual violence in Yellow Medicine County:

  • WRAP- Lyon, located in Marshall

  • WRAP-Lincoln, served out of Marshall

  • WRAP-Yellow Medicine, located in Granite Falls

  • WRAP-Redwood, located in Redwood Falls

MISSION

The mission of WoMen’s Rural Advocacy Programs, Inc. (WRAP) is to provide safety, advocacy, and assistance for those victimized by domestic violence, sexual violence and sex trafficking/exploitation in Southwest Minnesota. WRAP promotes community awareness through prevention and education, as well as social change through equality, honesty, and an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect.

PURPOSE

The WoMen’s Rural Advocacy Programs, Inc. (WRAP) was established to:

  • Provide emergency housing, support groups, educational activities, information and referral services for individuals and their children.

  • Seek to eliminate the roots of violence by confronting sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, ageism, and albinism within ourselves and the socio-economic and political systems.

  • Act both as personal and group advocates.

  • Develop and maintain associations with health, social service, law enforcement, criminal justice, and legal service providers, with the objective of alleviating the problem of domestic violence.

  • Provide community education, volunteer opportunities, and training on domestic violence and related issues.

  • With the increase in designations WRAP’s purpose has expanded to include sexual violence and human trafficking/exploitation.

PHILOSOPHY

The WoMen’s Rural Advocacy Programs, Inc. (WRAP) believes violence against individuals and children is a learned behavior and results from the use of force or threat involving emotional, physical, sexual, economic, or other aspects of life, to achieve and maintain power and control over another person in intimate relationships. Societal abuses of power and domination includes forms of sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, anti-Semitism, able-bodyism, ageism and other opressions. WRAP recognizes that abuses of power in society foster battering by perpetrating conditions which condone violence against individuals and children.