Our History

The DUI Victim Center of Kansas was started in 1987 by President/CEO, Mary Ann Khoury, after a childhood friend, three months pregnant with her third child, was hit by a repeat offending drunk driver who ran through a red light in Wichita. The friend and unborn child were in a coma for over two months before dying.

After seeing how the Orthodox Christian Church communities came together to support her friend’s family, Khoury, who was also hit by a drunk driver in 1971, realized there were no support groups or help for victims of drunk driving automobile crashes in Wichita. She decided something had to be done.

As the inquiry began, those in law enforcement, prevention, intervention, education, treatment, victim services, etc. were all contacted to assess the real need for assisting DUI victims. After countless hours of research, as well as support from the Wichita Orthodox Christian Clergy and parish members, the DUI Victim Center of Kansas was established.

In 1987, the services were an affiliated project of Interfaith Ministries before becoming a program of the YWCA in 1989. Affiliation with the YWCA provided growth and knowledge for the founder and allowed volunteers to establish a 501(c) 3 nonprofit status as the DUI Victim Center of Kansas, Inc. by 1993.

Although it took several years, the DUI Victims Center of Kansas has evolved from the founder’s family room, a few volunteers from her church, and an answering machine, to a Wichita office with 3 full-time staff, 2 part-time staff and 2 Office Admin Assistant of 20 hours/week provided in partnership by the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP).

The DUI VCK is now the only comprehensive program in the Wichita, Sedgwick County, and Butler County areas with expanding programs throughout the state providing services annually to more than 500 victims and survivors of DUI crimes and their families – mostly in the Wichita, Sedgwick and Butler County area.

More than 100,000 victims and their families/friends have received services from the DUI Victims Center of Kansas.

The DUI Victims Panel was developed in 1990 as a program to address DUI Diversion, Juvenile and Adult court ordered offenders. Other than victim advocacy, the panel program is now the most requested service of the DUI Victims Center of Kansas.

Since beginning the panel program in 1990, more than 200,000 offenders have attended.

What started as a small group of people wanting to help victims of DUI crashes, slowly became a non-profit offering Victim Advocacy and eventually grew to offer three substantial pieces of assisting victims with the tragic outcome of impaired driving: Victim Advocacy, Victim Impact Panel Presentations, and Every Victims Voice volunteer program.