She says she found all that and more with the Bon Secours Violence Response Team on the Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital campus in Richmond. From the moment she arrived in September 2018, the team treated her with dignity and respect, helped her understand the holistic care available to her, and got her immediate access to medicine. Over the ensuing several years, they remained available to her, helped her connect with additional services, and supported her as she endured three years seeking justice in Kentucky's court system.
Stokes says the violence response team was part of the network that was critical to her survival -- and now to her thriving. "I am grateful for the support system I've had," Stokes says.
She is among the more than 41,000 survivors of violence who have benefited from the team that Bonnie Price established in 1993. Price is a 2026 winner of CHA's Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes leaders who have inspired and mentored others in the ministry and whose accomplishments, over the course of a career, have strengthened Catholic healthcare.
Price, director of the community health -- violence response team for Bon Secours Richmond, says she is driven by her passion to care for the underserved. "These are the patients on the margins that do not always get the care they need," she says.
She adds that she cannot fathom why every healthcare leader across the U.S. does not prioritize violence prevention and recovery as a top issue to address through approaches like those taken by Bon Secours Richmond. She asks, "Why is this seen as optional?"
A brochure in the break room
When Price was a licensed practical nurse in St. Mary's Hospital's emergency department in the early 1990s, she and two nurse colleagues spotted a brochure in the break room about training to collect forensic evidence from sexual assault survivors. Lamenting the lack of trained examiners at the time, Price and the other nurses signed on. They quickly became the go-to experts when survivors came to the emergency department.
Price became increasingly aware of the extensive need for services for assault survivors, and she and the two colleagues founded what would become the violence response team. In time, she became the leader of the team and expanded her knowledge and training to become the subject matter expert on human trafficking and other forms of violence. As she learned of gaps in services, she worked to increase her team's capabilities and capacity, continually seeking the funds to fuel the team's expansion.
From its humble beginnings, the program grew greatly. Currently, the staff of nearly three dozen provides holistic care to patients of all ages who have been impacted by violence, including sexual assault, intimate partner violence, human trafficking, workplace violence and other harms. Members of this team are located at two hospitals within the Bon Secours Richmond market and provide care in spaces outside the emergency room that are specially designed for trauma-informed care. Team members also travel regularly to the other hospitals in the Bon Secours Richmond system.
Services, outreach, advocacy
Price and her fellow team members link patients impacted by violence to medical, spiritual, mental health, legal and socioeconomic care and resources. The violence response team includes highly trained forensic nurses, victim services advocates and community health workers. The forensic nurses complete exams, the advocates remain present to accompany survivors through the healing process, and the community health workers conduct outreach locally.
Price and her team also provide advocacy for survivors, training and education for professionals who work with survivors, and community outreach to curtail the spread of violence.
Beth Richard, manager of community health -- violence response team -- for Bon Secours Richmond, says at multiple points of her career, Price "saw a real need, a need ... to help on the worst day of a person's life" and then responded.
Expansive influence
Price, who has a doctor of nursing practice degree, has built and led training and education programs that have equipped hundreds of clinicians to aid survivors. She leads and coordinates a collaborative of regional community partners that draws several dozen leaders quarterly as well as an advisory board of clinicians, law enforcement, judicial representatives and many other professionals who work with survivors. The most recent of the annual meetings, in March, drew about 50 attendees from 20 agencies.
Price also has created awareness-building programs with numerous community organizations, including churches. She has met with healthcare leaders throughout Virginia and beyond to spread what she has learned.
Michael Lutes, state president of Virginia for Bon Secours Mercy Health, says Price's leadership skills have enabled her to grow this important work both within and well beyond Richmond.
Lutes says in the three years he has known Price, he has been "blown away" by her ability to bring together people of influence to command resources for vulnerable people harmed by violence. Lutes has brought Price into his inner circle. "She's truly a national leader with national expertise," he says, "and she has fundamentally changed how our health system and community respond to violence."
Price's colleague Richard agrees. "Our team's motto is 'evolve, change and grow,'" she says, "and Bonnie allows for that."
Lutes adds that Price "brought a vision" and acted upon it courageously, effectively and compassionately.
"Face of hope"
Husband and wife Bill and Amy O'Keefe of Richmond learned of Price's work nearly a decade ago and have been avid supporters since, contributing money and volunteering their time and talents.
Bill O'Keefe says many people want to pretend that trafficking and other violence do not happen in their communities. He is glad Price and her team are building awareness of the issue and expanding the services available to survivors.
Amy O'Keefe says Price's work has helped to remove the secrecy, shame and stigma that can stop survivors from seeking services and support.
"They are the face of hope," Amy O'Keefe says of Price's team.
Attention to the patient
Lutes says despite Price's success in building out a network of services, "she has never lost sight of the individual patient."
Richard says over time, the need for violence response services has increased -- and the complexity of cases has increased, with many patients having survived multiple assaults and dealing with layers of complex issues. Richard says Price has continually guided the team to respond to the evolving needs of patients in a comprehensive way that respects their dignity.
Julia Rice Stokes, a Richmond-area social worker, is Ava Stokes' mom. A neighbor had told her about the violence response team several years before her daughter needed it. She is grateful the team was there for her daughter -- and for her -- nearly eight years ago. "Bonnie and her team made Ava feel safe and heard and protected," Julia Rice Stokes says. "They made her feel comfortable. They connected her to therapy when she was ready. They left their door open.
"The importance of this program is unbelievable," she says.
Passing it forward
Ava Stokes says "a theme of my conversations with Bonnie and the team is that I had my control taken, and this was me taking it back."
She says that with her family, friends, the violence response team, and other supporters at her back, she has made much progress. She has experienced holistic healing. She was instrumental in the conviction of her rapist -- a stranger who had been released from prison 76 days before he broke into her apartment and assaulted her.
The strength Ava Stokes gained from her experience inspired her to attain a criminal justice degree, and now she is in a master of social work program. She is a victim advocate learning to provide in-depth support to people impacted by violence.
Price is grateful the program she leads is helping survivors like Ava Stokes. "I would love to see programs like ours across the country," she says.
Violence response teams, she says, "are not a nicety, they are a necessity."