GREEN HOUSE 17
Green House 17 serves survivors of intimate partner abuse and their communities in the 17 county Bluegrass Area Development District. We do this by sheltering over 230 individuals a year who are fleeing unsafe homes, providing thousands of court advocacy services, providing access to and financial assistance for attorneys, answering thousands of crisis and informational calls, conducting trauma informed care and peer led support groups, educating teens about dating violence, and partnering with multiple community agencies to provide the holistic care. The Kentucky Domestic Violence Association estimates that 1 in 3 Kentucky women will be victims of intimate partner abuse and that as many as 50% of homeless women and children are homeless due to domestic violence. These are the families and individuals we serve.
Without Green House 17’s services, the barriers holding many of these individuals in violent homes or keeping them homeless would still exist. While domestic violence does not discriminate, the vast majority of survivors we serve do not have any other resources. They would be either homeless or in constant fear without the resources we provide. Recently, Green House 17 received a letter from a former client thanking us for the services we provided her and her son. This case presented a very high lethality risk and involved interstate agencies. No one at the table quite knew where was the safest place for this family.
They came to Green House 17. While shelters can be very intimidating places exacerbating the trauma already held by victims, this client felt that we not only provided her with a safe space to go, but also treated her with a level of respect, love and kindness she has not experienced in other agencies since receiving our services. Specifically, she mentioned how she always felt welcomed by staff and that their doors were always open to her. She went on to say that had her first experience not been with our shelter, she would have returned to a lethal situation. We believe that it is our job to love people until they learn to love themselves. The survivors who walk through our doors are deserving; they are of value.
For more information, please visit their site at:
http://beyondtheviolence.com/
Mission, history of organization:
Child abuse has a thousand faces. The face of the parent who knows it and knows it won’t stop until they speak out. The face of the teacher who suspects it and says so. The face of the coach who knows the difference between tough love and a hurting child. The face of the pastor who chooses to be a guardian angel. The face of the neighbor who hears it and raises their voice against it.
http://faceitabuse.org/