After nearly 40 years as Shelter Our Sisters, we are now the Center for Hope & Safety. Why, you may ask?
Good question! There are several important reasons:
- Providing emergency shelter—a Safe House–is still at the very core of what we do, and have done, since 1976. But today, in 2018, we offer shelter and much, much more—legal advocacy and representation, assistance with housing, help with education, work readiness training, financial literacy counseling, mentoring, support groups, multicultural services, and programs for children. We still serve “sisters” but have come a long way since we were founded in the early days of the women’s movement. In fact, half of our clients are children, and we can assist and refer adult male victims as well. For more than a decade, we’ve offered a program of creative arts therapy (Project CHILD) for youngsters who have witnessed or experienced domestic violence.
- We wanted a name that would reflect the evolution of the agency and its commitment to all persons who need our help, whether they require emergency shelter or another type of intervention.
- We spent the better part of a year carefully considering hundreds of new names. We had valuable and creative input from everyone—our board, our staff, our volunteers, our donors, our clients. In the end, we embraced the core concepts that have always motivated us: Safety for today, Hope for tomorrow.
Our fundamental mission hasn’t changed. We rededicate ourselves every day to saving lives and rebuilding lives that are beset and besieged by domestic violence. And we work diligently toward the day when domestic violence, and the fear of violence, are no more.