Amanda Price, the new CEO of the Florida Partnership to End Domestic Violence, spoke with WINK News about her new role, helping Florida shelters and rebuilding trust between domestic violence survivors and the state. Transforming from victim to survivor is a struggle Price knows firsthand. “It’s very common for survivors not to want to share their story,” Price said. “I had never discussed my history with anybody, I had never, never stated out loud, not to a single person in my life—any of the challenges that I experienced as a child and in my early dating life. And I think that’s very, very common. I was very afraid that people were going to view me as weak. And I worked very hard to be anything but.” Price took her trauma and turned it into a mission to help others. “I started about 25 years ago,” Price said. “I volunteered on a crisis line in Alaska.” From there, Price’s career took off. She became the director of the statewide rape crisis center in Alaska and was named the first senior adviser on issues of violent crime for the governor. Price worked with Crimes Against Children and Alaska’s special victims’ unit, eventually becoming commissioner for the Alaska Department of Public Safety. But COVID-19 brought Price and her family back to her home state of Florida. They now live in Collier County, and she’s CEO of the Florida Partnership to End Domestic Violence. Her motto? “The sky’s the limit.” “We’re able to build something that doesn’t look like any other state,” Price said. FPEDV is part of a federally recognized coalition. “The goal of a coalition is to serve the shelter programs throughout the state,” Price said. “To make sure that every shelter program and every county has access to funds so that they can serve survivors in their community.” Now, Price travels the state working with shelters and mending some fences. “What I’m focusing on right now is rebuilding trust, rebuilding relationships, making connections with legislators, answering questions, making certain that all of our policies, all of our finances are transparent, available,” Price said. “Rebuilding trust” because the state investigated the previous coalition and its CEO, Tiffany Carr. Carr was accused of misusing grant funds and receiving excessive compensation. Ultimately, the state and Carr reached a settlement requiring her and the coalition to repay the state and domestic violence centers millions of dollars. (WINK News attempted to reach out to Carr for comment and hasn’t heard back.) “From those ashes, we’re able to really build something brand new; we don’t have to do something that we’ve always done just because we’ve always done it,” Price said. “We are really able to stop, pause, and every brick that we lay in the foundation is meaningful and intentional.” Price says she’s ready for a new beginning and eager to help survivors of domestic violence get the help they need. “I think that there’s nothing more important in terms of serving survivors than for them to know that they have a safe place that they can go,” Price said. Price was hired in October 2022. FPEDV is up to four staff members and is providing five training sessions monthly. If you’d like to join in on the movement to end domestic violence, Price says you can post on social media with the hashtag #FloridaFreeFromDV. If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship and needs help, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.