ED receives state community partner award

The Bothwell Regional Health Center Emergency Department recently received the Community Partner Award from the Missouri Attorney General’s office for cooperation with Phase II of the SAFE Kit Initiative Project.

The Missouri Office of the Attorney General was awarded a grant in FY18 to complete a statewide sexual assault kit inventory and develop a comprehensive, statewide approach for addressing previously unsubmitted kits. In FY20, the AG’s office was awarded an additional $2 million in funding to continue their efforts.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said in a letter to Bothwell, “It is my pleasure to present the Community Partner Award to your medical facility to acknowledge the time and effort devoted to completing the Phase II inventory of sexual assault kits in Missouri … The work of your organization has helped us test thousands of kits, producing DNA results uploaded into CODIS, which led to multiple criminal referrals to local prosecutors across the state.”