The Women's Shelter of South Texas was established in 1978 to provide emergency shelter and support for victims of domestic violence. Services expanded in 1993 to include survivors of sexual assault. New facilities were built in 1994 that allows up to 65 clients. In 1995, the Batterers Intervention and Prevention Program (BIPP) was established. [1] In 1987 the agency expanded to provide services to rural areas in Alice, Beeville, Kingsville, and Sinton. The Shelter wants to include offices and a full staff in each location. The organization continues to educate and prevent sexual assault in South Texas.
Batterers Intervention and Prevention Program (BIPP) is intended to promote safety for victims of domestic violence. There are men's, women's, and Spanish-speaking groups that offer aid to victims. In most cases, the BIPP becomes a mandatory court-order for domestic violence perpetrators. [2]
Clinical Counseling is offered to clients by providing educational and supportive aid in an individual or group setting. Services offered to children include play therapy, after-school and Saturday support groups. [1]
Community Education is available in the agency's service area. Presentations and training events are intended to raise awareness of domestic and sexual violence throughout the community. [1]
The organization has a variety of programs to serve the community needs. There is an Emergency Shelter that provides shelter to women and their children. The shelter operates 24 hours daily throughout the year. [1]
Legal Advocacy Services are available to individuals to discuss their particular situation and needs, answer questions and provide appropriate information. Court accompaniment is also provided to clients by staff and volunteers. Areas of assistance and information include Emergency Protective Orders, Protective Orders, Police Reports, Crime Victims Compensation, Divorce and Child Custody, Child Support, Battered Immigrant Woman assistance under the Violence Against Women Act and the VINE program (Victim Information Notification Everyday).
Primary Prevention invites the whole community to examine the root causes of domestic and sexual violence prevention. Primary prevention also seeks find out new information, new experiences and new perspectives to end domestic violence. The Coastal Bend Coordinated Community Response Coalition (CBCCRC) on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault is part of the primary prevention. The partnership of the CBCCRC and Women's Shelter of South Texas has worked to meet the needs of victims, hold offenders accountable, and to educate the Coastal Bend community on preventing domestic violence and sexual assault. [1]
The Rape Crisis Service utilizes volunteers to provide on-call support for rape victims. Individual and group counseling is also offered to victims for long-term effects of the assault victim. Counseling is offered to families and friends to address their concerns. [1]
Rural Outreach services are available in rural areas that include safety planning, peer counseling, community education, emergency shelter transportation and legal advocacy. Transportation is provided to shelter and safe houses for victims fleeing abuse. The agency is works with law enforcement to ensure safe passages for shelter victims. [1]
Youth Services are provided for child victims of domestic and sexual violence. Support services include counseling, play therapy for young children, mentoring, family activities, age-appropriate activities, and an eight-week summer Kids Camp. The shelter provides education on health, safety, and education for victims of domestic violence. [1]
The Women's Shelter is operated by full and part-time employees who serve as managing staff, administration, case managers, and more. Volunteers must undergo 20 hours of training before working at the Shelter.
To contact the Women's Shelter of South Texas the following address is available
24-hour Domestic Violence Crisis Line & Emergency Shelter: 361-881-8888 or 1-800-580-4878
A women's shelter, also known as a women's refuge and battered women's shelter, is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence and intimate partner violence of all forms. The term is also frequently used to describe a location for the same purpose that is open to people of all genders at risk.
Telephone counseling refers to any type of psychological service performed over the telephone. Telephone counseling ranges from individual, couple or group psychotherapy with a professional therapist to psychological first aid provided by para-professional counselors. In-person therapists often advise clients to make use of telephone crisis counseling to provide the client with an avenue to obtain support outside of therapy if they cannot be reached in an emergency or at the conclusion of a therapeutic relationship.
Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter (CWES) was established in Calgary in 1974. The Calgary Women's Emergency Shelter has serves individuals who experience domestic abuse. The organization was one of the first not-for-profits in Canada established to provide crisis support for victims of family violence, and prevention programs for the community.
Rape crisis centers (RCCs) are community-based organizations affiliated with the anti-rape movement that work to help victims of rape, sexual abuse, and sexual violence. Central to a community's rape response, RCCs provide a number of services, such as victim advocacy, crisis hotlines, community outreach, and education programs. As social movement organizations, they seek to change social beliefs and institutions, particularly in terms of how rape is understood by medical and legal entities and society at large. There is a great deal of diversity in terms of how RCCs are organized, which has implications for their ideological foundations, roles in their communities, and the services they offer.
The Marjaree Mason Center is a non-profit, shelter-based, domestic violence program headquartered in Fresno, California. Named for an Easton, California woman who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, the center operates one of the largest shelters in California.
Brevard County, Florida provides a number of unique services to help the aged, juveniles, the physically and mentally handicapped, and minorities.
The Center Against Domestic Violence is an American not-for-profit organization dedicated to preventing violence in the family and promoting the well-being and economic independence of women and children. It provides safe shelters, a network of supportive services, advocacy, education and resource information, and coalition building.
Women in Distress (WID) is a nationally accredited, state-certified, full service domestic violence center in Broward County, Florida. WID adopts an empowerment based model. WID provides victims of domestic violence with safe shelter, crisis intervention and resources, and raises community awareness through intervention, education and advocacy. WID works in partnership with the Broward County Sheriff's Office (BSO). At a press conference in October 2009, Florida Governor Charlie Crist commended Women in Distress and Broward Sheriff's Office for their joint efforts to combat domestic violence. Tiffany Carr, the CEO of Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV) said Broward County had been chosen to lead the rollout of Florida's new $1.2 million program to combat child abuse, because the successful partnership between Women in Distress and Broward Sheriff's Office had rapidly exceeded all expectations.
As sexual violence affects all parts of society, the responses that arise to combat it are comprehensive, taking place on the individual, administrative, legal, and social levels. These responses can be categorized as:
House Of Ruth Maryland is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1977 by a coalition of women's organizations, religious groups, service providers, and elected officials to provide a safe haven for victims of domestic violence and their children. It is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, United States and has offices throughout the state of Maryland. House of Ruth Maryland leads the fight to end violence against women and their children by confronting the attitudes, behaviors and systems that perpetuate it, and by providing victims with the services necessary to rebuild their lives safely and free of fear. Funding for House of Ruth Maryland is made possible through private (53%) and government (38%) funds, and other sources (9%) including investment income, training and client fees resulting mainly from the Gateway Project. Since its inception, The House of Ruth Maryland has served over 100,000 victims of domestic violence.
Futures Without Violence is a non-profit organization with offices in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Boston, United States, with the goal of ending domestic and sexual violence. Futures Without Violence is involved in community-based programs, developing educational materials, and in public policy work.
Hubbard House is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 entity, established in 1976, that was the first domestic violence shelter in Florida. Hubbard House is a certified, comprehensive domestic violence center and is a nationally recognized leader in domestic violence intervention. It provides programs and services to more than 5,000 women, children, and men annually in Duval and Baker counties. Hubbard House also provided a victim advocate in Nassau County beginning in 2000. The county later established Micah's Place.
The National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) is an American nonprofit organization that addresses the causes and impact of sexual violence through collaboration, prevention, and resources. Working in collaboration with state and territory sexual assault coalitions, representatives from underserved populations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, and a host of community-based and national allied projects, NSVRC provides national leadership to address and prevent sexual violence.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to domestic violence:
HOPE Atlanta, the programs of Travelers Aid of Metropolitan Atlanta, is a non-profit organization that has served the metro-Atlanta area for 112 years. Since its inception in 1900, the organization has provided services to over one million people in need throughout the counties surrounding Atlanta, Georgia.
The management of domestic violence deals with the treatment of victims of domestic violence and preventing repetitions of such violence. The response to domestic violence in Western countries is typically a combined effort between law enforcement, social services, and health care. The role of each has evolved as domestic violence has been brought more into public view.
Safe Horizon, formerly the Victim Services Agency, is the largest victim services nonprofit organization in the United States, providing social services for victims of abuse and violent crime which means they report the women who have been attacked to ACS or CPS causing them to lose their children in family court to the state. Operating at 57 locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Safe Horizon provides social services to over 250,000 victims of violent crime and abuse and their families per year. It has over 800 employees, and has programs for victims of domestic violence, child abuse, sexual assault, and human trafficking, as well as homeless youth and the families of homicide victims. Safe Horizon's website has been accessible for the Spanish-speaking population since 2012. Safe Horizon has an annual budget of over $63 million.
The Women's Legal Service NSW formerly the Women's Legal Resource Centre, is an independent, non-aligned, non-profit organization funded by the Australian Commonwealth and State Governments. It is part of the Community Legal Centre Network. WLS NSW promotes access to justice, particularly for women who are disadvantaged by their social or economic circumstances.
Women's Coalition of Milwaukee operated from 1972 to 1987 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was founded by individual members of Milwaukee's local National Organization for Women chapter. The Women's Coalition proposed to "serve as an advocate for women; to interpret to the community at large the special concerns and problems of women." The first original bylaws of this feminist organization is "To form a coalition of feminist groups ... to combat sex discrimination ... to provide assistance to new feminist groups and create alternative institutions within the women's movement ... to educate women regarding their legal rights, vocational possibilities and personal health ... to serve as an advocate for women; to interpret to the community at large the special concerns and problems of women."
Womankind, formerly known as the New York Asian Women's Centre (NYAWC), was founded in 1982 by a group of volunteers led by Pat Eng. In 2017, the NYAWC changed its name to Womankind. It is a non-profit organization which aims to empower Asian survivors of gender based violence. Womankind was initially a community awareness program designed to educate families about domestic violence in Chinatown, and then developed into a 24-hour multilingual hotline that now includes 18 different Asian languages and dialects. Womankind also provides Asian immigrant women confidential services including an emergency refuge, shelter services, crisis counseling, 24-hour online free multilingual hotline, welfare promotion, support groups, parenting workshops, children's services, volunteer training, community education, and some English courses. Each year, the organization receives over 3,000 hotline calls.