The Center for Family Solutions

History

In 1977, a group of caring men and women in Imperial County called a community meeting to discuss the problem of domestic violence, which was just then beginning to receive public attention. The dedicated people who attended that first organizational meeting worked rapidly and soon founded the non-profit organizationWomanHaven, Inc. Within six months, they opened a shelter forwomen and children who were victims of battering.

We changed our name last year to the Center for Family Solutions of Imperial Valley. We believe our new name better reflects what we doand the wide range of services we offer to all members of families who live in violence. The Center for Family Solutions serves all of Imperial County, as well as adjacent areas of rural San Diego and Riverside Counties. The WomanHaven Shelter remains one of the most basic programs of the Center for Family Solutions.

In the first year that WomanHaven existed, care days were provided for 56 people. Last year we provided shelter and other services for more than 4,500 people in Imperial County.

The year 1986 marked an important turning point for our organization, for in that year domestic violence became a crime in California. The Center Against Domestic Violence was opened, and this gave victims of violence an alternative choice of receiving assistance not including shelter, the demand for victims’ services at the Center has grown very rapidly, and in 1998 we served more than 3,700 clients there.

In 1988, then Director Linda Fitch began our Teen Dating Violence Prevention Program, our very first effort to deliver an educational program with a focus on violence prevention. This program has evolved into our Teen Anger Management Groups, then in 1997, we were funded by the California Department of Health to establish our Youth and Family Advocacy Project. It is a violence prevention effort, which we hope will point the way for young people in our communities to establish violence free families in the future.

In 1992, we opened the Thrift Store to help us support our services to our own clients and to others in the community that are needy.

The year 1994 brought the establishment of our Anger Management Groups. We provide the only certified batterer’s treatment program in Imperial County for men and women who are abusive.

Early in 1995, we began our Outreach Program to Winterhaven, Brawley, Calexico and El Centro. This program is for men and women and offered in English and Spanish. In this same year, the Imperial County Coalition Against Domestic Violence was constituted, and representatives from public service, the judiciary, health services and education joined forces to provide educational programs, training and promote public awareness about the extent and consequences of domestic violence to the individuals, the families, and our communities.

In early 1997, we began offering educational services to our clients along with shelter, food, clothing, and advocacy. At the end of 1997, we opened our first Transitional Living site. Now, through funding from HUD, five additional sites have been opened to women and children who have been victims of violence. We also expanded our Youth and Advocacy Project to include the parents and the community as well. After two years, we have tremendously exceeded the goals we had established.

In 1998, we introduced two new programs: our Mentor Program for children who have been in Shelter and a Domestic Violence Resource Center, filled with books and printed materials about domestic violence and related issues.

In 1999 we will begin our newest project: the Garden Project. We will teach our shelter clients and their children how to grow food. This will give the children a much-needed opportunity to learn how to nurture.

We have learned much in the years since we began with our Emergency Shelter, but one of the most significant changes has been in public awareness of the problem of domestic violence and the profound effect it has on all the members of a family and the community. Nationwide, a woman is beaten every seven and a half seconds. We have experienced several tragic deaths of women and children because of abuse here in Imperial County. The newspapers bring us accounts of men who are also killed in domestic disputes. But it is the children who are most helpless victims of family violence; they cannot leave because they do not have the education, the maturity, or the skills to be independent. Psychologists tell us that the children in abusive homes suffer devastating and lasting consequences. A high proportion of them become abusers themselves, or victims of abuse, because that is the family model they have known and now expect. Four out of five convicted felons are products of abusive homes.

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