Housing Services

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In addition to offering victims and their children a safe place to stay, Hope Center’s 24-hour free and confidential emergency shelter offers a comprehensive range of services for victims of domestic and sexual violence and their families.

Services shelter residents have access to include but are not limited to: legal and medical advocacy, individual counseling sessions and support groups, housing advocacy, and assistance in goal planning and safety planning.

Shelter services are available regardless of gender, but may be offered at an alternate site.

Pet Sheltering

One tactic an abusive person may use against a survivor is isolation – limiting their sources of companionship. Often, one of the few remaining sources of companionship a survivor finds is with their pet.

Abusive people may take this close relationship between the survivor and their pet and exploit it, inflicting harm upon the animal and, in many ways, upon the survivor, too. This is why between one-fifth to one-half of survivors delay leaving abusive situations – because there are barriers to bringing their pets along with them.

To help reduce this avoidable risk, Hope Center has a pet kennel on-site at our safe house so that survivors fleeing abusive situations in our sheltering facility need not fear leaving their pets with the person doing them harm.

“Victims of domestic violence must overcome many barriers and hurdles when making the choice to leave their hurtful environment and one of those is a fear of separation from loved pets that have become family members. Thanks in part to RedRover + Purina’s Purple Leash Project grant, the Schuylkill Hope Center’s on-site pet shelter has become a reality for use by victims and effectively eliminating the pet separation barrier, and moving domestic violence survivors one big step forward on their path to healing.”

Schuylkill Hope Center Executive Director, Rick Wojciechowsky

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The Hope Center operates eight Project-Based Voucher (PBV) housing units that, when vacant, are available for victims of domestic and sexual abuse who are Section 8 eligible to apply. (Often residents of the Hope Center’s housing units apply to live there when they are residing in the agency’s Safe House and a unit becomes available.) Residents work with Hope Center’s Case Manager in developing a service plan, based upon their goals.