The Center for Family Justice, Inc.

CFJ strives to be a model in the delivery of crisis services to victims of domestic and sexual violence and child abuse. We also strive to deliver these services with maximum efficiency in a trauma-informed way. By providing all the services a victim may need in one save place-- under one roof-- we are determined to minimize the trauma our clients experience as they seek justice and recover from abuse.

We seek to transform victims into survivors. Our motto is Hope Starts Here.

We do this by providing shelter, support, counseling, self-sufficiency skills and a network of community partners we work in close collaboration with to meet the many needs of our clients.

We provide shelter at our 15-bed safe house and counseling and support services for our domestic violence clients and their children. We offer support groups and self-sufficiency programs to help them rebuild their lives. We offer a Rabid Rehousing program to get our clients out of our safe house and into their own homes and apartments quickly.

We similarly offer counseling and support to victims of sexual violence and abuse. These services are offered to clients who have experienced recent trauma as well as those who are coping with the lingering trauma of an assault or abuse days, months or years ago. We offer support groups for survivors. We also work closely with victims on local college campuses through our campus-based Advocacy Team.

Increasingly, we are focused on using community education and engagement as a way to break these cycles. We are also determined to break the cycles of violence and abuse for impacted youth, by providing them with access to trauma-informed services (such as Camp HOPE America-Bridgeport) which offer hope, healing and resiliency-building opportunities to impacted teens and children. We believe working with young people who've experienced significant trauma improves their outcomes, resiliency and diminishes the chances these children are likely to perpetuate abusive patterns as adults.

It is critical to provide access to crisis services 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We are proud to do that through our crisis hotlines and a 15-bed safe house, Kathie's Place, which operates round-the-clock 365 days a year. We also have a team of advocates who provide crisis intervention services to hundreds of clients annually on a walk-in and by-appointment basis. This 24/7 team approach applies to victims of domestic and sexual violence as well as serious child abuse.

In recent years, CFJ has made a concerted effort to connect its clients with the legal services they need to seek protection from abusers and access the justice they deserve. We launched the state's first Legal Incubator and also a Pro Bono Legal Center. Both initiatives have enabled us to make incredible strides and deliver hundreds of hours and hundreds of thousand dollars worth of free or low-cost legal services to our clients.

We believe partnerships are critical to our success and our ability to bring all the services we need to victims and survivors in one safe place. To that end, we have a number of community partners on site at our headquarters in Bridgeport, Ct. who work with us in close collaboration to assist our clients coping with the trauma and abuse. These partners include law enforcement, state prosecutors, the Triangle Community Center (which provides targeted services for our clients who identify as LBGTQI) and a variety of other community-based nonprofits.

We are proud to be a nationally-accredited Child Advocacy Center (CAC) focused on supporting and protecting children who have experienced or witnessed abuse of a domestic or sexual nature. We provide the services of a skilled-clinician to these children along with the same crisis and supportive services we offer adults. In addition, we lead the Greater Bridgeport Multi-Disciplinary Team, a group that includes police, prosecutors, representatives from the state Department of Children and Families (DCF) and other key stakeholders who work in close collaboration to protect children who have experienced or witnessed extreme abuse. We also coordinate the forensic interviews for these children in cases where there are criminal investigations related to their abuse.

As important as it is for us to address victims when they are in crisis, we approach our work with an understanding that breaking the cycles of violence is paramount. So, we are also committed to our work in community education, training and empowerment work to teach adults and children that it is possible to lead lives free of trauma and abuse. Besides working in public and private schools, we offer a Training Institute which has educated hundreds of adults on the dynamics of domestic and sexual violence and child abuse.

CFJ strives to provide these services through a combination of thoughtful fundraising and the support of state and federal grant monies. A significant portion of our budget (currently slightly less than 50 percent) comes from grants specifically targeted for supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence as provided by the federal Violence Against Women Act, also known as VAWA. In addition, CFJ aggressively pursues grants through private foundations and corporations which are targeted toward of our mission of providing crisis and supportive services to victims of domestic and sexual violence.
In addition to relying on state and federal dollars and grants, CFJ also engages in a robust effort to raise funds to provide many of its services. Throughout the year, CFJ holds a number of fundraisers which are focused not only on raising operating revenue, but also on raising awareness around the community about the services we provide. Some key signature events include our annual Speaking of Women luncheon (held annually in September) as well as our Walk a Mile in her Shoes event held each April during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Speaking of Women is held a week before the October start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In addition to raising significant funds for the organization these two events also inevitably lead to increased calls to our hotlines and greater awareness of the free, confidential services we provide to victims in the six communities we serve.

We successfully completed our transition to becoming Connecticut's first Family Justice Center six years ago and this year we are celebrating our 125th year as a nonprofit serving the Greater Bridgeport area. Since then, we have significantly expanded our ability to provide comprehensive services to our clients. We have moved forward with many partnerships intended to bring so many of the services our clients need under one roof in one safe place. For example, we have forged strong partnerships with police in the six communities we serve so that they are on site providing law enforcement assistance and advice to our clients five days a week. We have similarly built a strong relationship with the Triangle Community Center, a nonprofit that provides supportive services to members of the LBGTQ community, so that we can better serve members of that demographic impacted by domestic or sexual violence. In total, we have partnerships with more than a dozen community providers who help us support our clients on site. We have also moved forward with several major initiatives intended to enhance the services we offer our clients. Four years ago we formed the Justice Legal Center, Connecticut's first legal incubator. This innovative project allowed us to significantly expand the legal services we offer our clients who need legal assistance with matters such as divorce, custodial issues and restraining orders. Four summers ago, we also launched Camp Hope America-Bridgeport, New England's first trauma-informed camp and mentoring program for children impacted by abuse and trauma. This camp has already served more than 150 children ages 7 to 17 impacted by abuse trauma, offering them a life-changing summer camp experience. This program has since evolved into a year-long mentoring program for the children
In 2019, we took even more strides in our effort to help our clients access the justice they deserve by launching our