EMERGENCY SAFE HOUSE

Family Support Services Safe House provides safety, shelter, food and necessities to individuals and families in urgent need of safety from violence. We provide three meals per day to all residents in the home.

The facility is locked to the outside for safety. Residents have the freedom to come and go as needed, based on work schedules, school for children, and other obligations and preferences in their lives.

Advocates are on-site at all times, with the goal of assisting individuals and families to assess needs, case manage for stabilization and short-term and long- term goals, as well as assist in linking to other services as needed. Advocacy is client-centered: our goal is to provide information and referrals to residents so they are able to make their own decisions, what they determine as relevant to their family. Our advocates, through continued training, focus on trauma- informed care: we understand that all victims coming into the safe house have experienced extremely traumatic events – often times a long history of trauma – and services are provided with this in mind.

All safe house residents are invited and encouraged to participate in services which contribute to their future stability: individual counseling, support groups, children’s groups, cooking and recipe events, job searches, addiction recovery, linking to mental health services, educational guidance and assistance, or other programs as relevant individually. Advocates meet with safe house residents frequently to check in and discuss progress and trouble-shoot barriers to success.

806 ACTS- This new program, in collaboration with Refugee Services of Texas, was created to provide comprehensive services to victims of sex trafficking. It has both a community education and case management component. During this time period, case management primarily focused on developing relationships within the community that might intersect with a sex trafficking victim, and developing the structure to service provision.