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At Genesis Women's Shelter, we know that domestic violence is one public health epidemic that is completely preventable, and we believe that NO woman or child should EVER have to stay in an abusive home because they have no options. For 24 years, 24 hours a day, Genesis has been waiting with our lights on and our doors open to welcome women and children facing the greatest time of crisis they have ever known.  Every year, over 650 women and children turn to Genesis as they make the incredibly brave decision to leave their former lives behind, taking with them nothing but the promise that a better life is possible.   

When families arrive at our Emergency Shelter, our Treatment Team provides them with a complete continuum of care including Group and Individual Counseling, On-Site Legal Assistance, Case Management, Children’s Play Therapy, On-Site Day Care, After School Care, and an On-Site School.  Each woman and her children are individually evaluated and a personalized plan is put into action throughout their 6-week stay to help them heal from the trauma they have experienced and create the bright future they deserve. 

Once families have completed our Shelter Program, they have the option to utilize our Transitional Housing Program on our safe campus. Families are able to live rent-free for 18 months in their own private apartments, and the mother is required to work, saving one-third of her income so that she will have the financial means to be truly self-sufficient.  Here, families are finally able to bond, and establish homes that are filled with love and respect. 

At Genesis, we also recognize that 85% of women who will know domestic violence in their lifetime will not seek the safety of an Emergency Shelter.  The Genesis Outreach Office exists to meet the needs of this group of women and their children, extending to them the same group, individual and children’s counseling services and education that our Residential clients receive. Our Outreach Counselors see over 1,000 women and children each year for over 10,000 counseling hours, yet the request for these services is so great, there is currently a 200 person wait list of those still in need of our help. 

As Genesis Women's Shelter receives no government or United Way funding, we rely on our community partners for the funding, donations and volunteers that keep the life-changing and life-saving programs at Genesis running.  Whether it's a donation to our thrift store that clothes a child, a volunteer who answers a hotline call and changes a life, or a contribution that allows us to keep our lights on another day - our community partners allow us to carry out our mission through their generosity, time and talents. 

With every family, and with every day, Genesis Women's Shelter is helping to build peaceful homes throughout our community, restoring the very foundation that domestic violence destroys.  That foundation not only strengthens families and communities today, but it establishes a new pattern of love and respect that will be carried down for generations to come.   

About: Lisa

Lisa, a client of Genesis Women's Shelter, is a 34 year-old white female living in an affluent area of Dallas. She led an idyllic life from the outside - a stay-at-home mother of four young children, with a college degree, living in million-dollar home with her family.  However, when we first met Lisa, she looked as though she had been living in a terrorist camp – rail thin, pale and dead behind her eyes.  Her mother had contacted Genesis out of concern for her daughter, and Lisa agreed to begin our Outreach Program. As she started the counseling process, she took the all the blame for the abuse her husband perpetrated on her and her family and only attended therapy sporadically. During this time, she was seriously assaulted by her husband, and again, her mother contacted us out of an urgent concern.  But after that incident, we did not hear from Lisa for weeks.  

 Then one day, Lisa made the choice to begin counseling in earnest.  She showed an increased desire to have a safe environment for herself and her children to live, and she realized that no matter what she tried to do at home, she would continue being victimized, criticized and abused.  Lisa knew there was no choice but to get out – to provide safety for her children and for herself.   

Lisa has now separated from her husband, and is about to move into a rental home in her children’s school district – a primary concern for her in this process.  She is excited and hopeful as she returns to the workplace and leaves her former life behind.  As her husband continues to fight her in the courtroom for full custody of their children and their home, she knows she will lose some things in this battle, but she has regained herself and her ability to effectively parent her four children who need her now more than ever. Through this life-changing decision, Lisa taught one of the biggest lessons to her children: even though she was faced with paralyzing fear and continuous disappointments, she made a decision to change for the better and create a new, safer life with support and expert help from Genesis.  Without counseling, Lisa easily could have been another statistic, committing suicide or sustaining significant injury by her partner, as the abuse was escalating and she had lost all personal power to stop it.   

About: Sylvia

Sylvia is a 30-year-old African immigrant who came to the United States with the promise of a better life.  She fled her native country with her newborn child in order to escape her own childhood filled with severe abuse at the hands of an alcoholic parent, and to erase memories of the brutal atrocities no child should have to witness. After moving to the United States, Sylvia was abandoned by her child’s father. She soon fell into a relationship that was familiar to her – one of abuse - where she was beaten, controlled and repeatedly told her life was worthless.  

Sylvia found within herself the courage to escape, only to realize that without support from family or friends, she would be unable to provide for her infant child. She then made a frightening and courageous decision, turning to Genesis to help create a healthy future for her and her child.  Sylvia began her journey at Genesis in the Shelter and then in our Transitional Housing Program, where through intensive therapy, she was able to revisit past traumas and begin to heal from her long and painful past. She has now “graduated” to become member of our Community Housing Program, continuing her counseling through our Outreach Office.  Sylvia is working full-time and providing for her child in a way she never thought possible.