A Blueprint for Domestic Violence Interventions in Texas

Transcription

1 Texas Council on Family Violence Access to Safety, Justice and Opportunity: A Blueprint for Domestic Violence Interventions in Texas 2007 BLUEPRINT ADDENDUM

2 Access to Safety, Justice and Opportunity: A Blueprint for Domestic Violence Interventions in Texas 2007 BLUEPRINT ADDENDUM Introduction In 2002, the Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV) published the original Access to Safety, Justice and Opportunity: A Blueprint for Domestic Violence Interventions in Texas. This document, which has come to be known informally as the State Plan, was developed, researched and written under a contract with what was then the Texas Department of Human Services. That state agency is now included in the Texas Health & Human Services Commission (HHSC) and the state s regulation of state-funded family violence programs is administered by the Family Violence Program within HHSC. The 2002 State Plan was over a year in the making and included detailed qualitative information generated by focus groups from across the state, as well as many recommendations for addressing family violence in the future. For fiscal year 2007, HHSC contracted with TCFV to update this State Plan. Part of that update is included in a document entitled Access to Safety, Justice and Opportunity: Availability of Family Violence Services across Texas, 2007 Update ( Availability Update ). In the Availability Update, TCFV summarized the results of comprehensive surveys conducted of family violence programs across Texas to get a sense of the extent to which core emergency services as well as transitional support services are available across Texas for survivors of family violence. This narrative accompaniment to the Availability Update ( Blueprint Addendum ) provides new and more current programmatic information about family violence in Texas, but is not intended to replace the full 2002 State Plan. Because the 2002 State Plan included information from focus groups of survivors and advocates --- which this Addendum does not --- and because the recommendations made in the State Plan are generally very fundamental and long-term (and so will likely take more than a generation to complete ), this Blueprint Addendum should simply be treated as a supplement to the 2002 State Plan. This Blueprint Addendum will cover: current statistics regarding family violence in Texas; updated information regarding the resources provided by the State of Texas to address family violence; a brief overview of availability of services (see the Availability Update for more detail); discussion of statewide planning for increased access to family violence services; new information regarding efforts in Texas to prevent family violence and to address economic empowerment of survivors; and information regarding disaster readiness, in light of the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on Texas family violence programs in The State Plan from 2002 is available on TCFV s website at: 2 The Availability Update from 2007 is also available on TCFV s website at: This update will soon be interactive on TCFV s website.

3 Statistics Regarding Family Violence in Texas Between 2002 and 2005, the number of incidents of family violence reported to law enforcement in Texas increased from 183,440 to 187,811. We know that this is a dramatic underestimate of the actual incidences of family violence in Texas, as family violence is commonly not reported to law enforcement at all, and because the Texas Department of Public Safety, which compiles the information, does not classify incidences of abuse by ex-partners as family violence. (There is no clearly discernible reason for this data collection anomaly; Texas law does include abuse by former partners in the statutory definition of family violence). HHSC estimated that in ,508 Texas women were victims of family violence and in 2007 the estimate had increased to 982,916. Most distressingly of all, the number of women killed through family violence has generally increased since In 2006, there were 120 women reported killed in Texas as a result of family violence. 4 In 2002, when the original State Plan was produced, HHSC-funded family violence programs served 76,769 adult victims of family violence and their children. In 2006, these programs served 81,199 adult victims and their children, an almost 6% increase. 5 While the numbers of women and children served in HHSC-funded family violence programs continue to grow and while these programs are often at full capacity, HHSC-funded family violence programs only reached an estimated 4.95% of victims in In addition, in 2002 TCFV conducted statewide polling on prevalence of, and attitudes toward, family violence. Texans expressed concern over the staggering numbers of Texans affected by family violence. Some of the findings included: 74% of Texans have either themselves, a family member and/or a friend experienced some sort of family violence; 47% of Texans report having personally experienced at least one form of family violence (physical or sexual), severe verbal abuse and/or forced isolation from friends and family at some point in their lifetimes; 31% of Texans report that they have been severely abused (physically or sexually) at some point in their lives; 73% of Texans believe that family violence is a serious problem in Texas. Family Violence Resources in Texas In 2003, the Texas Legislature consolidated health & human services in Texas, and the Health & Human Services Commission (HHSC) is in many respects the successor to the Texas Department of Human Services. The State s Family Violence Program is housed at HHSC, and that Program administers Chapter 51 of the Texas Human Resources Code which defines the fundamentals required of family violence service providers seeking funding from the State. Additionally, HHSC is the State Administrator of federal funds for family violence services as appropriated under the federal Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA). The State s commitment to supporting family violence services in Texas has grown over the last several biennia to a total for the biennium of more than $48.3 million, or $24.15 million per year. This amount includes federal funding through FVPSA and TANF, as well as State general revenue. (The percentages of each revenue source vary somewhat from biennium to biennium, based on the State s budget needs.) HHSC Family Violence Program funds three types of family violence programs: full service shelter centers, full service nonresidential centers and special projects with a focus on a specialized family violence service. 7 In the biennium, HHSC funded 72 shelter centers, 8 nonresidential centers, 7 satellite shelters and 19 special projects. For the biennium, HHSC has added one additional shelter center, one nonresidential center and a new group of 21 special projects. Texas Department of Public Safety, 2006 (TDPS reports on a calendar year basis, January 1 - December 31). This statistic includes women killed by husbands, ex-husbands, common-law husbands, boyfriends and ex-boyfriends and is compiled from TDPS 2005 Uniform Crime Report -- Supplemental Homicide Report plus ongoing TCFV research of news accounts. 5 Information provided by HHSC Family Violence Program based on statistics from September 2005 through August This statistic is calculated by utilizing the HHSC estimated number of women experiencing family violence in 2006 (982,916) and the numbers of adult victims served by HHSC-funded programs in fiscal year 2006 (48,610). 7 For more information about the requirements and definitions of these types of programs, go to Human Resource Code, Chapter 51:

4 In the last two biennia, the appropriations from the State have included exceptional items --- small amounts of targeted funding. In both of these biennia, the issues addressed and areas targeted for these exceptional items were based on needs identified in the 2002 State Plan. In the biennium, the exceptional item, $1 million per year, was targeted to underserved communities in urban areas or un-served rural areas of the State. Both rural and urban areas were included in this targeted funding with the recognition that even in an urban area where one or more family violence programs already are providing services, the need for those services, especially the need for services focused on marginalized communities, is likely outstripping the available resources. In rural areas, the funding was particularly targeted to address access in those counties with no dedicated family violence services present in the county. In these areas, one lesson learned was that it is challenging and very time-consuming to build up services, and awareness of those services, in rural counties where no services have previously been offered. Though it can certainly be assumed that there are victims of family violence in those counties, it may nevertheless be quite difficult in a short period of time to raise awareness of new services and to build confidence in those services such that victims access them regularly. In the biennium, the exceptional item funding, again $1 million per year, is targeted to projects that either address methods of preventing family violence before it starts or that address the unmet needs of survivors either around transitional self-sufficiency and economic empowerment for survivors (i.e. legal representation, housing, employment and child care). HHSC recognizes that these kinds of services are inadequate across the State, so there is no geographic priority area or limitation for this exceptional item funding. Information regarding some new efforts on prevention and on economic empowerment is included later in this Addendum. Overview of Availability of Family Violence Services in Texas The Availability Update prepared by TCFV should be reviewed for a picture of access to family violence services in Texas. 8 TCFV conducted surveys online and by telephone with over 100 organizations in Texas in order to refine a picture of the availability of critical core emergency services and additional support services for victims of family violence throughout the 254 counties of Texas and to highlight the gaps and unmet needs in Texas. There are only six counties in Texas with no reported family violence services (Armstrong, Ellis, Hockley, Kaufman, Mills, and Real). An additional twelve counties have some family violence services, but those services do not meet a minimum threshold of core emergency services. A county was determined not to meet a minimum threshold of core emergency services if it has neither: any family violence organizations that provide face-to-face services in that county; nor any family violence organization in an adjacent county that has, at a minimum, an emergency hotline covering that county and transportation services to emergency shelter, intervention and legal services. 9 All except for two of these eighteen counties lacking adequate core emergency services are in areas with less than 100 people per square mile. Seven of these eighteen counties are in very rural areas with less than 20 people per square mile. 10 With respect to additional support services, TCFV assessed the availability of such transitional supports as legal representation, substance abuse services, mental health services, batterer intervention services, transitional housing, and others. The same six counties have no access to transitional services, but the overall picture of availability in the state for these services is more difficult to see. In many counties, much of the transitional services are provided by referral to other entities, whether governmental or non-profit. It is beyond the scope of the work TCFV did to ascertain for all counties the extent to which referrals for additional support services are successful or to what organizations those referrals are made. Anecdotally, TCFV knows that access to these services is woefully inadequate around the State. We hear from advocates and survivors almost daily about struggles to find legal representation (especially pro bono), affordable housing, child care, or mental health services. 8 The Availability Update from 2007 provides more details about underserved counties and is available on TCFV s website at: 9 For more information about these definitions, reference the Availability Update, published in January 2007 and available on TCFV s website. 10 To reference more information about population density and level of services by county, please refer to the 2007 Map Update attached to this Addendum. 4

5 Again, review of the Availability Update will provide detailed county-by-county information regarding available services, whether core emergency services or additional support services. Anyone reviewing the Availability Update should remember that the availability of services in a given county can change based on resources and needs and that the charts in the Update provide a picture of a point in time. Statewide Planning for Increasing Access to Services Guiding Principles The 2002 State Plan has been used to advocate for additional funding to expand services and to try to direct those additional funds toward increasing access to services. The 2002 State Plan and this Blueprint Addendum have as their foundation the following guiding principles: Victims of family violence are the experts: Victims of family violence and their perspectives must continue to be in the forefront of any planning process. Victims of family violence can articulate best the realities they face and possible solutions to those barriers. Victims of family violence must have safety, justice and opportunity: Life saving emergency services and methods of obtaining justice must be available for all victims of family violence across Texas. Victims of family violence also need opportunities and resources in order to escape abuse and to rebuild their lives. Services must meet the specific needs of the community: In order to be effective, services should be communitydriven, developed at the grass root level and tailored to meet the very diverse needs of communities across Texas. State agencies and funding sources can provide the vital resources to support these community efforts. Any planning process or funding opportunity should continue to keep these guiding principles in the forefront. Considerations when Determining Statewide Need The 2002 State Plan also includes considerations for future development and funding of family violence services: Is a region in Texas predominantly underserved? Are core emergency services adequately available in the county? Are services available to address the critical unmet needs of victims of family violence in the county? 11 Are there regions with a high concentration of a marginalized population where culturally and linguistically appropriate services for that population are not available? 12 How does the rate of reported family violence incidents compare with the rate of individuals accessing family violence services in the county? 13 How dense is the county s population? Is the program victim-centered and empowerment-based? These guiding principles and considerations have been used by HHSC in several venues since the State Plan was published in HHSC used the questions about marginalized communities, unmet needs and population to determine the foci and the distribution methods for both exceptional funding streams over the past two biennia. HHSC also utilized these questions for its three-year special project grants focused on unmet needs or marginalized communities. Finally HHSC used these considerations to develop an assessment of whether additional family violence programs should receive State funding and if so, which programs would be the best potential contractors. In 2007, as a result of an assessment conducted by HHSC and TCFV of potential new contractors according to these considerations, two new family violence contractors will be funded in the biennium. 11 Besides core emergency services, the following were identified in the 2002 State Plan as areas of unmet need: affordable quality child care, safe affordable housing, transportation, legal services, employment and job training opportunities and geographic barriers in both scarcely populated and densely populated areas. 12 In the 2002 State Plan, marginalized populations were identified as: people of color, people with disabilities, people with mental illness, people with substance abuse problems, people who are immigrants, people who are lesbian, gay bisexual or transgender. 13 Caution is advised if utilizing this question to determine need. Family violence is very underreported to law enforcement making it difficult to determine if elevated rates of family violence in a county are due to increased awareness and better services or from a lack of services and lack of understanding of the issue of family violence. 5

6 These considerations, along with the Availability Update and Map Update, provide useful tools for determining the needs of victims of family violence and provide a method of determining planned growth across the state. However, the question of planned growth is still a difficult one. On the one hand, because the array of family violence services in Texas are not consistently accessible to every victim who may need them (as state earlier, it is estimated that only 4.95% of victims of family violence receive assistance at family violence programs each year) 14, there is no place in the State, urban or rural, where one can say that the need has been met. On the other hand, when determining where to expand services, there is a legitimate question as to whether a local community can commit the resources necessary to fully support such expansion of services. The Human Resource Code outlines that the State can support no more than 50%-75% of the family violence centers budgets, depending on the number of years funded. 15 In actuality, the State s funding supports, on average, approximately 27% 16 of the cost of running a family violence service program, meaning that, on average, local communities are generating the other 73% of the cost. Because of this, the ability of an organization or community to support the matching funds required to receive State funding should be considered when planning growth of Statefunded services across Texas. Since fiscal year 2004, TCFV has facilitated information-gathering, as well as analysis and evaluation, with local Texas family violence programs on the subject of planned growth ---- whether, and how, to grow access to family violence services in Texas. Over at least four separate processes since 2004, the first recommendation has been consistent: in order to ensure sustainability and access to services, HHSC should not add new contractors without increased funding from the State. Further, these processes have resulted in recurring recommendations that when HHSC is considering whether to fund additional programs, HHSC conduct thorough assessments to determine not only the needs in a community, but also the resources available to support those services. For related reasons the cost-effectiveness of service expansion these recommendations have also generally included asking that HHSC first consider whether an existing contractor could expand its services to better meet the need before considering whether to fund a new contractor. In summary, the principles and considerations listed in this section, the 2007 Availability Updates and the 2007 Map Update are all tools that can continue to assist funders and planners in determining the unmet needs across Texas regarding family violence services. In addition, careful consideration should be taken to involve existing service providers in expansions when possible and to expand services only when additional resources become available so that services for victims in currently served areas do not suffer. Prevention of Family Violence & Economic Empowerment for Survivors In recent years, family violence programs in local communities, as well as TCFV and HHSC, have begun to focus more resources and efforts on two very important issues: prevention of family violence and building economic self-sufficiency for survivors. Prevention of Family Violence With respect to prevention, family violence programs have long known of the critical importance of this work. The struggle that all family violence service providers face, however, is the allocation of inadequate resources to best serve their communities ---- when forced to make a choice, it is very challenging to spend precious funds on purely preventative efforts when there is not enough funding to support the essential life-saving services to meet the growing needs. When a family violence service provider must turn a victim away from their emergency shelter because they do not have enough capacity to admit her, it is almost an impossible choice to divert funds away from meeting that victim s immediate safety needs in favor of prevention efforts that are so much longer-term in nature and the impact of which is more difficult to measure. However, all family violence service providers recognize clearly that our society must increase our efforts on revention or there will never be enough emergency shelter space for those who need it. 14 This statistic is calculated by utilizing the HHSC estimated number of women experiencing family violence in 2006 (982,916) and the numbers of adult victims served by HHSC-funded programs in fiscal year 2006 (48,610). 15 Texas Human Resource Code, Chapter Information provided by HHSC Family Violence Program based on statistics from September 2005 through August

7 More and more family violence service providers are working to try to prevent family violence before it starts by addressing factors in the social environment that influence perpetration, victimization and by-stander behaviors. Effective primary prevention programming aims to shift a community s values and beliefs and is long-term, comprehensive and strategic: taking place at the individual, relationship, community and society levels and involve a spectrum of strategies. For example, programs have developed efforts working with youth and schools with the goal of creating healthy norms for relationships and healthy communities. Additionally, school districts and other systems are beginning to focus some attention on these issues as well. Recent legislative changes have required school districts to adopt policies and practices that address sexual harassment, bullying and teen dating violence on their campuses. As noted above, for the biennium, the Texas Legislature has appropriated $2 million in additional exceptional item funding, and HHSC has indicated its intention to allocate some of that exceptional item funding in contracts with providers for specific work on prevention of family violence. In addition, TCFV is expanding its efforts to support local family violence service providers and other grass roots, community-based organizations in their prevention work. TCFV secured private funding to supply micro-grants to support these grassroots efforts to end family violence. TCFV is also in the process of surveying local family violence providers to better understand their current prevention activities and their needs for future support. TCFV will use this information to support, encourage and assist local prevention efforts around the State. Through critical stakeholders such as the Office of the Attorney General and, at the federal level, the Violence Against Women Act, prevention efforts are gaining ground and building attention to the need for our entire society to work to end family violence. Perhaps the most important element to be remembered, however, is that prevention efforts cannot come at the expense of essential services to victims in immediate need. Economic Empowerment for Survivors In addition to the core crisis intervention services that victims of family violence need, such as emergency shelter, advocacy services, protective orders, and advocacy with law enforcement, many victims face overwhelming economic obstacles to long-term safety and security, including access to affordable housing, employment, child care, legal representation, public benefits, etc. Very often, victims have suffered financial abuse and isolation by their batterers, have been prohibited from holding their own jobs or from having access to any of the family s income. For these and other reasons, many victims of family violence know that they will confront potentially frightening poverty when they leave an abusive situation. An emergency shelter may be essential to saving someone s life in the immediate crisis, but it is not, by itself, a long-term solution to her situation. Family violence service providers are well aware of these challenges and struggle to help their clients find a place to live, a lawyer, a job, satisfactory child care, access to benefits to which they are entitled, and all the other necessary steps to building safe and self-sufficient lives for themselves and their families. TCFV has expanded its efforts to support local family violence programs in their work to help survivors build selfsufficiency. With funding from HHSC and other funders, TCFV initiated in 2007 a new Economic Justice Summit, a oneday in-depth conference for family violence advocates to learn new tools in helping their clients begin to achieve some economic independence and freedom from violence. TCFV has also developed brochures and technical assistance resources for programs and survivors on economic justice efforts and also has capacity for providing ongoing advocacy and support of these efforts. Additionally, as noted earlier, HHSC has determined to use a portion of the exceptional item funding appropriated by the Legislature this session to support HHSC contractors in the kinds of transitional support services that victims of family violence so often need, including housing, legal representation, child care, and job training. With resources specifically targeted to these services, local family violence programs can begin to make significant differences in the opportunities for their clients to change their lives. These services are the next step beyond core emergency services and represent a true investment by the State in helping victims create safe and self-sufficient lives, free of violence. 7

8 While it is commendable that HHSC Family Violence Program is focusing on such transitional support service, careful consideration should be taken that this expansion does not lead to a loss in critical core emergency services which is the primary mission set forth in Chapter 51 of the Human Resource Code and the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act. Because the unmet needs of victims of family violence are so great, especially in the area of economic stability, there is a need for more state and federal agencies and advocacy groups to partner with each other to find additional funding streams for such vital services. Disaster Readiness In 2005, Texas experienced the very serious impacts of natural disaster when thousands of evacuees from Louisiana came to our State after Hurricane Katrina and when only a few weeks later Hurricane Rita landed on the Texas coast, forcing many coastal family violence programs to evacuate their own clients. For family violence programs in Beaumont and Galveston, for example, the staff were forced to figure out how and where to safely evacuate their clients, while also arranging for the evacuation of their own families. In Houston particularly, as well as Dallas and Austin, family violence programs were called into extra service to help their communities provide assistance to sudden neighbors who had been evacuated from Louisiana. Texas local family violence programs helped each other and coordinated their efforts to ensure that family violence victims were kept safe during needed evacuations. Family violence programs in East, Central and North Texas stepped up to take in evacuees from those programs in the path of Hurricane Rita, and evacuating programs transferred their hotlines to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. TCFV and HHSC endeavored to help programs in the immediate planning for hurricane response and in longer-term recovery efforts. TCFV and HHSC gathered information and resources from around the State and the nation to ensure that both evacuating programs and those programs accepting evacuees had good tools to decide their course of action and to get back to normal when danger passed. Going forward, there were many lessons learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and TCFV has worked with all the family violence programs in Texas, particularly those on the Gulf Coast and in likely paths of hurricanes, to develop and coordinate evacuation and response plans. With TCFV and the National Domestic Violence Hotline as resources to assist with coordination of essential services, most local family violence programs have developed disaster plans for themselves and have made arrangements for possible future evacuations with sister programs. In 2006, TCFV conducted a series of meetings with family violence programs across Texas and asked for stakeholder feedback on how state agencies could be responsive in future natural disasters. The following recommendations were made: Create a method to account for potential losses in funding due to evacuating programs decreased numbers served. Create a method for additional funds to support programs that provided services to evacuees. Create flexible funding streams that could be used for atypical projects such as re-building of programs infrastructure. HHSC was responsive to these requests ---- HHSC assisted in obtaining disaster relief payments for certain family violence programs that experienced unpredicted expenses in direct response to the two hurricanes. Further, the HHSC Family Violence Program implemented policies to ensure that their funding formulas, which take into account the number of services provided to victims, did not penalize those programs that were forced to evacuate, but did appropriately address the circumstances of the other family violence programs who took in extra clients as a result of the evacuations. 8

9 Texas family violence programs are accustomed to operating with crisis situations and as a result of the experiences responding to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, these programs, along with support from TCFV, are assessing their readiness for and developing tools to respond to future possible disasters. Conclusion This 2007 Blueprint Addendum to the 2002 Access to Safety, Justice and Opportunity: A Blueprint for Domestic Violence Interventions in Texas provides an updated summary of current statistics regarding family violence in Texas; updated information regarding the resources provided by the State of Texas to address family violence; a brief overview of availability of services (see the Availability Update for more detail);discussion of statewide planning for increased access to family violence services; new information regarding efforts in Texas to prevent family violence and to address economic empowerment of survivors; and information regarding disaster readiness, in light of the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on Texas family violence programs in It is vital that core emergency services continue to be funded and accessible to victims across Texas and that assessments of gaps in this accessibility be conducted often and with consideration of the diverse needs of all communities and victims. It is also important to consider that in order to work towards ending family violence added transitional support services and well-planned, community-driven prevention efforts must be created and supported. In order to accomplish all of these goals, more funding opportunities for these efforts must be created and distributed across Texas. In conclusion, this update is not meant to replace the vital recommendations which were published in the 2002 State Plan, which were developed out of extensive focus groups with diverse groups of victims of family violence and advocates from across Texas and which are still relevant today, five years later. The 2002 State Plan and 2007 Availability Update, along with this Addendum and Map Update, should serve as tools for funders and planners for assessing the ongoing needs of victims of family violence across Texas or in any given community or county in Texas. 9

10 Since 1978, the Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV) has been a leader in the efforts to end family violence through partnerships, advocacy and direct services for women, children and men. TCFV is one of the largest domestic violence coalitions in the nation, with more than 100 staff and 650 members. Membership is composed of family violence service providers, supportive organizations, survivors of domestic violence, businesses and professionals, communities of faith and other concerned individuals. TCFV is a nonprofit organization with a blended funding base of federal, state, private and public support. As a membership-based organization, TCFV maintains a goal to serve its members, the Texas community as a whole and thousands of victims of domestic violence and their families. This project was supported by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

11 Program Definitions Definition of a Shelter Facility: A shelter facility that provides access, admittance and temporary emergency residence for victims of family violence 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Organizations that only use hotels to provide shelter services or that have a homeless shelter not specifically for victims of family violence were not counted as having an emergency shelter facility. Definition of a Satellite Shelter: A shelter facility, as defined above, located in a city other than a family violence service provider s main city. Definition of Outreach Office: Office location of a family violence service provider located in a city other than the center s main city. Definition of Non-Residential Services: A family violence service provider that offers some services to victims of family violence which do not include shelter services. This includes HHSCfunded comprehensive non-residential centers. Definition of Special Projects : HHSC-funded innovative projects or services to benefit unserved and underserved victims of family violence. Directory Key Shelter Facilty Satellite Shelter Outreach Office Non-Residential Services Bexar County [8] Putting an End to Abuse through Community Efforts (PEACE Initiative) (San Antonio) F.A.C.T./ San Antonio Police Department (San Antonio) HHSC Special Project Family Justice Center (San Antonio) Receives Funding from Texas HHSC The Diversity Center of San Antonio (San Antonio) Anderson County [1] Crisis Center of Anderson and Cherokee Counties (Palestine) Angelina County [2] Women s Shelter of East Texas (Lufkin) Atascosa County [3] Atascosa Family Crisis Center, Inc. (Pleasanton) Bowie County [9] Domestic Violence Prevention (Texarkana) Brazoria County [10] Women s Center of Brazoria Co. (Angleton) Women s Center of Brazoria Co. (Alvin) Brown County [13] The Ark (Brownwood) Colorado County [21] Family Crisis Center (Columbus) Dallas County [26] Catholic Charities of Dallas, Inc. (Dallas) Erath County [34] Cross Timbers Family Services (Stephenville) This document is an update to the Access to Safety, Justice and Opportunity: A Blueprint for Domestic Violence Interventions in Texas which was first published in Bandera County [4] Hill Country Crisis Council, Inc. (Bandera) Bastrop County [5] Family Crisis Center (Bastrop) Bee County [6] Women s Shelter of South Texas (Beeville) Harris County [49] Bay Area Turning Point (Webster) Burnet County [14] Highland Lakes Family Crisis Center (Marble Falls) Comal County [22] Crisis Center of Comal County (New Braunfels) Resource Center of Dallas (Dallas) Caldwell County [15] Hays-Caldwell Women s Center (Lockhart) Calhoun County [16] The Harbor Children s Alliance & Victim Center (Port Lavaca) Cameron County [17] Friendship of Women, Inc. (Brownsville) Family Crisis Center, Inc. (Harlingen) Friendship of Women, Inc. (Los Fresnos) Cooke County [23] Cooke County Friends of the Family, Inc. (Gainesville) Coryell County [24] Families in Crisis, Inc. (Gatesville) Culberson County [25] Center Against Family Violence (Dalhart) Dallas County [26] The Family Place (Dallas) Mosaic Family Services, Inc. (Dallas) Fannin County [35] Fannin Co. Family Crisis Center (Bonham) Gray County [41] Tralee Crisis Center for Women (Pampa) Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse (Houston) Victims Outreach (Dallas) Fayette County [36] Family Crisis Center (La Grange) Grayson County [42] Crisis Center (Sherman) Deaf Smith County [27] Deafsmith County Crisis Center (Hereford) Denton County [28] Denton County Friends of the Family (Denton) Denton County Friends of the Family (Lewisville) Dimmit County [29] Wintergarden Women s Shelter, Inc. (Carrizo Springs) Fort Bend County [37] Fort Bend County Women s Center, Inc. (Richmond) Fort Bend County Women s Center, Inc. (Rosenberg) Fort Bend County Women s Center, Inc. (Stafford) Fort Bend County Women s Center, Inc. (Sugarland) Gregg County [43] Kilgore Community Crisis Center, Inc. (Kilgore) Women s Center of East Texas (Longview) Guadalupe County [45] Guadalupe Valley Family Violence Shelter (Seguin) Hale County [46] Hale County Crisis Center (Plainview) Families in Crisis, Inc. (Temple) Bexar County [8] Family Violence Prevention Services, Inc. (San Antonio) Kendall County [64] Hill Country Crisis Council, Inc. (Boerne) Hidalgo County [54] Texas RioGrande Legal Aid (Weslaco) Kerr County [65] Hill Country Crisis Council, Inc. (Kerrville) Montrose Counseling CenterServices to GLBT DV Victims (Houston) Hill County [55] Hearts of Hope (Whitney) Kinney County [66] Amistad Family Violence and Rape Crisis Center (Bracketville) Northwest Assistance Ministries Family Violence Center (Houston) Hood County [56] Mission Granbury, Inc. (Granbury) Asians Against Domestic Abuse (Houston) Houston County [57] Women s Shelter of East Texas (Crockett) YMCA of the Greater Houston Area (Houston) Katy Christian Ministries Domestic Abuse Center (Katy) Rapha Ministries, Inc. (Houston) Women s Center of Brazoria Co. (Freeport) Women s Center of Brazoria Co. (Pearland) Women s Center of Brazoria Co. (West Columbia) Friendship of Women, Inc. (Port Isabel) Men s Resource Center of South Texas, Inc. (Harlingen) Cass County [18] Domestic Violence Prevention (Atlanta) The Salvation Army - DV Shelter (Dallas) Eastland County [30] Eastland County Crisis Center, Inc. (Eastland) Frio County [38] Southwest Family Life Center (Pearsall) Hamilton County [47] Families in Crisis, inc. (Hamilton) Brazos County [11] Phoebe s Home (Twin City Mission) (Bryan) Brewster County [12] Family Crisis Center of the Big Bend (Alpine) Brewster County [12] Family Crisis Center of the Big Bend (Terlingua) McLennan County [76] Family Abuse Center, Inc. (Waco) New Beginning Center (Garland) Ector County [31] The Crisis Center (Odessa) Galveston County [39] Resource and Crisis Center of Galveston County (Galveston) Women s Center of East Texas (Marshall) Resource and Crisis Center of Galveston County (Crystal Beach) Cherokee County [19] Crisis Center of Anderson and Cherokee Counties (Jacksonville) Harris County [49] New Horizon Family Center (Baytown) Brighter Tomorrows (DeSoto) Haskell County [51] Noah Project, Inc. (Haskell) Edwards County [32] Amistad Family Violence and Rape Crisis Center (Rocksprings) Resource and Crisis Center of Galveston County (League City) Houston Area Women s Center (Houston) Hays County [52] Hays-Caldwell Women s Center (San Marcus) Collin County [20] Hope s Door (Plano) Brighter Tomorrows (Irving) New Beginning Center (Mesquite) El Paso County [33] Center Against Family Violence (El Paso) Resource and Crisis Center of Galveston County (Santa Fe) Hunt County [58] Women in Need (Greenville) Lamar County [69] Family Haven Crisis & Resource Center (Paris) Montgomery County [79] Montgomery County Women s Center (The Woodlands) Moore County [80] Safe Place, Inc. (Dumas) Nacogdoches County [81] Women s Shelter of East Texas (Nacogdoches) Women in Need (Commerce) Women in Need (Quinlan) Lee County [70] Family Crisis Center (Giddings) Hutchinson County [59] Hutchinson County Crisis Center, Inc. (Borger) Liberty County [71] New Horizon Family Center (Dayton) Jasper County [60] Family Services Women & Children s Shelter (Jasper) Lubbock County [72] Women s Protective Services of Lubbock, Inc (Lubbock) Jefferson County [61] Family Services Women & Children s Shelter (Beaumont) Matagorda County [73] Matagorda County Women s Crisis Center (Bay City) FamilyTime Foundation, Inc. (Humble) Jim Wells County [62] Women s Shelter of South Texas (Alice) Newton County [82] Family Services Women & Children s Shelter (Newton) Nolan County [83] Gateway Family Services (Sweetwater) The Bridge Over Troubled Waters (Pasadena) Maverick County [74] Wintergarden Women s Shelter, Inc. (Eagle Pass) Nueces County [84] Women s Shelter of South Texas (Corpus Christi) Ochiltree County [85] Panhandle Crisis Center (Perryton) Orange County [86] Family Services Women & Children s Shelter (Orange) Palo Pinto County [87] Hope, Inc. (Mineral Wells) Henderson County [53] East Texas Crisis Center (Athens) Resource and Crisis Center of Galveston County (Texas City) La Salle County [68] Wintergarden Women s Shelter, Inc. (Cotulla) Midland County [78] Safe Place of the Permian Basin (Midland) Hansford County [48] Panhandle Crisis Center (Snyder) Brighter Tomorrows (Grand Prairie) Safe Place of the Permian Basin (Odessa) Kleberg County [67] Women s Shelter of South Texas (Kingsville) Medina County [77] Southwest Family Life Center (Hondo) Harrison County [50] Kilgore Community Crisis Center, Inc. (Marshall) Genesis Women s Shelter (Dallas) Bell County [7] Families in Crisis, Inc. (Killeen) Hidalgo County [54] Mujeres Unidas/Women Together (McAllen) HHSC Funding HHSC FVP-funded organizations: Organizations listed in the charts that are funded by the HHSC FVP. These organizations are funded as either: full service shelter centers with comprehensive nonresidential services, full service nonresidential centers or special projects which provide either a specialized service to marginalized communities or community outreach. For more information about which organizations are HHSC FVP funded, go to: Non-HHSC FVP funded organizations Other organizations listed in the charts are ones that are not funded through HHSC. Many are either emerging programs or organizations that provide faith-based services that do not seek government funding. This list may not be comprehensive as not all known organizations completed the survey and some emerging programs may not be known to TCFV. Gillespie County [40] Hill Country Crisis Council, Inc. (Fredericksburg) Johnson County [63] Family Crisis Center (Cleburne) McCulloch County [75] Family Shelter of McCulloch Co., Inc. (Brady)

12 Population Density Key HANSFORD 48 Persons Per Square Mile to CARSON POTTER to to 99.9 CASTRO PARMER SWISHER CHILDRESS 20.0 to to 19.9 HARDEMAN LAMB BAILEY FLOYD HALE Presidio County [91] Family Crisis Center of the Big Bend (Presidio) WILBARGER WICHITA CLAY 88 Up to 4.9 MONATGUE LUBBOCK YOAKUM TERRY LYNN GAINES SCURRY County Does Not Meet Threshold, No Services Available HOWARD MITCHELL McCULLOCH NOLAN 83 EL PASO ECTOR 30 WINKLER WARD Definition of Not Meeting the Minimum Threshold of Core Emergency Services: If a county has neither: a. any family violence organizations that provide direct access (face-to-face) services in that county, nor b. any family violence organizations in an adjacent county that have, at a minimum, an emergency hotline covering that county and transportation services to their emergency shelter, intervention and legal assistance services; then it does not meet the minimum threshold of core emergency services. This determination was not made with consideration of geography or population size of counties. In any further assessment of gaps of services based on this data, it is important to keep geography and population size in mind. MIDLAND HOUSTON LEON 7 WILLIAMSON HAYS BEXAR MEDINA 15 GUADALUPE 8 MAVERICK ZAVALA GOLIAD 113 BEE DIMMIT REFUGIO 6 68 ARANSAS WEBB SAN PATRICIO 96 JIM WELLS DUVAL San Augustine County [95] Women s Shelter of East Texas (San Augustine) GALVESTON 10 San Patricio County [96] Women s Shelter of South Texas (Sinton) CALHOUN LIVE OAK VICTORIA BRAZORIA MATAGORDA KARNES FRIO 37 JACKSON ATACOSA SafeHaven of Tarrant County Resource Center Northeast (Bedford) Voices Against Violence: UT Counseling and Mental Health Center (Austin) 16 San Saba County [97] Dove Project - City of San Saba (San Saba) Williamson County [120] Hope Alliance (Round Rock) Battered Women s Foundation (Hurst) Tyler County [108] Family Services Women & Children s Shelter (Woodville) Taylor County [103] Noah Project, Inc. (Abilene) Upshur County [109] Women s Center of East Texas (Gilmer) Titus County [104] Shelter Agencies for Families in East Texas (SAFE-T) (Mt. Pleasant) Uvalde County [110] Southwest Family Life Center (Uvalde) Tom Green County [105] NewBridge Family Shelter (San Angelo) Travis County [106] SafePlace Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Survival Center (Austin) Val Verde County [111] Amistad Family Violence and Rape Crisis Center (Del Rio) Van Zandt County [112] East Texas Crisis Center (Canton) NUECES KLEBURG Scurry County [98] Gateway Family Services (Snyder) 67 BROOKS ZAPATA STARR WILLACY 54 Deaf Abused Women & Children Advocacy Services (Austin) Victoria County [113] Mid-Coast Family Services (Victoria) HILDAGO CAMERON 17 Smith County [99] East Texas Crisis Center (Tyler) Willacy County [119] Family Crisis Center, Inc. (Raymondville) Trinity County [107] SAAFE House (Trinity) FT. BEND 117 DeWITT CHAMBERS 49 WHARTON WILSON 86 JEFFERSON HARRIS 21 ORANGE 71 Wharton County [117] Matagorda County Women s Crisis Center (Wharton) Muslimaat (Austin) HARDIN 115 AUSTIN COLORADO LAVACA GONZLAES CALDWELL 22 4 UVALDE COMAL 5 FAYETTE Rusk County [94] Kilgore Community Crisis Center, Inc. (Henderson) LIBERTY 79 WALLER WASHINGTON BASTROP 52 KENDALL BANDERA SAN JACINTO MONTGOMERY LEE 108 KERR REAL TYLER 89 WALKER BURLESON TRAVIS NEWTON POLK BRAZOS GRIMES SABINE Helping Hands - RockWall County (Rockwall) JAER 107 MADISON 95 2 TRINITY MILAM 14 ANGELINA 57 BURNET VAL VERDE SHELBY NACOGDOCHES 81 ROBERTSON LLANO BLANCO PANOLA Rockwall County [93] Women in Need (Rockwall) FALLS BELL GILLEIE RUSK CHEROKEE ANDERSON McLENNAN For counties not listed in directory, please view the charts in the Availability of Family Violence Services Across Texas (2007 update) for more information. The update is available at NAVARRO LAMPASAS LIMESTONE SAN SABA McCULLOCH MARION GREGG 99 FREESTONE CORYELL 111 Reagan County [92] Friends for Hope (Big Lake) SMITH MILLS UPSHUR HENDERSON HAMILTON TOM GREEN 32 CASS HARRISON HILL CRANE VAN ZANDT ELLIS BOSQUE 13 KAUFFMAN SOMERVELL COMANCHE BROWN COLEMAN 34 WOOD RAINES JOHNSON 56 ERATH EASTLAND CALLAHAN TAYLOR RUNNELS 58 ROCKWALL DALLAS TARRANT PARKER PALO PINTO STEPHENS HOOD MARTIN HOPKINS HUNT Webb County [116] Casa De Misericordia (Laredo) Wichita County [118] First Step Inc. (Wichita Falls) SafeHaven of Tarrant County (Fort Worth) 9 TITUS CAMP JONES 98 COLLIN DENTON WISE JACK YOUNG HASKELL GARZA DAWSON ANDREWS BOWIE 92 DELTA 51 County Does Not Meet Threshold but Some Level of Service is Provided 69 FANNIN Service Provision Key GRAYSON COOKE ARCHER CROSBY NE HOCKLEY SAN AUGUS TI COCHRAN RED RIVER LAMAR MORRIS 46 FRANKLIN 5.0 to 9.9 Tarrant County [102] SafeHaven of Tarrant County (Arlington) Waller County [115] Focusing Families (Hempstead) Texas Advocacy Project, Inc. (Austin) Potter County [90] Family Support Services (Amarillo) to 69.9 Travis County [106] Political Asylum Project of Austin (Austin) Saheli (Austin) Stephens County [101] Eastland County Crisis Center, Inc. (Breckenridge) ARMSTRONG RANDALL DEAF SMITH Starr County [100] Victims of Domestic Violence Assistance Program (Rio Grande City) Polk County [89] SAAFE House (Livingston) WHEELER GRAY to HUTCHINSON MOORE to Parker County [88] Freedom House (Weatherford) OCHILTREE Migrant Clinicians Network, Inc. (Austin) Walker County [114] SAAFE House (Huntsville) Wise County [121] Wise County Domestic Violence Task Force (Bridgeport) Wise County Domestic Violence Task Force (Decatur) Wood County [122] East Texas Crisis Center (Mineola) Zavala County [123] Wintergarden Women s Shelter, Inc. (Crystal City)

13 Availability of Core Emergency Services Across Texas 2007 MAP UPDATE