A woman with young children came into our services because she was experiencing domestic and sexual violence from her intimate partner. A Betty Griffin Center helpline advocate took her crisis call, provided safety planning, and offered options.
The woman decided it would be best for her and her children to come into shelter to be safe and start over.
Once she came to the shelter, the Betty Griffin Center (BGC) advocate invited her to a support group. One of the groups the woman enjoyed best was the Living Your Best Life group. The topic of the group was nourishing your body and offered an array of salad ingredients to make a salad and recipes for each participant to experiment with in order to make their own salad dressings. The woman was so excited about making a salad dressing for the first time. She shared it with the other participants in the group and they acknowledged it was very good. She said she was going to start making salads and dressings for her children, so they could also have that experience.
After several weeks of support and counseling, the woman was feeling better and said she was learning to love herself. Her new barrier was transportation and she thought it would be best to find employment near a daycare so she would not have to travel far from work to pick up her children. Her BGC Family Services Advocate assisted her in filling out applications for employment and transported her to interviews. She was able to find just what she needed.
Her final goal was to find housing. Housing is one of the biggest struggles women face after leaving a violent partner. It took several more weeks, but the woman with the help of her BGC Family Services Advocate, another community agency, and a very understanding landlord, she was able to find a safe place for her family to live and will be moving out of our shelter soon.