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Domestic Violence Resources Directory
If you’re struggling to cope in an abusive relationship, you’re not alone. Experts estimate that over 10 million Americans are affected by domestic violence every year. Whether it’s physical or verbal abuse, it’s not OK, and you can take action to stop it. These vetted helplines are here for you.
Peaceful Paths
Domestic Violence Resource
How We Help:We promote relationships free of violence and control by providing a safe place to receive intervention, advocacy, and education services using prevention strategies and community partnerships.
History:
Peaceful Paths Domestic Abuse Network, Inc. has been the certified domestic violence center in the tri county area since 1974 .... In 1978, the agency moved from operating only a crisis hotline to operating a full-time emergency shelter. Since that time, the program has grown and expanded to include numerous outreach programs as well as maintaining its core of providing residential services for victims and survivors of domestic violence. Peaceful Paths began its mission in Gainesville as the Rape Information and Counseling Service (RICS), a grassroots organization that was formed to fight against sexual violence. RICS established a hotline and soon began receiving phone calls from battered women. In 1977 the name of the organization was changed to the Sexual and Physical Abuse Resource Center (SPARC) to better reflect the changing mission. In January of 1978, SPARC was granted a lease for a shelter site and the facility opened with its first client on March 30, 1978. In October of 2000, SPARC underwent another name change to refocus the community on the mission of ending domestic violence. Peaceful Paths, currently has 28 employees that work together to further the mission of ending domestic violence in our communities. A Board of Directors made up of local community citizens oversees the fiscal health, community support, and general wellbeing of the agency.Read More »
How We Help:In the early 1980s, Ellen Pence, Michael Paymar and other activists in Duluth, MN developed an approach to domestic violence based on the idea that it is the patriarchal values of our society that cau s e so many men to batter women. In their view, men batter women because men feel a sense of entitlement to power and control over women, a sense of entitlement that is inextricably con nected with a range of abusive tactics ultimately derived from violence. Pence, Paymar and their colleagues based their concepts on what they heard from battered women, rather than beginning from an abstract theoretical perspective. Their "wheel of Power and Control" has become a worldwide symbol of domestic violence, a tool that can be found in any shelter anywhere in the world.
History:
Peter Cohn – director, producer
Cohn is a New York-based writer and film maker. “Power and Control” is h ...is second documentary feature. “Golden Venture”, his first documentary, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006. The film also screened at the Amnesty International Film Festival and other festivals.
He produced, co-wrote and directed “Drunks,” a film set in a Manhattan Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, starring Richard Lewis, Faye Dunaway, Dianne Wiest, Parker Posey and Spalding Gray. “Drunks” was shown at Sundance in 1996, premiered on Showtime and was released in 1997 to widespread critical acclaim. The New York Times called it “superbly realized.” “Drunks” won the motion picture industry’s Prism Award for 1997, in recognition of the film’s realistic depiction of alcohol and drug addiction.
He has written screenplays for Fox, Disney, MGM and a wide range of US and European independent producers. He began his writing career as a journalist, first at the Richmond Times Dispatch and then at the Hartford Courant. In the eighties, he was a somewhat prolific editor and creator of humor publications, including the Wall Street Journal parody “Off the Wall Street Journal” and a satire of the Reagan administration, “The Reagan Report.” He is a graduate of the University of Chicago, where he was editor of the student newspaper, The Chicago Maroon.Read More »
How We Help:The R.A.D. Systems establishes an accessible, constantly improving and internationally respected alliance of dedicated instructors. These instructors, in turn, will provide educational opportunities for women, children, men and seniors to create a safer future for themselves. In doing this, we challenge society to evolve into an existence where violence is not an acceptable part of daily life.
History:
The national standard in self defense Instructor Certification, R.A.D. is internationally recognized for programming quality ...and organizational commitment to excellence. R.A.D. Systems balances the needs of women to acquire self defense education in a relatively short period of time, with the life long commitment required for physical skill mastery. How? By providing short term training opportunities in a progressive building block format, and combining each with R.A.D.'s trademark Lifetime Return and Practice Policy! Only a unified, extensive network can provide this service, honored worldwide. While other programs and/or instructors struggle to keep pace, R.A.D. Instructors share life saving information with confidence, knowing that their lessons will be continuously reinforced for a lifetime!
R.A.D. is the largest network of its kind with over 11,000 Instructors receiving training in our systems to date. These Instructors teach at various colleges, universities, and municipal law enforcement agencies as well as various other community organizations internationally. R.A.D. has trained more than 900,000 women since the program began in 1989.Read More »
How We Help:Essentially, this site is meant to provide accurate and relevant information and resources to anyone in an abusive situation now, anyone who has been in an abusive situation in the past, or those trying to help someone in an abusive situation
History:
As an administrator of the Perverted Justice Foundation, I've often been asked questions regarding the statues of limitation ...for prosecuting a sexual abuser in a given state. Since it appears there is no current online resource that gathers all the relevant information in one place, I decided, with the help of friends and several perverted-justice volunteers, to create such a resource. We spent months combing legal documents and statutes to ensure that the information posted would be as accurate and current as possible. We made hundreds of phone calls to check that recommended organizations are legitimate and phone numbers are correct. This site is currently organized by the different states and territories of the United States of America. Locations outside these areas will be added as they are completed. Within each state or territory, there are three sections: rape/molestation statutes of limitation, pro bono and reduced fee legal services, and restraining order and order of protection information.Read More »
For Men, For Women, Legal Help, Rape Crisis Centers, for-teens
Safe Place & Rape Crisis Center
Domestic Violence Resource
How We Help:SPARCC’s mission is to stop domestic and sexual violence in our communities by providing programs and services to victims like an emergency shelter, crisis counseling and children's services.
History:
Safe Place and Rape Crisis Center, Inc. (SPARCC) was formed as a non-profit agency in 1979. SPARCC is the only state-certifie ...d center for domestic violence and sexual assault services for Sarasota and DeSoto Counties. All of SPARCC’s services are free and confidential. In addition to serving victims, SPARCC is actively engaged in promoting social change through community awareness and education, in an effort to prevent such violence in the future. SPARCC serves its clients through an Outreach Center in downtown Sarasota, satellite offices in south Sarasota and DeSoto Counties, a shelter operating 24 hours a day/365 days a year and at the local courthouses. Read More »
Non-profits, Shelters, For Men, For Women, Rape Crisis Centers, for-teens
Location
Sarasota, FL
Connect
The Salvation Army of North Central Brevard
Domestic Violence Resource
How We Help:“Doing The Most Good.” In these four words, our mission – to feed, to clothe, to comfort, to care. To rebuild broken homes and broken lives.
History:
The Salvation Army operates 7,546 centers in communities across the United States. These include food distribution, disaster ...relief, rehabilitation centers, anti-human trafficking efforts, and a wealth of children’s programs. Our work is funded through kettle donations, corporate contributions, and the sale of goods donated to our Salvation Army Family Stores. Eighty-two cents of every dollar we spend supports our various missions across the country. We are a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization, and contributions are deductible for Federal Income Tax Purposes to the extent permitted under Section 170(b)(2) for corporations.
Our mission: The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination.Read More »
For Men, For Women, For Children/Teens, For Elders, Non-profits, Shelters
Location
Cocoa, FL
Connect
Silent Witness National Initiative
Domestic Violence Resource
How We Help:Silent Witness provides hope, help and healing for the victims and violators of domestic violence. Our goal is to eliminate domestic violence homicides by 2020.
History:
In 1990, the Silent Witness Initiative began promoting and education to support an end to domestic violence through community ... based exhibits. It started with a small group of volunteers in one state and grew into an international presence, with projects in all 50 states and 23 countries.
Silent Witness provides hope, help and healing for the victims and violators of domestic violence. Our goal is to eliminate domestic violence homicides by 2020.
Thousands of men and women die each year in acts of domestic violence in the United States. Each one has a story. Join our efforts to end this tragedy.
In 1990, an ad hoc group of women artists and writers, upset about the growing number of women in Minnesota being murdered by their partners or acquaintances, joined together with several other women's organizations to form Arts Action Against Domestic Violence. These compassionate women felt an urgency to do something that would speak out against the escalating domestic violence in their state. They set out to create something that would commemorate the lives of the 26 women whose lives had been lost in 1990 as a result of domestic violence. After much brainstorming, the women began to design 26 free-standing, life-sized red wooden figures, each one bearing the name of a woman who once lived, worked, had neighbors, friends, family, children--whose life ended violently at the hands of a husband, ex-husband, partner, or acquaintance. A twenty-seventh figure was added to represent those uncounted women whose murders went unsolved or were erroneously ruled accidental. The organizers called the figures the Silent Witnesses (the original 27 witnesses).
How We Help:SOAR runs national awareness, education and prevention programs to empower survivors of sexual violence and transform the public’s understanding and acceptance of rape victims.
History:
SOAR was founded by Kellie Greene, herself a survivor of rape. Kellie’s rapist was not identified for three years, and she ...needed a positive direction in which to direct her anger. Not wanting the crime to be a “random act of violence,” she decided to give it a purpose by speaking about her rape and the journey of her healing. Greene joined the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) speaker’s bureau in 1995 and began speaking nationally. Having lived through many of the injustices of the medical and judicial systems, Kellie set out to make positive changes so others might have an easier path to healing.Read More »
How We Help:S.N.V., Inc. is an organization that is dedicated to those who have unfortunately experienced being a victim of sexual abuse. It is the goal of S.N.V. to provide men, women and children of sexual abuse with a place to turn to, for listening, support, understanding and guidance towards the aspects of survival after this abuse.
History:
S.N.V., Inc. was founded by Veronica Thomas (No Longer A Victim, But A Survivor!) a survivor of the terrors of childhood sexu ...al abuse. Veronica did not allow her abuser to continue to control her life or supersede her ability to succeed. She made a choice to be a survivor. She was only a child when she was faced with the traumatic experiences of sexual abuse. Taken from the only home she knew as a child after her grandmother’s murder, losing her brother to one of her abusers and raped at will by the hands of two men her great-grandmother trusted. Had it not been for the love and determination of two angels that came and rescued her and her brother, she had no idea where she’d be today or if she would have even survived her childhood.
Veronica chose to turn her experiences with sexual abuse into a movement by creating S.N.V., Inc. (Survivors Not Victims) of Sexual Abuse. She was also encouraged and inspired to write her story entitled “VISIONS FROM THE PAST” (A True Story) which tells the horrific story of her childhood sexual abuse experience. It was the most difficult thing she’d ever done. But this book helped to heal her from her past as well as others that read her story and truly realized that they were not alone. She is currently having her book republished through AEG Publishing Company and will begin her second book in 2011 which will begin her journey back to the place of her childhood abuse in Jefferson, TX which she feels is necessary to complete her healing.Read More »
How We Help:Tapestri Inc. is dedicated to ending violence and oppression in refugee and immigrant communities, using culturally competent and appropriate methods.
History:
To address the unmet and increasing needs of battered refugee and immigrant women in the metro Altanta area, advocates repres ...enting diverse ethnic communities formed a community coalition in 1996. In 1998, the coalition formally adopted the name “Tapestri” and functioned as a project of the Refugee Women’s Network.
In 2002, Tapestri became its own independent organization created to address the needs of foreign-born survivors of violence. Since 2002, the organization has evolved to work collaboratively with mainstream and ethnic organizations in addressing multiple forms of gender-based violence and oppression occurring in refugee and immigrant communities.
Specifically, Tapestri conducts advocacy and outreach to increase community awareness and provides streamlined access and direct services for foreign-born survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence and sexual assault.Read More »
