The Family Place

The Family Place has operated emergency shelter services since 1978. We have three emergency shelters providing everything clients need to stay safe and escape from their batterers including counseling for adults and children, job, technical, and life skills training for adults, and educational services for children at confidential locations. Currently we have a total of 136 beds at our Safe Campus, men's shelter, and Ann Moody Place shelter. All facilities can add cribs as needed. In 2022, the average length of stay was 52 days. Clients enter our emergency shelters by calling our 24-hour hotline, 214-941-1991, which answered 9,801 emergency calls in 2022 offering crisis counseling and 44,652 information and referral calls. 5,149 callers were provided direct services. In 2022, our shelters served 561 women, 56 men, and 592 children with 84 men, providing a total of 64,324 days of emergency shelter. The Safe Campus provides on-site medical clinic services, and Ann Moody Place provides on-site medical and dental clinic services. Our medical clinics served a total of 697 clients in 2022. The Safe Campus provides pre-K early childhood education (151 children provided 16,371 hours), a K-2 Learning Center (18 children), and after-school and summer programs (16 children). Ann Moody Place provides a kennel allowing families to stay united with their pets rather than leaving them behind to face abuse alone. In 2022, our kennel at Ann Moody Place served 72 pets. Clients in our emergency shelters may apply for our Supportive Living Program, established in 1993, which provides a continuation of our supportive programs and 26 extended-stay apartments on our Safe Campus. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has recognized this program with a Best Practices Award. In 2022, we provided 57 women and 80 children with transitional housing for a total of 21,036 days of service. The average length of stay was 178 days.

Since 1978 The Family Place has provided ongoing education about the negative effects of family violence on our community. Through our agency website, social media, speakers' bureau, newsletter, active public relations program, events, and public service announcements, we broadcast the message that safety and solutions are at The Family Place. We network extensively in the community as a valuable participant in numerous collaborative projects and are an active member of the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, which participates in continuum of care planning and works to end homelessness in Dallas County. We also interface with the community as the lead nonprofit agency in a collaborative effort called Faith and Liberty's Place that was established in 2003 to provide supervised visitation and monitored exchange for children in Dallas County. Trained professionals supervise visitation with noncustodial parents and provide monitored exchange to divorced parents and their children in this safe, neutral, child-centered environment. Referrals come directly from the Dallas County Family Courts, primarily from child custody cases in which one parent has a history of abusive behaviors toward the other parent and/or child. In 2022, we provided 144 adults and 230 children with 954 visits (1,908 hours) and 583 exchanges 292 hours). Since 1984 we have provided a Battering Intervention & Prevention Program (BIPP) for abusers working to change their violent behavior. These group counseling services are primarily court ordered and are provided at our BIPP office in North Dallas and groups in Irving, South Dallas, Oak Cliff, and Collin County. BIPP works closely with the criminal justice system, Child Protective Services, and family courts. In 2022, we provided 362 men and 55 women with BIPP services. The Family Place works closely with the Dallas Police Department to protect the survivors of high-risk offenders by making home visits. In 2022, we completed 27 home visits with survivors. Since 1999 our Be Project has reached out to youth in area schools teaching them how to stop teen dating violence and sexual assault. The program is called the Be Project to encourage students to Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Courageous, and Be More. The curriculum, which includes a leadership development component, addresses topics including sexual assault, teen dating violence, gender stereotypes, sexual harassment, and healthy versus unhealthy relationships. Individual counseling for survivors of sexual violence is also offered through the Be Project as requested by school counselors and partners and/or by students who make an outcry after receiving classroom education services. Therapeutic groups are conducted with small groups of students to provide a safe, supportive environment for personal sharing and peer support. Professional training is also offered. In 2022, we educated 5,424 middle, high school and college students about teen dating violence and healthy relationships. 1,557 students participated in Be Project special events. The Family Place has provided clients with the use of a staff attorney since 1999. Services are provided in cooperation with Legal Services of NorthWest Texas and include legal support in civil issues such as temporary custody orders, divorce and support (spousal and child), custody and visitation, protective orders, emergency orders, and writs of attachment for survivors of family violence at The Family Place. In 2022, 89 clients received legal services. Both residential and nonresidential clients may participate in our Dignity at Work program, which in 2022 provided 91 clients with job readiness training, specialized training, or one-on one coaching to gain economic independence. In 1989 we established our first Resale Shop, which raises funds for our programs and provides free clothing, household items, and furniture to clients who often come to us with only what they are wearing. Staffed primarily by volunteers, our Resale Shop accepts donations from the general public. We offer vouchers to all families we serve. The Family Place has been recognized for successfully incorporating volunteers into all aspects of the agency's work. We have an active board of directors of 50+ members, two auxiliaries, corporate and civic volunteers, and individuals who support the agency through volunteer hours and in-kind donations.

Clients who need services without shelter receive counseling and support at three offices-Central Dallas Counseling Center, Southern Dallas Counseling Center, and Collin County Counseling Center. Our nonresidential counseling programs provided 18,752 hours of service in 2022. We have provided counseling since 1978 and expanded to additional outreach sites throughout the community beginning in 1982. Our counseling services are free and confidential, which removes the worry of being discovered by the abuser. Counseling helps clients learn how to stay safe and stop hurting. In a group setting, clients learn that they aren't alone and find support from our staff and their peers. The Family Place Latina Outreach Program addresses the specific needs of our Spanish-speaking clients and has received the Community Council of Greater Dallas Award for Excellence in Human Programming. The Family Place also offers services specifically for survivors of relationship violence from the LGBTQ community. Although abuse is often similar in LGBTQ and heterosexual relationships, perpetrators of relationship violence in LGBTQ relationships may also use society's bias against their partner's sexual orientation or gender identity to isolate and abuse. Since 1995 our counseling services have included counseling specifically for survivors of incest and childhood sexual assault and offered training for professionals and educational outreach about working with incest survivors. Planned Parenthood of Dallas & Northeast Texas has honored our incest counseling program with The Katherine Ripley Award for Education. In 2022, our nonresidential counseling programs served 1,447 women, 115 men, and 405 children. Our Partner Advocate Program serves survivors whose abusers are in our Battering Intervention & Prevention Program. In 2022, 55 partners of offenders enrolled in counseling.