Through the efforts of a volunteer group concerned with assisting women and children in violent domestic situations, the Battered Women’s Project of Sioux City was first formed in 1977. Concurrently, a separate group wanting to assist rape victims had also begun as the Rape Crisis Center. These two groups chose to incorporate as The Council on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence in 1978 to maximize funding sources and to provide more comprehensive services.

At that time, the agency’s crisis line was answered by the A.I.D. Center, who would take the call and then page a volunteer to respond to the crisis. In those days, victims who needed a safe place were signed into motel rooms under a different name, hidden in a room between floors in the old St. Joe hospital, or given refuge at a local convent. Later, office space was acquired at the Jewish Community Center until a shelter was purchased in 1985.

The shelter was anonymously located in a residential section of Sioux City. Due to an increase in the need for services, necessity prompted a fund raising effort to acquire a larger facility to provide victims and their families a variety of services. In 1996, this goal was achieved and the location was moved to its present site.

Initially responding only to Sioux City victims, the Council on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence now provides services to a tri-state, five county area. The counties include: Woodbury, Monona and Plymouth in Iowa; Dakota County in Nebraska, and Union County in South Dakota.