Fort Bend County Women's Center, Inc.

Fort Bend County Women's Center (FBCWC) serves survivors of family violence and sexual assault and their children with a comprehensive package of services resulting in families living violence free, working toward becoming self-sufficient, and healing from the detrimental effects of trauma experienced. The goal of the Women's Center, as the only domestic violence and sexual assault service provider in Fort Bend County, is to be a resource for women and children who are victims of these devastating crimes and have nowhere else to turn safely. Ensuring that these families have the tools and resources to live a full life, independent of their abusers, is the ultimate goal.

It is often very difficult for a woman to leave her abuser because of a lack of financial, emotional and/or educational means. Our comprehensive approach focuses on overcoming survivors' barriers to independence and freedom from abuse. We provide for clients immediate practical needs and on giving them the support they need to realize their long term goals. We continuously seek new and innovative ways to help survivors simultaneously deal with the stress of emotional and physical violence, while trying to achieve safety and self-sufficiency for themselves and their children. Our services are broad and range from crisis intervention and support, emergency shelter, food and basic medical assistance to counseling, children's services, education and employment assistance, housing assistance, case management, legal assistance and advocacy.

Through our Outreach & Community Education program, we work to prevent domestic violence and sexual assault.

Fort Bend Women's Center has served families affected by domestic violence and/or sexual assault since 1980. Our senior staff has a combined 76 years of experience, ensuring that we are well prepared to meet survivors' needs. In addition to our staff, our work is supported by 1,431 volunteers, delivering 41,446 hours of service.

We understand the need to offer comprehensive services to clients attempting to gain their independence and, therefore, go above and beyond expectations of basic non-profit practices. We understand the value of community partnership and have worked tirelessly with several organizations to assist us in accomplishing our mission to ensure that these services and advocacy are accessible to all clients. These partnerships, maintained primarily through referral calls, are essential in allowing us to offer rehabilitative services to our clients who seek assistance in restoring their lives.

Since its inception in 1980, over 52,000 women, children and men have received life-changing services from Fort Bend Women's Center. In 2020, we served 338 women and children in our Emergency Shelter, and 630 clients through our Non-Residential Program. Our 24/7 emergency hotline received over 6,000 calls in 2020. We have pioneered new services to continue to offer our clients the best possible support to achieve their goals.

In November of 2018 Fort Bend Women's Center purchased a single site housing and support services community, in thanks to capital funding received from two foundations which allowed us to provide safe, affordable housing and on-site services for the most vulnerable of our clients. Currently we are housing 24 families, many of whom face long term barriers to independent living. This is the first step to address the lack of safe, affordable housing for survivors and provide them with easier access to the services they most need. We are now in phase 2 of the capital campaign which includes expanding the housing for 14 more families. We have relocated all of our direct service programs including case management, life skills programs, counselling and children's programs to this community and provide these services to all of our clients, including those not receiving housing assistance from us.