One in four women in the United States is a victim of domestic violence at some point in her life. Stunned by this statistic, I joined with three wonderful women–Carolyn Churm, Anne Wright and Margaret Thoreau to make a commitment to permanent change. 

Our vision: a world in which no woman or child should ever feel afraid in her/his home.

I began my role as founding director in 1981. In the past 28 years, we have grown from a small grassroots agency to a multiservice, countywide program which breaks the cycle of domestic violence at every stage. 

Human Options has always been an innovator leading the way in many areas such as violence prevention education in schools, transitional housing and other services designed to rebuild lives shattered by domestic violence, and research studies to measure the effectiveness of our programs. We are proud to be innovators within the non-profit sector. 

Following this tradition, I am entering the world of blogs because I have the special honor of being a leader in the nonprofit sector serving battered women and their families and helping our community to build safe healthy families through prevention programs. As the director of Human Options my voice can help give voice to the voiceless and vulnerable.

I will be blogging on a regular basis to share my thoughts and experiences on issues impacting women, children, and families in our community, state-wide, and even nationally. I am proud to lend my voice to this new on-line community to educate, inform, and advocate on behalf of the voiceless and vulnerable.

A voice for the voiceless, for the vulnerable, is especially important now as the Governor for the State of California vetoed support for the Battered Women’s Shelter Grant, which funds all the shelters in California, including Human Options. This means we have lost $206,000 in funding for the shelter, funds which support counseling, children’s programs, and case management helping women build the skills and resources for independence and economic self sufficiency. It also means that the State of California provides NO funds to help abused women and their children in need. Recent stories in the news demonstrate the tragic results when this vulnerable group have no where to seek refuge. I urge you to lend your support in any way you can to keep shelters, like Human Options, open for these women and children seeking a safe refuge.

If you wish to contribute, click to Donate Now.