Esperanza Shelter
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Domestic violence has been called one of the greatest health challenges facing women across our nation and even internationally. In New Mexico, one out of three women has either experienced or will experience abuse or in her lifetime. Abuse can be physical, emotional, psychological, financial or sexual. Esperanza reaches out to survivors of abuse and their children to help them deal with their trauma and become safe, independent and able to move forward into healthy relationships.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Esperanza Shelter and Non-Residential Support Services
Emergency Crisis Hotline 24/7 service (domestic abuse); Emergency Shelter for victims of domestic abuse; safety planning.
Individual and group counseling programs for both residential and non-residential clients; advocacy and referrals;
court advocacy. Child therapy and life skills education for young victims of abuse. We also provide food, clothing, school and baby supplies.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of clients in residential care
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Esperanza Shelter and Non-Residential Support Services
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of children served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Esperanza Shelter and Non-Residential Support Services
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of nights of safe housing provided to families of domestic violence
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Esperanza's goals are to provide safe shelter and wrap-around services to allow survivors of domestic abuse to recover from trauma, function independently and sustain healthy relationships. Esperanza seeks to help children recover from trauma and live happy, healthy lives. Esperanza also helps break the cycle of abuse and violence brought about by offenders through its offenders' individual and group counseling programs. Esperanza provides community outreach, awareness and education through our Hope Speaks program to the community. Education goals consists of providing domestic violence 101 trainings for businesses, community members, law enforcement and schools year-round.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Esperanza Shelter provides a safe transitional housing for victims of domestic violence (typically women and children). Services include counseling and advocacy to assist clients in creating new lives and healthy relationships. It also has counseling services for non-residential clients. Esperanza opens its doors to survivors (and their children) regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. Court advocacy services are provided for those in need of orders of protection and other services. Esperanza also provides both group and individual counseling for offenders in an effort to break the cycle of violence, often begun in the offender's childhood. All services are provided in both English and Spanish. The Seeds of Hope Children's Program provides child therapy and life skills education for children who have witnessed or directly experienced abuse. Esperanza also has a 24/7 crisis hotline.
Strategic PlanStrategic Planning Process
Board Members/ED connected with 40+ touchpoints-
Community partners, city officials, other service providers, staff, donors
Reviewed community needs assessment
Synthesized common themes from feedback agreed upon by strategic planning committee
Our goal is to support our staff so they can continue to offer outstanding service to those impacted by domestic/intimate partner violence while changing the perception of the community by Esperanzas visibility, better communicating all we do.
Narrowing the focus of feedback
Feedback was distilled into three critical areas:
Housing
Crisis Care
Esperanzas Community Engagement
Common themes from feedback: Housing
Great need for both emergency and transitional housing in Santa Fe
Congregate housing not effective, must respect need to for privacy
Current location of shelter is known in the community
Any housing plan should include wrap around services
Housing Decisions
Esperanza should continue to offer housing.
Esperanza should make the most of the land/shelter already owned outright.
Esperanza should partner with other housing providers (Lifelink)
Esperanza should hire a housing specialist to foster connections with other community housing providers.
Proposed Housing Next Steps
Hire a Housing specialist to develop relationships with community programs and facilities to facilitate placement.
Maximize our available resources- limit short term crisis care stays in hotels/ shelter, utilizing new housing specialist to find longer term solutions leveraging partner providers (Homewise/ Lifelink)
Limit length of stay in Esperanza provided housing. Target program completion, including financial stability and housing. Limit short term hotels/shelter to move to longer term placement.
Leverage existing shelter site (3.5 acres) to a) upgrade congregate shelter housing to limit exposure to other victims and b) explore housing types- casita style. Leverage available government funding for these types of community
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Esperanza has served underserved, marginalized and culturally specific populations since its inception. All programming for survivors are offered at no cost and are supported by grant funding. The Path to Peace program participants pay for each session based on a sliding scale fee as part of their steps toward taking accountability and responsibility for their violent behavior. Esperanza’s programming is geared toward helping participants access not only our services, but community services as well. Advocates for children and adults are trained to provide comprehensive support to each client. Our numerous and growing partnerships with community agencies allow us to provide additional resources for our participants to get the services they need. The services received allow our participants to get the help they need finding housing, jobs, legal advocacy and other resources to help meet their individualized goals. The agency distributes monthly anonymous satisfaction surveys and submits them to Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD is our largest state contract). We are proud to report that we consistently receive high marks on these surveys. The FY 2020-21 survey report showed high participant satisfaction: 89% of participants rated the crisis line as excellent; 100% of participants felt much safer in shelter; 89% of survivors attending groups reported that the group sessions either met most of their expectations or exceeded their expectations; 94% of survivors agreed or strongly agreed that advocates helped them to effectively safety plan; 86% are “very much” more hopeful about the future; 77% felt “very much” more in control of their life; and 90% felt “very much” emotionally supported by program staff. We continue to utilize this survey and its results to measure our goals and effectiveness of our services.
Esperanza leadership includes expertise in nonprofit management, fundraising, grant writing, finance, banking, marketing. Our staff are representative of the cultural populations we serve and over 50% are bilingual in Spanish and English.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Esperanza Shelter has been providing services to survivors of domestic abuse for 46 years. We have a strong track record of working collaboratively with other nonprofits both locally and statewide. Our humble beginnings of a small house with a few beds in the downtown Santa Fe area has grown to an agency that not only shelters, but meets behavioral health needs as well as housing needs. Friends, family, social services and law enforcement chose to look the other way and not get involved when a woman was abused. Over the years, Esperanza Shelter has grown into a comprehensive domestic abuse agency. Esperanza’s trauma informed services include safe emergency shelter, a 24/7 crisis line, advocacy, therapy, substance abuse therapy, family and child therapy, child life skills groups, parenting classes, community navigation, court advocacy, outreach/education and psychoeducational groups for both survivors and offenders.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
We don't have any major challenges to collecting feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Esperanza Shelter
Board of directorsas of 12/18/2023
Ms. Cheryl Anell
Retired - Business Executive
Term: 2024 - 2027
Jules Natowitz
Retired
Term: 2024 - 2027
Marisa Ornelas
Enterprise Bank and Trust
Robin Hammond
Christus St. Vincent Hospital
Mark Faubion
Senior Financial Analyst, Meow Wolf
John Littrell
Retired
Cheryl Ancell
Retired
Jane Brennan
Consultant
Jules Natowitz
Retired
Jeanette Baca
Associate Professor, Social Work
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 04/05/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.