Heartly House

Emergency shelter - residential shelter services are provided through the 29-bed emergency shelter. Available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, shelter is staffed by professionals trained in crisis intervention and domestic violence. In fy 2024, 91 adults and 65 children with a total of 4,339 bed nights of safety, along with meals, case management, health care services, and basic daily living needs were served.

Counseling services are provided by licensed clinicians in both individual and group settings to primary and secondary survivors of sexual assualt, abuse, child abuse, intimate partner violence, and human trafficking. Sessions are available to both adults and children, are confidential, and are provided free of charge. Counseling services include an abuse intervention program (aip), a 26-week program for men who have been and/or are abusive to their partners. The program is designed to teach participants how to change their behavior through education and skill building. In fy24, counseling services (excluding aip) served 197 adults and 39 children. In fy24, 38 clients were served under the aip program.

Crisis services provides 24-hour client services including crisis response, lethality assessment, medical accompaniment for sexual assault and domestic violence forensic exams and initial access to all Heartly House programs. Staff provides victims with crisis intervention appointments to assess comprehensive needs, safety planning, and case management coordination throughout Heartly House's continuum of care. Staff responded to 6,954 calls for assistance in fy24. 1,123 lethality screenings completed identified 871 victims at greatest risk of being killed by a partner. During fy24, advocates provided 40 sexual assault forensic exam (safe) accompaniments at frederick health hospital, during which they offered support, advocacy, and immediate crisis intervention services.

Direct legal services provide victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse with prepresentation and advocay through the legal system. Legal services provided included representation at protective/peace order hearings, divorce, and custody hearings, and court accompaniment to low-income victims. In fy24, Heartly House provided legal services to 556 clients.community engagement and prevention and training for survivors of abuse, their loved ones, and their communities on the awareness and prevention of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, human trafficking, and child abuse. In fy24, community engagement and prevention provided training to 1,074 community members.community based services (cbs) is a new program that was established in fye 6/30/2022. Satellite offices in towns across frederick county have been and continue to be established to bring critical services closer to those in need. These confidential, accessible, full-service offices are eliminating some of the barrieers that stand in the way of getting help with legal assistance, abuse intervention or human trafficking prevention. In fy24, the cbs program provided services to 298 clients.