A community response is urgently needed to address Vashon’s near-complete lack of services for victims of domestic violence, a report commissioned by the Vashon Healthy Community Network says.

The Island, according to the report, “has experienced a nearly total loss of domestic violence services over the past five years.” What’s more, its author Debra Boyer wrote, the few services that are offered by off-Island agencies are poorly, if at all, advertised.

“Victims really do not know whom to call,” she wrote. “There are no island resources, dissemination of information or outreach specifically dedicated to domestic violence.”

The volunteer-run Healthy Community Network asked Boyer to undertake her analysis as part of its effort to begin addressing domestic violence on Vashon, one of three issues the network was tasked to work on when it was re-activated three years ago. It released the report on Friday.

Claudia Gross Shader, who chairs the network, said Boyer’s report has led to the creation of a small working group headed up by Vashon Youth & Family Services (VYFS) to begin addressing some of her many recommendations.

“I think it gave us enough information to build some community will to create this working group and to dedicate some staff time to support the working group,” Gross Shader said.

Ken Maaz, VYFS’s executive director, said the report underscored what several Islanders involved in social services already know. Many, he said, have been aware of the limited resources on Vashon and the ongoing need.

At the same time, he said, the network’s efforts are providing an important wake-up call.

“I think it’s really great that there was a catalyst to make this report happen, so that we did stop and take a look at this issue,” he said. “It’s brought (domestic violence) to everyone’s attention, and now we want to figure out what to do about it.”

Boyer, a cultural anthropologist and a consultant to the Island’s Healthy Community Network, said that the extent of domestic violence on Vashon is hard to determine — in part because no organization provides services or tracks incidences on the Island and countywide agencies such as the King County court system don’t separate out numbers by geographic regions within the county.

What’s more, because of Vashon’s small population and the infrequency of domestic violence incidents, “rates are inherently unstable,” she wrote.

At the same time, both data from several years ago and anecdotal information from Vashon therapists suggest incidents of domestic violence — from violations of protection orders to assaults — occur on the Island. When Island Domestic Violence Outreach Services (IDVOS) was an active organization on Vashon, for instance, it served 55 to 62 families a year, her report says. And last year, Domestic Abuse Women’s Network, a Tukwila-based organization that serves South King County, received 26 calls to its crisis line from Vashon residents.

Interviews with staff at VYFS, she added, suggested that domestic violence incidents were “regular and constant.”

Boyer, in an interview, noted that domestic violence is always under-reported, a trend that could be pronounced on Vashon. “The needs on Vashon run the gamut,” she added. “All of it’s there. And all of it needs to be addressed.”

Among her recommendations are an on-Island dedicated crisis line and domestic violence advocate; an ongoing support group; and a coordinated plan that identified one agency as the point-agency that communicates and coordinates with county service agencies.

Vashon advocates have struggled for years to provide adequate support for victims of domestic violence. Several years ago, IDVOS was a going concern, with two advocates and a strong presence on the Island. But it stumbled financially and ultimately fell apart in the wake of an embezzlement scandal; its director pled guilty to first-degree theft in November 2005.

In 2006, after Islanders lobbied the county for funds to support domestic violence services on Vashon, DAWN got enough funding to hire a full-time Island-based advocate. She was transferred off the Island early in 2009 after DAWN lost some of its county funding.

Reached Friday, Cheryl Bozarth, DAWN’s director, said an advocate visits the Island once a month to do outreach and other work. But without funding from the county, she said, the agency is unable to provide any kind of consistent presence.

Some Islanders who are concerned about issues facing women on Vashon say they’re frustrated that the Island continues to have so few services to address what they are sure is a problem. Joy Goldstein, an Islander active on such issues, went to a briefing about Boyer’s report. It underscored what she said she already believes: “I’m convinced there’s a real need,” she said.

In part, she noted, the report states what she and others already know. Even so, she said, she’s glad that the Healthy Community Network took this important first step.

“Now we have data we can rub in people’s faces,” she said. “That seems to be the only way to get things done.”

The new working group will hold its first meeting today. Deborah Rieschl, who will represent VYFS in the group, said the panel will start by asking itself what can be done now to address the issue.

“I think it’s great to get the working group started,” she said.