This summer marks the 4th year of La Casa’s partnership with the San Francisco Human Services Agency. La Casa works in conjunction with HSA to provide tailored support to individuals that receive CalWORKs and are currently waived from the traditional welfare-to-work program due to domestic violence. The waiver acknowledges that survivors face additional barriers in their return to work and stable income, and La Casa works side-by-side with low-income survivors to heal emotionally and overcome financial obstacles that may have been created or exacerbated by an abusive partner and violence in the home. In the most recent year, 219 survivors and their families accessed our support.
When Family and Children's Services suspects child abuse and domestic violence are intertwined in a family system, we also work side-by-side with adult survivors of abuse to protect the well-being of their children and family. La Casa provides advocacy, trauma-informed counseling, and referrals to Bay Area Legal Aid to address restraining order, housing, employment and other legal civil legal needs. The HSA-funded program also connects the person suspected of causing harm to offender intervention services at GLIDE Foundation. Since La Casa's program launched last October, 72 survivors and their families have accessed our tailored resources and support.
Collaboration and co-location are key strategies in La Casa’s mission to increase survivors’ connection to care. In addition to providing services onsite at the San Francisco Human Services Agency at 170 Otis Street, for more than a decade La Casa has made domestic violence crisis intervention and support accessible to survivors at the 1515 Egbert Street in the Bayview District through partnership with the San Francisco Housing Authority. We also provide confidential survivor-centered counseling and advocacy at 850 Bryant Street, in the Hall of Justice adjoining the San Francisco Police Department's Special Victims Unit, where incidents and reports of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault are investigated.
These access points are critical to serving the geographically and culturally diverse communities of San Francisco. Complementing La Casa's Drop In Center at 1269 Howard, each program is an open door to any domestic violence survivor in need, and survivors across our community-programs have access to tailored case management, peer counseling, therapy, and housing, legal, and children's advocacy, as needed.