Domestic violence rates saw a record spike during COVID, when victims and their abusers were in close quarters at home. While that’s no longer the case, support remains crucial.
Three towns are playing their part. In Cherry Hill, Haddonfield and tiny Tavistock, police are working with the Side by Side Domestic Violence Response Team to help survivors navigate resources available to them. The team operates 24/7 to take calls either through its specific phone line or to respond when police get a domestic violence call.
The response team has been ongoing since the late 1990s, when it was created by attorney Nancy Hatch in partnership with former mayor Susan Bass Levin. It is now mandated by the state attorney general that every municipality have a team. Side by Side is unique in that it has a specific name.
Beth Hastings is the coordinator for the program.
“People should know that the services are available,” she noted. “A lot of times people don’t even know that our services are there.”
According to the most recent data from NJ.gov, 2023 marked a five-year high in domestic violence incidents reported to police in the state, at 70,828, compared with 67,512 cases in 2022. Nationally, statistics show that for the first half of 2025, incidents are up by 3% compared with the same period last year.Â
Ten volunteers currently make up Side by Side and each undergoes 40 hours of training, after which they can speak with victims in a confidential capacity. Volunteers are not counselors, but rather sources of support who provide information and give victims the emotional space to express their feelings in the moment.
Some volunteers can also be cross-trained on non-fatal strangulation, human trafficking and sexual assault. The team is available to help both men and women in either same-sex or opposite-sex relationships who experience violence at the hands of a partner. Volunteers will meet victims at a hospital or police department without pressuring them to make a specific decision.
For clients who don’t want to leave their relationships, the team can help create a safety plan, while giving the client control of how they manage their situation without judgement.
“We’re just empowering them with information,” Hastings explained, “or we’re just the shoulder to cry on or to listen … We never want to push anything on them.”
Clients who do want out of their relationships face major concerns like housing, legal services and the safety of children or pets. Side by Side can connect them with safe houses and shelters, walk them through what to expect from a restraining order or how to contact a pro bono lawyer.
For the most part, when the Side by Side team is dispatched by the police, officers have already contacted the units that specifically handle child abuse.
“There are male victims, female victims, children,” Hastings pointed out. “We don’t counsel the children, though. We only counsel the adults.”
For clients who need someplace for their pets while they’re in a shelter or safe house, Side by Side partners with Services Empowering the Rights of Victims (SERV) to offer safe, temporary options.
“A lot of clients won’t leave because of their animals, because the animals support them,” Hastings pointed out.
Clients who want more information can also receive a pamphlet with resources and information on staying safe, or find the pamphlet online at the Cherry Hill police website, under the Domestic Violence link in the Programs and Services section.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger of domestic violence, call 911. To contact Side by Side directly for non-immediate services, call (856) 432-8869. To reach SERV, call (866) 295-7678.
