Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh

Wc&s' confidentially located, secure emergency Shelter housed 131 adults and 113 children for a total of 15,011 nights in fy 2024, serving 45,033 meals to residents. Core services for Shelter residents include counseling, safety planning, goal planning, support groups, and advocacy for housing, finances, career, health, behavioral health, and other needs. Wc&s also provides food, toiletries, clothing, and other essentials so that families can begin their healing journeys without worrying about meeting their immediate needs.

Wc&s' civil law project provides free legal representation to victims of intimate partner violence in matters including protection from abuse orders, custody and child support, and divorce. In fy 2024, the civil law project provided legal assistance for clients in 728 legal matters. In addition to expenses incurred by wc&s for the civil law project, wc&s also has an affiliated agency which incurs expenses for this single program service.

Wc&s' legal advocacy department helps survivors of intimate partner violence navigate the court system by providing information, resources, counseling, and ongoing support free of charge. Legal advocates may guide survivors through obtaining protection from abuse orders and accompany them to court hearings. These advocates work with the justice system to improve procedures and to train police on ipv issues. In fy 2024, the legal advocacy department provided legal advocacy to 3,935 adult clients.

Women's Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh achieves its mission by offering a comprehensive range of free and confidential services to meet the various needs of adult and child intimate partner violence victims and survivors at every point along their journeys. In fy 2024, wc&s provided lifesaving services such as safety planning, counseling, advocacy, and emergency response to 7,453 people impacted by intimate partner violence, including over 33,000 hours of counseling. of that, 6,786 survivors of dv and their children received services from wc&s, the agency provided prevention and battering intervention programming to 330 men who are abusive, 179 professionals were provided consultation or coaching, and 158 concerned family or friends of survivors received support.the bright sky domestic violence mobile app and website, which wc&s and its partners launched in the united states on march 9, 2023, had over 52,891 users this fiscal year, for a total of over 133,000 users since its launch last year. A free, safe, and easy-to-use app and website, bright sky connects those impacted by domestic violence to practical information to educate, detect warning signs, and deliver life-saving information and features to respond to domestic violence while offering a secure route for support. Bright sky is presented in the u.s. by Women's Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh and vodafone americas foundation, in collaboration with aspirant, no more, thames valley partnership, and domesticshelters.org.through Women's Center & Shelter's participation in the diagnostic vibrant index 4.0, vibrant Pittsburgh has once again designated wc&s as a 2024 vibrant champion for utilizing best practices addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion through our policies and workplace practices. The vibrant index is designed to provide an annual snapshot of the best practices being utilized by employers in the Pittsburgh region. In the last fiscal year, Women's Center & Shelter provided the following services, education, and outreach:hotline services: wc&s' hotline advocates supported 4,137 crisis callers in fy 2024 and interacted via text/chat with 398 survivors. The advocates assess the survivors' safety (and contact emergency responders when needed), offer counseling and other resources, and walk the callers through creating and updating safety plans. Information and referrals provided by the advocates enable callers to make choices about next steps. Whether their choice is to seek emotional support, Shelter, safety planning, or any other wc&s services, hotline advocates help to facilitate these next steps. Emergency Shelter: wc&s' emergency Shelter housed 131 adults and 113 children for a total of 15,011 nights in fy 2024, serving 45,033 meals to residents. The emergency Shelter provides safety for adults and children in immediate, lethal danger. Core services for Shelter residents include safety planning, goal planning, and advocacy for housing, career, health, and mental/behavioral health. Wc&s provides food, toiletries, towels, blankets, clothing, and other essentials so that families can have their immediate needs met and can begin their journeys of healing. Survivors staying in the emergency Shelter can have their pets housed in our pet suite, so their families can care for and spend time with their animals who have often also been abused as part of the cycle of violence. Children's advocacy program: in fy 2024, 138 children received 7,313 hours of direct service through the children's advocacy program, which offers a safe, welcoming, nurturing space where child victims of ipv can heal from trauma. Beyond addressing basic needs like medical care and school access, our child advocates collaborate with local organizations to bring fun, expressive activities to the children we serve. Importantly, the children's advocacy program also creates opportunities for mothers and their children to connect with each other while they work through some of the most difficult challenges they have faced. Wc&s also has a children, youth, and families program to serve individuals whose cases involve both ipv and child abuse.empowerment Center (wellness program): in fy 2024, non-resident clients received 2,094 hours of direct service through support groups and individual therapy. Support groups are offered at wc&s for ipv survivors who have exited Shelter and those who have not needed Shelter services. Groups cover topics like building life skills, seeking safety, recognizing reproductive coercion, fostering wellness, mothering, developing healthy relationships, and surviving trauma. Individual therapy is provided to help cope with the effects of ipv, which can include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety. This department also houses our immediate needs coordination program, which supported 640 clients with immediate needs, such as security systems, housing, utility shut-off or turn-on, and victim compensation funds.legal advocacy: in fy 2024, wc&s provided legal advocacy to 3,935 adult clients. Wc&s' legal advocacy department helps ipv survivors navigate the court system by providing information, resources, counseling, and ongoing support free of charge. Legal advocates guide survivors through obtaining protection from abuse (pfa) orders and accompany them to court hearings. These advocates work with the justice system to improve procedures and to train police on ipv issues.medical advocacy: the medical advocacy program maintains relationships between wc&s and local healthcare providers (primarily upmc and ahn), distributing wc&s print materials, delivering trainings and consultation to healthcare professionals and residents who work with patients who are experiencing intimate partner violence, and meeting with patients admitted to hospitals for ipv-related injuries. In fy 2024, wc&s' medical advocacy program provided outreach to 55 community events, delivered over 25 trainings to medical professionals at local hospitals and to medical students in classroom settings, provided 80 one-on-one consultations to healthcare professionals to better serve and advocate for patients experiencing ipv, met with 51 patients at local hospitals who were assessed as high-danger victims to provide advocacy, information, and emotional support, and regularly refreshed outreach materials at local hospitals. Education & outreach: wc&s delivers training and presentations on ipv awareness and prevention to criminal justice professionals, students, clergy, corporations, and other professionals. In fy 2024, wc&s staff delivered 144 ipv trainings to 4,480 professionals including, criminal justice, non-criminal justice professionals. Dangerous choices prevention education was conducted at three allegheny county juvenile community intensive supervised program locations, with 23 presentations for 140 people. Additionally, 28 community events were held. Also housed in our education & outreach department is the mens (men embracing nonviolence and safety) program, which is an intervention group for men who abuse their intimate partners. These men are either court-ordered to the program or are self-referred, and our work focuses on challenging them to change their behaviors and stop being abusive to their partners and children. The mens program utilizes a sliding fee scale based on income, and is one of only four fully certified batterer intervention programs in allegheny county. The mens program served 330 participants in allegheny county in fy 24. Additional programs housed in the education & outreach department include: services for immigrants, refugees, and limited english speakers; community-based support groups for survivors who face geographical barriers to seeking services; and specialized community-based partnerships for ipv survivors who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer.wc&s' program standing firm delivers training to employers in southwestern Pennsylvania and beyond to recognize and respond to partner violence in the workplace and refer those affected by ipv to appropriate local resources. Increasingly, standing firm is building relationships with and developing training for large companies with multiple locations across the u.s. by expanding wc&s' reach through the employer community and beyond southwestern Pennsylvania, sf is enhancing prevention activities and reaching a Greater number of citizens in need of referral for assistance and safety.systems advocacy is also a priority for wc&s as we work toward changes in the justice system, law enforcement, and healthcare systems. In fy 2024, wc&s provided 8,189 systems advocacy contacts with 561 hours of systems advocacy. Systems advocacy focuses on assisting and supporting: 1) the functioning of the Pittsburgh police domestic violence (dv) unit; 2) the development and evolution of the new intimate partner violence (ipv) reform task force for