Barren River Area Safe Space has unveiled a mobile advocacy unit designed to bring confidential domestic violence support directly to survivors across south-central Kentucky, cutting out the need for a long drive to a field office that, in six of the agency's 10 counties, does not even exist. The unit, unveiled during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Bowling Green, functions as an office on wheels, carrying advocacy services into communities throughout BRASS's service area.
The idea grew out of a simple but persistent problem, according to WNKY News 40, which first reported on the unveiling: some survivors simply cannot get to BRASS, whether because they lack reliable transportation or the financial resources to travel. Aleasha Martin, BRASS's director of community operations, said the agency had to find a way to reach people facing those barriers. WNKY reported that transportation challenges helped inspire the idea. Martin said, “That’s kind of how we came up with the idea of having an office on wheels,” adding that survivors should not feel unable to seek help simply because they cannot get to BRASS's doors.
That gap is sharpest in the six counties within BRASS's 10-county footprint that currently have no field office at all, according to WBKO. The agency's service area stretches across nearly 4,000 square miles, as reported by Spectrum News 1, a distance that can make reaching an advocacy appointment difficult for someone without a reliable car.
A Camper Reimagined as a Confidential Meeting Space
The vehicle itself started life as an ordinary camper before being converted into a mobile advocacy vehicle, the same WBKO report notes. Inside, BRASS says on its website, the unit offers a private, confidential space where advocates can meet survivors right in their own communities. Advocates working out of the unit can provide crisis intervention, safety planning, legal advocacy, and connections to other resources, according to a post from brassinc.org describing the unit as a way of bringing safety, support, and hope closer to home for survivors across south-central Kentucky.
The project came together with a $68,000 Growth Grant awarded to the agency in 2025, along with additional assistance from Camping World, the same WBKO report states. BRASS serves nearly 3,000 survivors each year across its 10 counties, per the organization's own account, and the mobile unit is meant to expand that reach rather than replace the agency's existing offices.
Stops Already Made, More Counties Ahead
The unit has already made stops in Allen, Hart, Butler, Monroe and Logan counties, according to brassinc.org. Ribbon-cutting celebrations are still planned this fall in Edmonson, Barren and Warren counties, the same post says. BRASS has also said it plans to unveil another mobile advocacy unit during a ribbon-cutting ceremony in Glasgow on November 4, according to WNKY News 40.
Martin described the mobile unit as something the agency developed specifically to meet survivors where they are, telling the station that BRASS came up with the idea of an office on wheels after recognizing how often distance alone kept people from getting help. The unit is intended to eliminate transportation barriers that impede survivors' access to assistance, expanding both BRASS's reach and its access to advocacy services across the region.
A Barrier Documented Well Beyond Kentucky
The transportation gap BRASS is targeting shows up in national data too. The National Domestic Violence Hotline reported that 8,541 people needed emergency transportation services in 2022, a 117% increase over the prior year, according to the Hotline. The same resource notes that the nearest intimate-partner-violence resource was, on average, three times farther away for rural women than for urban women.
BRASS is not alone in experimenting with a mobile model. In Ohio, Hope and Healing Survivor Resource Center unveiled its own mobile advocacy unit this summer aimed at bringing services directly to survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking in Medina and Summit counties, according to Cleveland 19. That unit, funded through grant money, travels to libraries, grocery stores and nonprofits throughout the two counties, where the organization serves more than 5,000 survivors and co-survivors each year.
What Services Remain Available
BRASS continues to offer free, confidential and voluntary services beyond the mobile unit, including assistance with filing Emergency Protective Orders and accompaniment during protective-order hearings, according to the agency's own site. Anyone seeking shelter or an advocate can call BRASS's 24-hour crisis line at 1-800-928-1183. The mobile unit adds another avenue into that same network of support, bringing it closer to survivors who might otherwise have had no easy way to reach it.
