Today, on the first day of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Gov. Andy Beshear and First Lady Britainy Beshear recognized the courage of survivors, celebrated progress in protecting families, and shared resources to help people find safety.
“Domestic violence will not be tolerated in Kentucky. Everyone deserves to be safe and feel safe in their day-to-day lives,” said Gov. Beshear. “We’re going after people who commit these crimes, and we’re providing justice and healing for survivors and their families. Together, we’re creating a safer Kentucky for all our people.”
“Domestic violence is a heinous crime that has no place in our state or our country,” Mrs. Beshear said. “We’ve taken action by holding offenders accountable and increasing resources for survivors. If someone close to you is hurting you or threatening you, it is not your fault; you are not alone and there is help available.”
Intimate partner violence affects millions of Americans each year. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 1 in 3 women and more than 1 in 6 men experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetimes.
The Governor and First Lady are committed to protecting Kentuckians from domestic violence and supporting survivors and to making all communities safer.
This year, the Governor launched an interactive dashboard sharing domestic violence data. The website allows Kentuckians to more easily view data on offenders and learn more about domestic violence shelters and support services. Previously, Gov. Beshear had signed legislation requiring the commonwealth to produce an annual report on domestic violence-related data.
According to the 2025 Domestic Violence Data Report, in 2025:
Since the Governor took office, his administration has awarded $189 million in grant funding to victim service agencies across the commonwealth. This funding allows Team Kentucky to support law enforcement, victim services, and state and local courts to combat violent crimes and seek justice for survivors. It also supports safe housing at domestic violence shelters, mental health counseling, sexual assault examinations and more.
One of Team Kentucky’s leading partners in the fight against domestic violence is ZeroV (formerly the Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence), a statewide coalition dedicated to creating safe lives and thriving futures for survivors of intimate partner violence and their children. ZeroV and its coalition of domestic violence programs provided supportive services to nearly 14,500 survivors of domestic violence in fiscal year 2026. Of those survivors, more than 1,400 adults and 900 children received emergency shelter services.
“Navigating a path to safety when you’re experiencing abuse is no easy task,” ZeroV CEO Tisha Pletcher said. “The advocates in ZeroV’s statewide coalition walk alongside survivors every day to support them in choosing the path to safety and healing that is best for them. When survivors are ready, we’re here.”
Each year, the First Lady partners with ZeroV to host Shop & Share, a one-day donation drive for domestic violence shelters across the commonwealth, providing critical supplies, such as food, diapers and other essentials. She encouraged Kentuckians to mark their calendars for next year’s Shop and Share event, which will be held on Saturday, Feb. 13, 2027.
Since former First Lady Jane Beshear established Shop & Share in 2008, the annual event has raised nearly $7 million in monetary and in-kind donations and has made a positive impact in the lives of thousands of survivors.
In 2023, the Governor signed Senate Bill 79, establishing the Safe at Home Program, which protects the residential addresses of survivors of domestic violence and other sexual crimes.
In May, the Governor announced that the Kentucky State Police (KSP) received more than $172,000 in federal grant funding to continue the commonwealth’s ongoing work to provide justice to survivors of sexual offenses in the commonwealth through the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI). Kentucky’s SAKI team was created by the Governor in 2021 and works to leverage existing resources to investigate and identify sexual offenders. Since its creation, the KSP SAKI team has received more than $4.8 million in federal grant funding, including $1.5 million in 2021, more than $840,000 in 2022 and $2.5 million in 2023.
The Governor has continued to protect Kentuckians by signing legislation to:
When the Governor was Attorney General, he founded the Survivors Council, giving survivors of violent crime a voice in state government. He also created the Office of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention and Prosecution and secured funding to upgrade the KSP crime lab, prosecute sexual assault offenders and establish and expand a Cold Case Unit, ending the sexual assault kit backlog in Kentucky.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic or intimate partner violence, help is available:
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