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Transforming lives since 1995

From our CEO Dear Friends: People often ask us, “Isn’t your work heartbreaking?” The

answer is, yes, often. We deal in suffering. Last year, 145 women and 155

children came to us for shelter from violent homes. Every one of them

had been deeply hurt in some way, whether psychologically, physically,

or both. But, while we witness their pain, and often suffer with them, we

are also privileged to share in their healing and rejoice in their strength,

dignity, courage and hope.

Our mission is to end the cycle of domestic violence in Seminole County

through a coordinated response with the community. This year, you --

our awesome community of businesses, law enforcement agencies, local

governments, faith organizations, service clubs and individuals --made these new programs possible:

The Imagination Playground: The interconnecting system of foam blocks allows children to reinvent the

world around them. One day, they make an airport for flying dinosaurs. The next, musical instruments

and a stage. In the process, they’ve not only stretched the limits of their own imaginations, but also

learned to collaborate with each other.

B.R.A.V.E. Ambassadors: (Bystanders Rising Against Violence Everywhere) The program promotes

healthy relationships by engaging high school students as peer-to-peer ambassadors for respect, gender

equality and nonviolence in intimate relationships.

Parenting Program: Children who have lived in abusive homes are much more likely than other children

to experience abuse themselves. This new program reduces parental stress and dysfunction in the

relationship between parent and child at the same time it decreases child abuse risk factors.

Lighting the Way to Financial Stability: Clients prepare a job search plan, craft a resume, learn to

network and search for a job, develop interview skills and learn what it takes to succeed during

their first 90 says on the job. The program, which is a collaboration between SafeHouse, Chris-

tianHelp, CredAbility, the Seminole County Bar Association Legal Aid Society and Heart of Flori-

da United Way, also offers clients job placement services, financial counseling and domestic

violence intervention services.

You also made possible the success stories we have included in this report. Thank you for keep-

ing SafeHouse in mind and our clients in your hearts.

Board of Directors

Paul Perkins, President

Patti Neveleff, Vice-President

Mary Beth Kelly, Secretary

Karen Chasez, Treasurer

Claudia Umana, Director

William Powell, Director

Beth Vihlen, Director

About SafeHouse SafeHouse is Seminole County, Florida’s only state-

certified domestic violence emergency shelter and

intervention program. We are dedicated to ending

the cycle of domestic violence. SafeHouse reaches

out to the community to provide a coordinated re-

sponse that includes providing emergency shelter,

supportive (transitional) housing, a 24-hour crisis

line, court advocacy and outreach programs.

SafeHouse also provides early intervention and pre-

vention programs, community education and train-

ing, case management services, child assessments,

job readiness and placement services, financial edu-

cation, support groups, referrals, safety planning and

supervised visitation.

We envision a community of healthy, violence-free

relationships and families. SafeHouse embraces col-

laboration and exchange and a commitment to long-

term social change.

The worn backyard deck at SafeHouse is evidence that in a typical year about 200 children live in our emergency

shelter. They stay here with their mothers for an average of 45 days. During that time, as our young resident’s

chalk message reminds us, this is not just an emergency shelter, or even a house. This is their home — and for

many kids, the first safe home they have ever known. The heartbeat of this home is a compassionate community

that in the last year built our Imagination Playground, made spaghetti dinners, brought Mother’s Day gift bags,

crocheted afghans, assembled tricycles, painted bedrooms and donated diapers, clothing, toiletries and toys —

all to make the women and children at SafeHouse feel comfortable, cared for and safe. Thank you.

Angela’s voice was shaking when she called the SafeHouse crisis line. Two days

earlier, while her violent husband was at work, she had walked to a nearby mo-

tel with her baby daughter and all she could carry. But Angela had seen him

drive through the motel’s parking lot and was terrified because he had threat-

ened to kill her and the baby if Angela ever left him. She believed him.

“I had nothing. No car, no job, no clothes, no money. And I felt like nothing,”

she said. “How was I going to take care of myself and my poor baby? But if we

went back … The lady on the crisis line kept assuring me that SafeHouse would

help and we were going to be safe.

“We have been here at the shelter for two months now. In just a matter of days, I went from an isolated life of fear and abuse to a life surrounded

by people who care about me, who want to help me, and who tell me I can succeed. They tell me I am brave. It hasn’t been easy. I have had to

face up to the reality that staying with my husband as long as I did endangered not just me, but also my little daughter, and that I am not the only

one with scars. But every day, we get a little stronger.”

In 2013-2014, SafeHouse sheltered 145 women and 155 children. The children’s average age was 6.

strength

Benita had never lived in anything but a violent home. She escaped her father’s abuse by getting

married at 17, but within a few months, her husband began tormenting her emotionally, then tor-

turing her physically. One night, more than 40 years later, he hit her in the stomach so hard he rup-

tured her spleen. Her doctors convinced her to call SafeHouse. Benita’s decision to come to the shel-

ter was the first of any significance she had ever made for herself.

“I lived my whole live in constant fear of saying the wrong thing, or doing the wrong thing,” she said.

Benita dropped out of high school to get married, and spent her marriage laboring on her husband’s

family farm. She had never used a computer. “But,” she said, “I am determined to make my own

way.”

SafeHouse helped Benita enroll in Seminole State College’s GED program. Then, she graduated from

the Lighting the Way jobs program, in which SafeHouse collaborates with the Seminole County Bar Association Legal Aid Society, CredAbility and Christian-

Help. With a resume, a diploma, a new suit and confidence, Benita took the bus to her first job interview and a few weeks later, cashed her first paycheck.

Now, she has moved into a SafeHouse Safe Pathways supportive housing unit, where she is saving money for her next step toward independence — a

place of her own. But, in the meantime, Benita still goes to support group meetings, where she encourages and inspires other survivors. “I have learned to

love myself,” she says. “No one can take this and all the other life lessons I’ve learned at SafeHouse away from me. No man. No one.”

In 2013-14, Lighting the Way helped 26 SafeHouse clients toward financial stability

dignity

Last year, domestic violence claimed the lives of 170 Floridians. Lucinda was very nearly one of them. Experi-

ence tells us that certain dynamics in the relationship between victim and abuser point to the potential for a

deadly encounter. A pregnant woman whose abusive partner uses drugs, for example, is in a very dangerous

situation.

Lucinda was a pregnant 18-year-old in a relationship with a violent older man when we met her. One of her

teachers convinced her to contact law enforcement after she showed up at school, soaking wet because her

abuser had tried to drown her then refused to let her change. Within 72 hours, the Intimate Violence Enhanced

Services Team had formed a protective barrier between Lucinda and her abuser. InVEST is a partnership be-

tween SafeHouse, Seminole County law enforcement agencies and the Office of the State Attorney, designed to

shield victims most at risk of death or serious injury by protecting the victim and monitoring and prosecuting

the abuser. SafeHouse coordinates the team, works with the victim to develop a safety plan, stands by her

through court proceedings, and if necessary, aids in relocating her.

At her abuser’s injunction hearing, Lucinda looked very frightened. The defense attorney asked her to drop the injunction so that it would not appear on the

abuser’s criminal record. Lucinda found her voice. “He stripped me of my youth and hurt me in ways I will never forget,” she said. “People need to know who

he really is.” The injunction was granted and Lucinda and her baby have since relocated to a safe location with InVEST’s help.

InVEST protected 93 Seminole County residents from death or serious injury in 2013-14.

courage

Unhealthy relationships start early and can last a lifetime. One in three teens reports suffering an abusive girl-

friend’s or boyfriend’s sexual or physical abuse, and many more experience threats. Victims of teen dating vio-

lence are more likely to do poorly in school, and report binge drinking, suicide attempts and physical fighting. Vic-

tims may also carry the patterns of violence into future relationships. To keep future generations of women and

children safe from violence, SafeHouse, with the help of partners like Verizon, invested more resources in pre-

vention last year than ever before. Maria and Michelle, our Prevention Team, took their message of respect,

equality and healthy relationships to more than 7,200 people last year, including students from all of Seminole

County’s high schools and nine of its elementary schools. They also spent days at Boy’s Town, the Juvenile Deten-

tion Center and the Grove Academy with some of the children in our county most vulnerable to the influence of

violence.

“I wanted to personally thank you for your presentation,” one of the girls told us later. “After class it felt good to

know that I am not alone in my struggle. Like you said, we never think it could happen to us. You also gave me

the courage to tell my parents what I was going through. I had always felt like I was alone in this situation. I feel

like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”

For more information about SafeHouse prevention programs, such as the B.R.A.V.E. Ambassadors, please visit www.werbrave.com or www.safehouseofseminole.org.

The SafeHouse Prevention Team reached more than 7,200 people last year.

hope

Domestic Violence87%

Administrative12%

Fundraising1%

2013-14 Expenses

2013-14 Expenses

Domestic Violence

Administrative

Fundraising

Federal Grants51%

Local Government Grants

22%

Contributions25%

Special Events2%

2013-24 Revenue

Federal Grants

Local Government Grants

Contributions

Special Events

SafeHouse Donors The following are the generous individuals, businesses, faith communities and government bodies who supported SafeHouse with financial donations in 2013-14.

Russell & Rhonda Alcorn All Souls Council of Catholic Women Karen & Randy Almond Alpha Chi Gamma Upsilon Gamma Alpha Chi Omega Alumnae Altamonte Springs Police Department Altamonte Springs Women's Club Amscot Corporation Cindy Anderson Annunciation Catholic Church Bank United Matthews Bark Cesar Baro Benevity Community Impact Fund Bi-Lo Winn Dixie Foundation Black Female Development Circle David & Martha Brewer Lewis Brooks Arthur & Karen Brown Thomas Cannold Carla Caponi James & Shirley Cashion Central Fla. Regional Hospital Aux. Craig Chase JC Chasez Karen Chasez David Chicas Christian HELP Foundation City of Lake Mary City of Longwood

City of Oviedo Police Department Pat Clarke Coldwell Banker Rev. C. Alfred Cole, Jr. Community & Family Communications Mary Cremeno Dallas Foundation Deer Run Ladies Golf Assn. Laura Landing Deery Defiglio Family Trust Sharon Desany Donald W. Mcintosh Associates Inc. Drs. Nofsinger, Lane, Curley & Zak Margaret Ducibella Michelle DuVall-Rubin Donald & Martha Edom Jack & Melanie Elkins, Jr. Emerson International Inc. Epiphany Lutheran Church, Oviedo Bunny & Mark Ernst Sheriff Don Eslinger Everything Zen Yoga Father's Table Foundation Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund First American Fireworks Co. Five Guys Burgers and Fries Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence Fredray LLC Alice Friedman Marcia Georgo

GFWC Lake Mary Women's Club GFWC Oviedo Women's Club Give With Liberty Michael Goodman Amanda Graham April Gray Shirley Gray Rebecca Gurecki Estate Hair on the Run Christine Hanavan Harriett Lake Family Trust Harvest Time International Jane Hay Beth Haynes Heart of Florida United Way Heathrow Women's Club Charities Inc. Linda Helm Andrew & Anne Hemmert Hendrix Foundation Tammy Heotzler Beth Herman Timothy & Amanda Hirsch Barbara & Richard Hitt Janice & Richard Hitt

Darlene Hobek Leslie Hobek Eric Horst Imagine Nation Books LTD Independent Insurance Agents JFM Public Relations

Patty Johnson Jeanne Kalil Gerald J. Keane Kersenbrock Chiropractic Alisa King Kingfish Holdings LLC

Cigdem Kizilay Sheila & Michael Kramer Nicole Larson Kimberly Leabu Jo Ann Lucarelli Markham Woods Presbyterian Women Roger Marks Linda Masters Maria Maunez John & Wendy McCormick Donald W. McIntosh Assoc. Inc. Carolyn & Jon McMillin Andrea McNally MKH Weddings, Inc. Michael J. McLean Agency, Inc. Kayla Mitchell Modern Plumbing Molly Maid of Orlando & Seminole County Mortgage Bankers Assn. of Central Florida Mr. Handyman Ms. Molly Foundation Niel & Janet Napolitano Alexander & Sandy Nicholas Old Florida National Bank Larry Olevitch Mary Oneil Orlando Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Rachel Patterson Jonathan & Elizabeth Peress Maria Pisano Publix Supermarket Charities

Felix & Debra Rados Rachel Rados Ron & Lois Rawson Jason & Jessica Recksiedler Sonja Rhodes Janice Richmer Linda Roberts Anna Diaz Rodriguez Yvonne & Wilson Rosario Joyce Rose Judie Rosenbluth Saks Fifth Avenue Alan & Karen Sandler William & Gizelle Santiago Arlys Schiedel Deana & Fred Schott Marty Schwallie Seminole County Seminole County Sheriff's Office Jerry Senkarik Shawn Shalvey Georgia Sue Shelton Susan Smolen Susan Sperrazza St. Gerard Circle St. Marks Presbyterian Church St. Mary Magdalene Parish St. Peter's Episcopal Church St. Stephen Lutheran Women of the ELCA Jason & Zahara Stansberry Kevin & Aubrey Stephenson Suntrust Foundation Target Corporation Robert & Michele Terry The Men's Warehouse Betty Tierney Transamerica

Lynne & Michael Troitino Tuskawilla Presbyterian Church U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development U.S. Dept. of Justice Patrick Ulrich Ray Valdes Verizon Foundation Richard B. Wagers Walk on Water Waterstone Wekiva Presbyterian Church Roy & Deborah Williams Women's Club of Casselberry Women's Club of Sanford Kristine Wood Linda Yacobian Thomas & Ellen Yeaser Jean P. Ziccardi Mark & Keltie Ziccardi Dave & Penny Zwalina