Embrace Services

Since 1980, Embrace Services, Inc. (Embrace), a nonprofit organization, has been providing comprehensive safe shelter and supportive Services to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in an extremely rural area of northwest Wisconsin with grinding poverty and high rates of violence. The geographically large, four-county service area is made up of rusk, washburn, barron, and price counties. In 2023, more than 1,500 survivors accessed Embrace's advocacy support. Survivors at high-risk of homicide received safe shelter including comprehensive advocacy-based counseling and case management. Families stayed in Embrace's scattered-site transitional housing program and 100 percent continue to stay safe and stably housed 6 months after entry into the program. To end the cycle of violence, prevention programs and youth Services, often in partnership with schools or local youth programs, are prioritized. Outreach and awareness efforts to improve access to Services and community engagement in addressing gender-based violence as a public health issue are offered throughout the year. Embrace centers the voices of historically excluded survivors who are most harmed by intersecting oppression and violence and structures Services and programs that work toward their safety and liberation. This strategy works to bring safety to those most at risk of homicide as well as to necessitate the safety and liberation of everyone equitably.