By Karen Littleton
The San Antonio Police Department reported 12,633 cases of domestic violence assaults in 2005, with numbers growing exponentially each year. Of these 12,633 assaults, the SAPD made 1,246 arrests. When protective orders were issued, SAPD reports more than 800 offenders violated those orders. Of those violations, 172 abusers were arrested.
While those figures may seem staggering, consider that the Texas State Health and Human
Services Commission reported that more than 900,000 Texas women were battered that same year.
And even these horrible statistics don’t list how many women and children (and even men) were murdered at the hands of their batterers.
It’s not just a socioeconomic issue, nor is it an issue of race, religion, sexual orientation, age or gender.
It’s about control. It’s about low self esteem. It’s about alcohol and drug-fueled rage. It’s about one generation teaching the next generation that it’s okay to use physical force, including violence, to get one’s way.
But regardless of what it’s about, it’s about time the medical community steps up and rightfully claims its place at the frontlines of reducing, and maybe one day eliminating the escalating plague that is eroding our community.
Despite these high incidents of reported domestic abuse, there is one shining beacon of hope that San Antonio Medicine is proud to relate to our readers.
For 30 years, Family Violence Prevention Services, Inc. has skillfully administered one of the nation’s finest Battered Women and Children’s Shelters, right here in San Antonio.
Under the guidance of its visionary President/CEO Marta B. Peláez, the Battered Women and Children’s Shelter (Shelter) is an architecturally beautiful, spotlessly clean, safe and modern compound, secreted safely on the outskirts of town.
Of Family Violence Prevention Services and the Shelter, Peláez said, “Our mission is to break the cycle of family violence and to strengthen families by providing the necessary tools for self-sufficiency through the delivery of emergency shelter, transitional housing, education, effective parenting and early intervention with children and youth.”
She said, “Batterers often try to blame the victim. They frequently use every ruse they can to avoid taking responsibility for their acts of violence. They hire lawyers whom they pay handsomely to help them avoid prosecution,” Peláez said.
A batterer may say in court, “Judge, I don’t want my wife and kids sleeping on cots in some flea-bitten shelter when they have a fine home to come back to.”
But local judges know of the Shelter’s modern architecture, tasteful furnishings, landscaped grounds, kid-friendly playgrounds, spacious living quarters, colorful classrooms, professional teachers, well stocked computer lab, complete medical/dental clinics and its atmosphere of serenity and caring.
Local judges know these abuse victims have a safe harbor.
More than 1,500 clients are served annually at the Shelter. They offer 24-hour crisis intervention, case management by licensed professional counselors, group and individual therapeutic services for women and their children, two on-site attorneys for legal assistance, primary medical and dental care, on-site schooling from pre-K through grade 12, on-site adult education through an agreement with Palo Alto College and Trinity University, plus comprehensive programs for children.
For abuse victims with the financial means to live independently away from the batterer, the Shelter has non-residential programs that offer, as Peláez said, “Seamless coordinated program referral, with services offered in English and Spanish.”
Programs offered for non-residential victims include: an array of counseling services, play therapy for battered
children, a seminar for divorcing parents, women’s support group and Changing Behavior Through Choice: a 20-week, curriculum based group counseling program for women who have used violence in relationships.
Also included in their non-residential services, they offer same sex domestic violence counseling and juvenile aggression management.
Perhaps one of the most crucial services they offer is the Violence Interven-tion Program (VIP) for batterers. The VIP is a 20-week, curriculum based group for-mat program that highlights issues of personal responsibility and accountability.
Recently, when 99 men were surveyed a month after completing the VIP program, 72 said the program worked for them and 71 said they would call an agency for help if the urge to batter returned.
With domestic violence growing each year, The Battered Women and Chil-dren’s Center has done its best to plan for any contingency to seek safety, healing and recovery for its clients.
It indeed offers a ray of hope for thousands of women and children each year.
