Human Options

Community Based Services

Our Community Based Services (CBS) provides victims and their children with an opportunity to heal from the physical and emotional trauma related to domestic violence and offers information, education and resources to prevent future abuse. In addition, our Safe Options for Seniors, is a program built around preventing elder abuse. We offer services at our business office, two Family Justice Centers and eight Family Resource Centers. All services are offered in English and Spanish, at no cost or on a sliding fee scale. They include mental health counseling with a focus on trauma and intervention for domestic violence victims and their families, parenting education, 10-week Personal Empowerment Program, safety planning, family advocacy, youth empowerment groups, support groups, and information and referral services. Additionally, our Legal Advocacy Program services for domestic violence survivors include education on legal rights and remedies, court preparation and accompaniment, assistance with completing and filing applications for restraining orders, victim compensation, confidential address programs, and VAWA/U-Visas. Our network of pro bono attorneys regularly offer legal clinics. Annually, we serve more than 1,400 clients at CCF and our outreach offices.

Safe Options for Seniors Program

The Safe Options for Seniors (SOS) program assists clients age 50 and older who are victims of intimate partner and family violence, and also serves dependent adults over the age of 18. Services include telephonic and/or in-person safety planning, information, and referrals; individual counseling; emergency domestic violence shelter services; legal advocacy, incl. legal needs assessment, safety planning, education on legal rights, domestic violence legal clinics, and connection to pro bono attorneys; and empowerment groups such as Healthy Communication, Senior Empowerment, and Journey to Empowerment (therapeutic art) groups. All services use a trauma-informed and strengths-based approach and are integrated with coordinated case management to address the full range of needs related to elder abuse and assist individuals who are caught in the web of family violence. As transportation can be a huge barrier for seniors, our services are offered in the client’s home, in court, and in local senior centers or family resource centers.

Residential Program

The Residential Program offers a continuum of care that provides physical safety, stability, supportive services and a place to heal for victims of domestic violence and their children who have nowhere else to go. Residential Program components include the 24-hour crisis hotline, 30-day emergency shelter (with 90-day short-term transitional housing at the onsite “Family Healing Center”), and two transitional housing programs - Second Step (6-month program) and Third Step (12-month program). All Residential Program components address the emotional, financial and legal challenges domestic violence survivors experience, and assist clients on the path to emotional and financial self-sufficiency, permanent housing and violence free lives. Housing programs are provided in confidential, undisclosed locations to protect clients’ safety. The 24-hour bilingual crisis hotline is the access point for our emergency shelter. Hotline advocates also provide crisis intervention, information and referrals for approximately 4,500 callers annually. The emergency shelter offers case management, therapeutic counseling, supportive services, legal advocacy, life skills training, therapeutic children’s services, linkages to community and employment resources, and assistance with securing transitional or affordable permanent housing. In addition, we offer daily educational groups on topics such the dynamics of domestic violence, safety planning, anger management, healthy relationships, parenting skills, and the effects of domestic violence on children. If needed, the emergency shelter stay can be extended for an additional 90 days at the on-site Family Healing Center. Services at our Second Step transitional housing program are equally comprehensive and assist clients in developing and implementing longer-term plans to increase their total income, transition to self-sufficiency both financially and emotionally, and obtain permanent housing at program completion. The program emphasizes increasing financial literacy, employment readiness, employability, job search strategies, continuing education for better employment opportunities, and securing affordable permanent housing. Our expert partner agencies provide tenant education; landlord negotiation; leasing assistance; security deposits; short-term rental assistance; job placement and retention services; professional apparel; and financial literacy education. Third Step is a 12-month transitional housing program with case management services for clients who are fully employed, but need extra time to become completely self-sufficient before program exit. Our therapeutic Children’s Program services help children heal from the effects of trauma and abuse and foster healthy coping skills, wellness, self-confidence and resilience. Staff uses evidence-based therapeutic interventions to help children develop age-appropriate social-emotional, developmental, and interpersonal skills by modelling desired behaviors and using games, puppetry, role-plays, positive reinforcement, art and coaching. Staff works with the parent in parenting classes and individual therapy to help them address their own emotional distress, increase their parenting skills and give the parent the tools to support their children’s healthy development. At any point in time, the emergency shelter can serve up to ten families (or 8 families and 4 singles) and five families at the Family Healing Center; Second Step can serve up to 14 families and Third Step up to six families.

Prevention & Community Education

Human Options' Prevention & Community Education program seeks to engage the community in our mission to raise awareness of the issue of domestic violence, to prevent relationship violence, and to present information and tools for healthy relationships. We have evolved from viewing domestic violence as a women’s issue to recognizing it as a public health issue that impacts everyone. Eradicating domestic violence requires wide-scale community mobilization and cultural transformation. Therefore we are steadily expanding our reach into the community through extensive cross-sector collaboration, providing services in multiple locations throughout Orange County, activating first responders in a wide range of professions, such as healthcare, human resource and social service professionals, and law enforcement, and educating teens in middle and high school, at college and at teen conferences, through comprehensive, multi-faceted relationship violence prevention programming. Our community educators use storytelling, lectures, virtual interactive lessons and awareness campaigns to engage audiences and increase the number of people who are prepared and motivated to prevent domestic violence within their sphere of social influence. An example is our annual awareness campaign, Stand Against DV, where high school varsity football teams wear purple socks at a game taking place during Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. Additional awareness and educational activities are scheduled on campus during the week.