HEIGHTS ELLIS COUNTY ADVOCACY CENTER INC
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Mission Statement
Our Mission is to provide victims of family abuse with streamlined services that guide them to safety and hope.
About This Cause
The Heights Ellis County Family Resources was started in 2018 when a group of community leaders came together to address the reality of domestic violence in Ellis County. The original vision was to provide a true safe house that was dedicated to providing a safe place for women and children who were in the midst of life threatening situations. In the early stages of researching national demographics, The Heights discovered only 15% of victims actually need a place to stay. Most women stay with family or friends to find safety, but recovering from abuse takes more than safety. As a result, The Heights began to broaden its vision to not only provide a safe house, but to also include wholistic services to its clients. This decision helped The Heights better serve those they provide shelter to, and also reach the other 85% of its targeted demographic who do not stay in their safe house. After 2 years of planning, services began to be offered to clients in 2020. More About Who We Are: Multi-Agency Center: Currently, victims of family abuse in Ellis County need to go to 15-20 different places to get their needs met. Our heart is to unite other nonprofits together to serve the victims of family abuse all together in one place. We are not here to replace or compete with other nonprofits. We provide a place for women and children to tell their story one time and receive all the help they need. National Affiliation: The Heights is a member of Alliance For Hope International, and we embody the family justice center model. We are one of about 150 centers who are a part of the affiliation in the United States. The family justice center model has been designated as a best-practice model for family abuse intervention and prevention by the U.S. Department of Justice. Public Safety & Well Being Initiative: We provide public safety and not just social work. The main reason we exist it to save lives and restore women and children to a healthy self worth and a fully sustained life through offering our clients the highest amount of human respect and dignity with compassion and empathy. Caring And Qualified Staff Who Provide: Intimate Partner Homicide Risk Assessment Non-Fatal Strangulation Assessment Healthcare Food Childcare Pet care Clothing Assistance Law Enforcement Legal Assistance Counseling Parenting Skills Relationship Education Spiritual Direction Victim Advocacy Case Management Education Job Training Transitional Housing There is a tendency in every county to think that this kind of crime does not exist where they live. Even if a community accepts that domestic abuse is a part of their hometown it is common to try to keep it a secret. The Heights is here to uncover this sad reality with a bright light of hope. 1 in 3 women experience domestic abuse and there are over 800 reported cases in Ellis County each year. We have developed the following programs in order to meet the needs of our clients in Ellis County. All of our programs provide the upmost confidentiality for our clients and seeks their permission to provide services all along the way. Risk & Strangulation Assessment Tools Many women do not understand the dangers they face. We provide a certified danger assessment based on science from John’s Hopkins University that protects the lives of the women and children who come to us. Safety Service Planning Once the lethality risk of each of our clients has been established, we provide a short term plan to give them a safe place to stay. That includes options for transitional housing and provides other services for healthcare, childcare, pet care, and food if needed. Well Being Planning As we offer hope to our clients, we must shift the scope of our services from safety planning to well being planning. In this program we identify trade offs that clients can commit to making in ways that provide goal oriented steps they can take to reach healing. Polyvictimization Tool This tool addresses the trauma of domestic violence. It is designed to identify all current and adverse childhood experiences that have caused them trauma. These results provide us with a trauma informed plan. Multi-Disciplinary Team Response Once we have a trauma informed plan for our clients, we can offer them a multi-disciplinary response to their trauma by connecting them to a team of people that can begin to measure the level of hope each client has and address their needs in appropriate ways. The following programs are offered in our response to each client's situation: Counseling & Mental Health Parenting Skills Relationship Education Spiritual Direction Victim Advocacy Educational Opportunities Law Enforcement Help Protective Orders Legal Assistance Courtroom Training Beauty Makeovers Job Training & Placement Child Witness Program When a child witnesses intimate partner abuse they will experience trauma. We provide services to address these negative effects on children so that they can become aware of the impact abuse plays in how they see the world. Camp Hope America We offer a yearly camp to the children in Ellis County who have been a part of witnessing intimate partner abuse. This is a national program designed to be a part of childrens' lives for the long haul. Once the relationship is started, the program allows us to remain in contact with kids throughout the year, even after camp is over and remain close to them year after year as we encourage an alternative outcome for their lives. After our clients have reached more of a self-sustained life and have participated in an exit interview from our intake and case management programs, they become a part of our Voices group. This program helps give women long-term support with other women who have experienced similar trauma in life. This group of women also provides valuable feedback to The Heights in the areas of marketing and program improvements. Providing streamlined services to our clients is critical to solving the domestic abuse problem in Ellis County. Our 30,000 square foot facility will allow partners and programs to come together in one central location for easy access to the support our clients need. Our safe house will be at a non-disclosed location. Our goal is to break ground in 2021 and open the facility in 2023. We will continue offering full services online and at the Waxahachie Chamber of Commerce until our facility is complete. We are in need of 7.5 million to build our building and our operations budget is 1 million each year. The Heights is dependent on private and public funding in order to provide services to the victims of family abuse in Ellis County. According to the United States Department of Justice, family justice centers like The Heights can expect to be effective in the following areas: Increasing The Reported Cases & Prosecution Rate Of Offenders Lowering The Burden Of Family Abuse Police Calls Lowering The Overall Violent Crime Rate Lowering The Repeat Rate of The Cycle Of Violence Increasing The Level Of Hope For Victims Saving $2 Million Cost To Prosecute A Domestic Violence Homicide Saving Lives Of Women And Children