Letter from the Executive Director, Becky Callaham

Friends,

As you may have noticed, Safe Harbor's new logo includes a butterfly and a new tag line that states a safe place to start a new life.  The new logo and tag line more accurately describe our services and represent growth for Safe Harbor.  For years, Safe Harbor was known as "the battered women's shelter." Today, we offer a multi-faceted array of domestic violence programming including two safe shelters, prevention, counseling (including Spanish speaking counseling), children's counseling, advocacy, education, and emergency room intervention services. This new "branding" for Safe Harbor includes a new and updated, user friendly website  as well as more community awareness initiatives and educational opportunities.  Safe Harbor has enlisted the expertise of 2 marketing companies, Hill-Mullikin and radii, to help us reach the audience that needs to know that we are here and we can help.

2009 brings new opportunities for Safe Harbor. Our goal is to provide a best practices model for domestic violence services in Greenville, Anderson, Oconee and Pickens counties. We have partnered with Clemson University to devise a program evaluation tool to assist in measuring our effectiveness and plan for growth. SE consulting, Inc. completed a domestic violence services feasibility study for Oconee County in January 2008. Due, in part, to this study, Safe Harbor will add more community counseling services, hiring a part-time counselor for Oconee and Pickens counties.  And due to the increasing numbers of community counseling requests, we will also hire a new part-time community counselor for the Greenville/Anderson area. With strategic and creative staffing of existing counselors, Safe Harbor has additionally started providing specific counseling services for children and Hispanic clients, and we have increased our transitional housing program from 1 family to 5 families- at no additional cost. The Megan Project has reached thousands of high school students in the past year and promises to continue the timely conversation of dating violence in our high schools. Within the next few weeks, we will be adding 6 beds to the Greenville shelter, increasing the total available bed-space to 56. We will be renovating space to allow for families with boys older than 12 years old to reside at the shelter.  All administrative staff have moved off-site to 429 N. Main Street, Greenville. This move will provide Safe Harbor with more shelter space, along with a public face for Safe Harbor. All of these opportunities are a multi-pronged approach at making real change in domestic violence in the Upstate.

However, along with opportunities, we experience challenges. We need more counselors.We need more Megan Project educators in our schools. We need a full-time children’s counselor. In these tough economic times, the idea of growth is almost unimaginable. Historically, though, these are the times that we often take a step back and take stock of what is important. It is important that families are safe in their own homes. It is important that children do not learn that love and hurt are intertwined. And it is important that South Carolina make a commitment to changing our history. How can you help? Be an advocate for Safe Harbor - give of your time, donate what you can financially, shop and donate to our Safe Harbor Resale Store, and join us in helping victims of domestic violence find a safe place to start a new life.