Initially, DVRI was hosted by University of North Carolina, Greensboro (UNCG) and the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence, with satellite employees working across the  state. The goal of the Initiative was to increase the capacity of communities to provide safe, affirming, and quality service to LGBTQ-identified survivors of domestic violence. The original sites were the Campus Violence Response Center at UNCG; Durham Crisis Response Center in Durham; Family Services of the Piedmont (FSOP) in Guildford County; Helpmate in Asheville; and the Outer Banks Hotline in Manteo.

Over 5 years of implementation, it became clear that this violence prevention and response work was most effective when it was done by queer communities for queer communities. The project moved from UNCG to the LGBTQ Center of Durham. With this shift, we began to focus on providing direct services to queer and trans survivors across the entire state of NC and rebranded the project the Southern Queer Survivor Network. We are grateful to our queer and trans siblings who came before us in the anti-violence movement and made our work possible.