Genesis Emergency Shelter Program https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/proposals-2020/genesis-emergency-shelter-program https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/@@site-logo/sitelogo-75x75.png

Genesis Emergency Shelter Program

Additional Information
Used for	Our Emergency Shelter program provides safety and stability—the first step on a woman’s path to recovery from abuse. When families arrive at our Emergency Shelter, we embrace them with a complete wrap-around program of care, including individual and group counseling, legal assistance, advocacy, children’s therapy, on-site childcare, and on-site schools to help them heal from the trauma they have experienced and create the bright future they deserve. Funding from the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation will support general operating costs at our Emergency Shelter to ensure our lights stay on and our doors stay open to welcome the hundreds of women and children who turn to Genesis this year in their darkest hour seeking safety from their violent homes.
Benefits	Funding from the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation in support of our Emergency Shelter Program more than benefits the world: it changes the world. Our innovative interventions and groundbreaking services aim to shatter the cycle of domestic violence for generations to come, ensuring future families are free from the abuse and violence the women and children who turn to us have known. Our mission to provide safety, shelter, and support for the women and children who walk through our doors having experienced domestic violence, and to raise awareness regarding its cause, prevalence, and impact will help create a world and future free from the epidemic of domestic violence altogether.
Proposal Description	The mission of Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support is to provide safety, shelter, and support for women and children who have experienced domestic violence, and to raise awareness regarding its cause, prevalence, and impact. In January 1985, Genesis Women’s Shelter began operating as a haven for abused women and their children under the umbrella of Shelter Ministries of Dallas. Genesis was established through the cooperative efforts of the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas and the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. In the last 35 years, Genesis has provided shelter, safety, and strength to over 40,000 women and children. In 1993, it became apparent many women and children needed the counseling and advocacy components of our services, but did not require housing. To answer this growing need, the Outreach Counseling Center opened its doors. Today our Outreach counselors and advocates see over 3,000 women and children a year and provide over 19,700 counseling hours. Genesis addressed the need for transitional housing in 1998 with a 12-month program called Annie’s House, located behind the Shelter. At Genesis, we know domestic violence is one public health epidemic that is completely preventable. We believe women and children should never have to stay in an abusive home because they believe they have no other options. For 35 years, 24 hours a day, Genesis has been waiting with lights on and doors open to welcome women and children facing the greatest time of crisis they have ever known. Every year, we see over 3,300 women and children turn to Genesis as they make the brave decision to leave their former lives behind, taking with them nothing but the hope a better life is possible. A woman’s journey to an abuse-free life begins the minute she comes to Genesis. She learns to recognize signs of abuse and ways to keep herself and her children safe. She begins to understand the abuse is not her fault and, no matter how much her abuser isolated her, that she is not alone. She discovers her voice and regains the freedom to make decisions. We help her erase emotional scars and heal traumatic wounds. She gains the skills to become employed. She builds her own savings account, establishes credit, and manages her own financial resources. She learns how to model healthy relationships for her children, and develops the confidence and resources to provide for her family. At Genesis, children play peacefully and sleep soundly. They learn to recognize abuse and what a healthy relationship looks like. They repair the broken connections with their mom and develop the resiliency to heal their wounds and rebuild their lives. Children shed their anxiety and relax for the first time in a long time. They too discover their voice and know they will be heard. At Genesis, we break the cycle of violence, giving each child hope for their right to an abuse-free life. When families arrive at our Emergency Shelter, they are embraced with a complete wrap-around program of care, including individual counseling, group counseling, on-site legal assistance, advocacy, children’s therapy, childcare, afterschool programming, an on-site preschool, and an on-site K-8 school. Each woman and child is evaluated and a personalized plan is implemented throughout their eight-week stay to help them heal from the trauma they have experienced and create the bright futures they deserve. Once families have completed our Shelter Program, they have the option to utilize Genesis’ Transitional Housing Program at our residential safe campus. Families are able to live rent-free for 12 months in their own private apartments. The mother is required to work, saving one-third of her income, so she will have the financial means to be self-sufficient upon completion of her family’s time at Annie’s House. Here, families can bond and establish homes filled with love and respect. At Genesis, we also recognize 85% of women who will know domestic violence will not seek the safety of an Emergency Shelter. The Genesis nonresidential Outreach Counseling Center exists to meet the needs of this group of women and children, extending to them the same individual, group, and children’s counseling services, advocacy, legal assistance, and education our residential clients receive. Domestic violence continues to occur at an alarming rate. It is endemic in our community and society; it destroys families and cuts into the fabric of the community, yielding higher rates of crime and indigence. Genesis’ clients come from every educational background, religion, ethnicity, and socioeconomic group. To meet the growing demand for domestic violence services in our community, Genesis remains on the forefront of innovation and services provided. We are continually implementing new programs to educate our community about the pervasiveness of domestic violence, eliminate the barriers of women seeking help, and allow us to heal women and children impacted by domestic violence. Genesis respectfully requests $10,000.00 from the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation in support of General Operating costs at our Emergency Shelter. General operating dollars ensure our lights stay on and our doors stay open for the hundreds of women and children who trust us with their lives this year as they flee unspeakable violence. We hope the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation will stand with us yet again this year—with your support of our Emergency Shelter, we will break the cycle of violence for future generations. By creating safer homes, we create safer neighborhoods and, ultimately, a safer world.