CENTER FOR DOMESTIC PEACE
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Mission Statement
Center for Domestic Peace provides intervention services that enhance the immediate and long-term safety of victims of domestic violence, and engages diverse communities in domestic violence prevention. We do this by mobilizes individuals and communities to transform our world so domestic violence no longer exists, creating greater safety, justice, and equality. C4DP’s programs helping children, teens, women, and men to live violence-free lives include: 24-hour hotlines; emergency shelters; transitional housing; support groups; legal advocacy; school programs; community prevention and education projects; professional continuing education programs; corporate, state, and nation-wide trainings; leadership development programs; and resource identification. We serve about 4,200 individuals a year!
About This Cause
For 40 years, Center for Domestic Peace, formerly Marin Abused Women’s Services (MAWS), has provided women, children, and families with comprehensive programs and advocacy services with the intention of addressing and preventing domestic violence. As the organization expanded to balance our emergency programs, client advocacy, violence prevention, and social policy work, we adopted a new name, Center for Domestic Peace in 2010. Center for Domestic Peace’s programs for victims of domestic violence include two 24-hour hotlines, a safe emergency shelter, transitional housing and program support for such families, women’s support groups, advanced advocacy services, court accompaniment and referrals—all of which are offered in English and Spanish. These innovative and effective programs work both to address the immediate needs of battered women and their children, and to provide the skills and resources necessary to rebuild their lives free from domestic violence. In addition to shelter, housing, and counseling programs, we offer pioneering violence prevention programs, and work to affect broad changes through changes in public policy. Our programs are considered models for domestic violence and shelter initiatives throughout California, across the United States, and beyond. WOMEN’S HOTLINES The 24-hour English and Spanish hotlines provide support and referral information for battered and at-risk women. The women’s hotlines are two of the few in the Bay area that provide 24-hour intake to help battered women access the resources they need to escape a violent situation. To accommodate the large Latina population in Marin County, Center for Domestic Peace established one of the first Spanish language domestic violence hotlines in 1984. Last fiscal year, there were 2,518 calls to our women’s hotlines. EMERGENCY SHELTER For 35 years, Center for Domestic Peace’s 16-bed emergency shelter has provided a safe, confidential refuge for battered women and their children. The Shelter provides residents with a wide variety of services including, food and clothing, support groups, children's services, parenting information, drug and alcohol education, assistance securing long-term housing, and referrals to other social service, community, legal, and job-training agencies. In an effort to promote the transition to independence, we have structured our Shelter program to provide the necessary support while also encouraging the women to take control and responsibility for their own lives. Last fiscal year, 88 women and 121 children stayed at the shelter. TRANSITIONAL HOUSING Nationally, there are very few transitional housing facilities for battered women and their children. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Second Step transitional housing program is an indispensible service for families in Northern California. The availability of affordable housing is one of the key factors enabling a woman and her children to successfully leave an abusive relationship. Center for Domestic Peace’s Second Step Program fills this critical need. The Second Step provide residents with: employment services, assistance finding permanent housing, child-care, transportation, support groups, advocacy services, court accompaniment, referrals to various social services, and a range of workshops designed to promote economic independence and self-reliance. These workshops include computer skills, money management, interview techniques, and personal health issues, such as stress reduction and nutrition. Center for Domestic Peace is the only organization in Marin County that provides transitional housing coupled with support programs for battered women and their children. Last fiscal year the Second Step program assisted 29 women and 52 children. SUPPORT GROUPS Support groups are open to the community, and are held in secure locations throughout Marin County. Our groups serve as an early intervention tool for women to gain insight and access resources in an emotionally supportive atmosphere. Trained facilitators lead the support groups in both English and Spanish. The groups provide emotional support, education, information, and referrals for women of all sexual preferences. Last fiscal year, 169 women participated in these groups. ADVOCACY SERVICES Women’s Community Advocacy Project (WCAP) is a collaborative effort with the Marin County District Attorney’s Office and the Marin County Sheriff that works to increase a victim’s ability to achieve effective results within the criminal justice system, and to increase awareness and use of the support services available in the community. WCAP provides victims one organization that links them to the various services they need at a time when it is most emotionally difficult for them to access such services, and thus it fills the last major gap in services for victims of domestic violence who may otherwise be unaware of their options. WCAP advocates can respond in English or Spanish, and they offer victims safety planning, domestic violence counseling, referrals, court accompaniment, and assistance with social service and other needs. Last fiscal year, WCAP served 350 participants. MEN’S PROGRAM—MANKIND The goals of Center for Domestic Peace’s men’s program, ManKind are twofold: to help men end their immediate violence and abuse of their partners; and to engage men in community advocacy to change the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that support men’s violence against women and girls. The 52 week, reeducation classes, under the direction of a trained class facilitator, provide a supportive environment in which men explore how they have come to adopt a belief system in which they expect to have authority over and services from their partners, and how this belief system has led them to violent behavior. Last year we had 92 participants. WOMANKIND WomanKind classes teach women how to stop their violent behavior through a reeducation class program. The classes utilize a peer education approach in a confidential environment. A trained facilitator supervises the classes in which participants learn what it means to live a life without the use of abuse and how to recognize the belief systems, which are the source of their violence. We had 19 participants last year. MARIN YOUTH SERVICES The goal of MY Services is first to increase the safety of teens (ages 11-18) who are experiencing dating violence and second to help Marin teens form healthy dating relationships. Dating violence is a significant problem that impacts young people (ages 11-18), and youth in Marin are in no way immune to this problem. To this end, MY Services employs four key strategies: 1) Specialized services to meet the needs of youth who are experiencing dating abuse, 2) Prevention education to educate youth on healthy relationships, 3) Youth-based leadership of project activities to promote buy-in from, and relevance to, youth, 4) Institutionalization of screening and referral policies among a wide range of youth-serving providers to ensure teens are connected directly to MY Services. TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES: CREATING SAFETY, JUSTICE AND EQUALITY “Transforming Communities: Creating Safety, Justice and Equality” is a set of inter-related programs designed to create social change and mobilize communities to respond to domestic violence. Our Transforming Communities Marin project brings together teen and adult community members to work in Community Action Teams (CATs) to develop and disseminate messages of violence prevention and healthy and equal relationships to teens, young adults, and the Latino Community in Marin. These CATs have reached thousands by giving presentations at middle and high schools, local colleges and universities, social service agencies, and community events. Center for Domestic Peace has also trained hundreds of law enforcement and medical agencies, schools, churches, and community groups in the effort to improve emergency services, housing, health care, and legal systems that respond to domestic violence. Beginning in 1997, another Center for Domestic Peace project, “Transforming Communities: Technical Assistance and Training (TC-TAT),” obtained contracts from the State of California to provide training, technical assistance, and resources on prevention to domestic violence programs throughout the state. Recently TC-TAT was awarded a statewide contract by the California Department of Health and Human Services to enhance domestic violence advocates’ ability to engage and collaborate with faith leaders to prevent domestic violence and address the needs of victims. PUBLIC POLICY Center for Domestic Peace’s staff have been instrumental in drafting legislation and securing government support for domestic violence programs at the state and federal level. The organization worked to pass the Violence Against Women Act, part of the federal Crime Victims Bill in 1994. This bill created new funds to carry out services for rape and domestic violence victims and to implement training programs with police departments and court officials to prosecute batterers. In 1993, Center for Domestic Peace’s Executive Director, Donna Garske, co-created AB226, California legislation that set standards for batterers programs. The agency also focuses on increasing the California Department of Health and Human Services and Office of Criminal Justice Planning funding for domestic violence programs and prevention efforts. Center for Domestic Peace has also been a leader in developing collaborative initiatives locally with organizations in Marin County, including the Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence Network, which Center for Domestic Peace helped to found. Center for Domestic Peace’s ultimate goal is to end domestic violence—in effect, putting ourselves out of business. We strive to reach this goal every day by continuing to offer our prevention, support, and advocacy services and also by expanding and improving existing programs and creating new ones to assist victims and prevent the violence from occurring in the first place.