Human Options, Inc.
Prevent. Protect. Empower. Transform
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Human Options vision is committed to a future in which every person and family in Orange County experiences safe, healthy relationships and lives free from fear.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Human Options: Breaking the Cycle of Domestic Violence
Programs Overview: Human Options offers comprehensive programs for individuals and families who are experiencing, or are at risk for, domestic violence (DV). Our clients are of all ages, gender and ethnicities. Clients can access our continuum of services depending on their specific needs and their need for safety. Our residential programs offer short-term emergency shelter, transitional housing, Rapid Rehousing, and safety net. Services at our community-based center include: individual and group counseling, parenting programs, information and referrals about community resources, legal advocacy and the Personal Empowerment Program. Our Community Education program offers educational presentations and awareness campaigns to students about teen dating violence. Human Options also educates healthcare service providers, law enforcement and judicial officers on identifying abuse and providing linkage to DV service providers.
Human Options' Emergency Shelter
Human Options serves victims of domestic violence through our emergency shelter program. All clients access this program through contacting the 24-hour bi-lingual crisis hotline. Hotline staff provides information, referrals, discusses any options callers may have, and responds to request for emergency shelter. The emergency shelter provides a safe, supportive place that gives families the tools to begin reclaiming their lives. Besides providing physical safety, basic necessities and food, servcies include individual counseling, case management, legal advocacy and supportive services, children's program, job search assistance and linkage to community resources and help with finding affordable housing. Most of our shelter clients are low income. Program services assist clients in moving forward toward self-sufficiency and establishing a violence free life independent from the abuser. Human Options’ legal advocates work with each client according to their needs.
Human Options' Transitional Housing
Human Options offers two transitional housing programs for victims of domestic violence. Second Step: a fourteen-unit apartment complex offering transitional housing to 14 women and their children for up to six months; and Third Step: a longer-term transitional housing for 6 women and their children for up to 12 months. When clients enter Second Step, 95% have extremely low incomes and need life and work sills training. At Third Step the target population consists of families with two or more children. Families benefit from this program primarily because the low-cost transitional housing gives them time to increase their financial self-sufficiency and improve their employment opportunities through additional education and vocational training. Program services include case management, counseling, legal advocacy, psycho-educational groups, linkage to partner agencies for financial literacy training, employment search and assistance with obtaining permanent housing.
Community Based Services
Our Community Based Services offers domestic violence intervention programs for both adults and children. We are located at eight Family Resource Centers in Santa Ana (2 locations), Lake Forest, Newport Beach and San Juan Capistrano. Services are offered in English and Spanish, are offered at no cost or on a sliding fee scale, and serve high risk low income populations.We provide mental health counseling with a focus on trauma and intervention for domestic violence victims and their families.We also offer Parenting Education, the Personal Empowerment Program, Family Advocacy, legal advocacy and legal clinics, Youth Empowerment groups and Information and Referral services.
Human Options' Safe Options for Seniors Program
The Safe Options for Seniors program provides services to victims of intimate partner and family violence age 50 and older or dependent adults over the age of 18. Services include individual and group counseling, case management, and legal advocacy to individuals caught in the web of family violence. Each year this program serves approximately 100 adults. Human Options’ staff makes contact with the client over the phone and initiates a home visit or joint visit with the referring party. During this initial assessment clients are provided education and community resources, as well as offered the above services. Also, clients themselves contact Safe Options for Seniors directly to receive help with their situation. Our Safe Options for Seniors program is nationally recognized for its innovation and success.
Human Options' Community Education Program
The goal of Human Options' Community Education program is 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. In order to change societal attitudes and the beliefs that perpetuate the cycle of domestic, we provide violence prevention educational programming and awareness campaigns designed to bring light to this issue that still thrives in silence. Our community educators use storytelling, lectures, and virtual interactive lessons to engage audiences. We present to teens in middle and high school, college students and at teen conferences, and to healthcare, human resource and social service professionals, and law enforcement on the issue of domestic violence. An example is our annual awareness campaign, Stand Against DV, where high school varsity football teams wear purple socks to a game taking place during Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October. Additional awareness and educational activities are scheduled on campus during the week.
Where we work
Awards
Affiliations & memberships
United Way Member Agency 1982
OC Partnership 2000
Charity Navigator 4-Star 2018
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of children served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Related Program
Human Options: Breaking the Cycle of Domestic Violence
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Our Children's Program focuses on preventative interventions that are designed to support children's social-emotional and developmental skills, build positive coping strategies and resilience skills.
Number of clients assisted with legal needs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Community Based Services
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Our Legal Advocates support clients in understanding their legal rights , and provide services related to Housing, Family Law, Immigration, Court Accompaniment, Restraining Orders, Safe at Home, etc.
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn 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?
Since its inception, Human Options has worked to ensure that Orange County's most marginalized, under-served, high-risk populations have access to domestic violence services.
In 2017, the Board and CEO launched a new cycle of strategic planning, using an evidence-based strategic planning process called Theory of Change (TOC). TOC is highly compatible with a health equity approach to domestic violence because it grounds problem analysis and solution building in an understanding of the social determinants and contextual factors that either contribute to a social problem or prevent it. The TOC also requires planners to understand and center the complexity of the lived experiences of people impacted by domestic violence. Solutions and strategies generated from centering those most impacted, especially our most marginalized families and communities, are more likely to be socially relevant, valued, and impactful.
The TOC process also involves re-examining assumptions. For instance, many approaches to domestic violence are built on an assumption that most victims of domestic violence want to separate from their abusive partner. Additionally, service providers often assume that domestic violence can be addressed independently from other issues, such as substance abuse, homelessness, child abuse, community violence, poverty, and discrimination. Listening to communities and families most impacted by domestic violence, it becomes clear that not all families want to separate. Furthermore, typically families struggle with multiple problems at the same time, and community factors, such as violent crime and discrimination, greatly impact their ability to thrive. Therefore, comprehensive support requires developing whole-family solutions and effective treatment for people who harm family members. A family-centered, community-centered approach also requires us to address intersecting issues, structural inequality, and community-level healing.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
To date, the work we have done is highly compatible with a health equity approach. Yet the expansiveness of an equity framework opens additional opportunities for increased cross-sector work to collectively impact intersecting issues that adversely affect marginalized communities and increase their vulnerability to family violence. For instance, the six community-level determinants of health and safety outcomes identified by the World Health Organization—harmful norms and culture, weak social networks and trust, weak community sanctions against domestic violence, harmful media and marketing practices, housing insecurity, and income insecurity—represent actionable places where we can promote equity in health and safety outcomes in Orange County.
To more fully implement a health equity approach, last year we embarked on an intensive strategic planning process that included the development of a “theory of change." Our theory of change identifies root causes of domestic violence and proposes strategies to address them. The strategies in our theory of change are informed by local and national contextual factors, community assets, and evidence; they are designed to achieve positive outcomes for individuals, families, communities, and networks. Using our theory of change as a foundation, we will continue to refine our approach to more effectively achieve our mission.
In addition, changing client needs continually influence our programs. For instance, last year, two deaf clients presented for services at the Santa Ana family resource center. This catalyzed a partnership with LifeSigns, an agency that provides ASL interpretation, which resulted in the provision of legal advocacy and PEP groups being provided in ASL through an interpreter. Similarly, our partnership with Cambodian Family, an organization that provides services to a largely monolingual Cambodian community, allows us to provide PEP classes in Cambodian through a translator, on location at Cambodian Family. Currently, plans are in the works to develop a counseling group curriculum for male victims of domestic violence and a second level of Parenting classes, again based on needs brought forth from clients.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Framing domestic violence within a health equity model is new and unfamiliar to some of our stakeholders. To build our capacity to apply a health equity framework, we need to fully understand it, articulate it, and engage in constructive discourse about it with other people to engage them and inspire them to be a part of this work. For example, many of our stakeholders view of domestic violence as an individual-level problem with a single solution—helping victims escape. As our TOC framework leads us to expand our approach to include strategies such as whole family services and community healing, we need to be able to persuade stakeholders to understand the benefits of these new strategies.
Our Board and CEO are also accessing additional resources to improve agency capacity to apply an equity lens. Our CEO and our Board President recently completed the Annenberg Alchemy Leadership seminar. They both plan to attend the second phase of this program, Alchemy Plus, which includes a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.
In addition, Human Options uses a variety of formal and informal methods to involve clients and constituents in our work. The Residential Program has Resident Councils made up of current clients who share their experiences, perceptions, and suggestions to improve our shelter and transitional housing programs. Human Options' family resource center-based programs in Santa Ana and Costa Mesa use Community Engagement Advisory Committees comprised of former clients, community members, and local business representatives who want to give back to their community. Similarly, our Teen Ambassador Program provides teens with leadership skills training and mentoring to equip them to serve their communities as active bystanders against dating violence.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In order to more effectively break the cycle of domestic violence, Human Options must continue to remove the barriers that Orange County's most marginalized, under-served victims face, including poverty, discrimination, unemployment, and lack of affordable healthcare, mental health services, childcare, and educational opportunities. In doing this work, it will be important to explore new territory, including collective impact strategies, cross-sector partnerships, and community-level healing strategies.
We are mid-way through a five-phase strategic planning process that will help us map out the best ways to engage in this work. To date, we have: 1) completed a strategic planning project management plan; 2) created a TOC framework that describes the problem to be solved, contextual factors that contribute to the problem, and strategies to address the problem; and 3) begun the process of assessing the health of the organization and its programs while exploring contextual factors and current program capacity. Support is needed to complete the remaining two planning phases, which involve developing draft work plans around each prioritized strategy, creating management and monitoring tools, and devoting time annually to reviewing progress and adjusting the planning process as needed.
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, We act on the feedback we receive, We share the feedback we received with the people we serve
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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
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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.
Human Options, Inc.
Board of directorsas of 01/26/2024
Mr. Andrew Gray
Latham & Watkins, LLP
Term: 2011 - 2025
Scott Allen
Passco Companies Development LLC
Diane W. Biagianti
Glaukos Corporation
Wendy Peterson
Knobbe & Martens
Joe Ferrentino
Newmeyer & Dillion
Susan Heller
Greenberg Traurig Global, LLP
Linda Schilling
Schilling Law Group
Sabrina C. Callin
PIMCO
Jason Weintraub
Jacuzzi Group Worldwide
Kyle Anderson
Canada/Opex Lead Fortive-ASP
Dr. Liza Eshilian-Oates
Kaiser Permanente
B. Robert Farzad
Farzad and Ochoa Family Law Attorneys, LLP
Katie Nuez
Irvine Company
Wendy Peterson
Knobbe Martens
Clay Richardson
Digital Fast Forward
Angela Ahmad
Inari Medical
Gabriella Blanchard
Marsh & McLennan Agency
Nikole Kingston
OMelveny
Malia Petrucci
Tru Studio
Rebecca Procsal
KPMG LLP
Courtney Williams
Pacific Premier Bank
Alexandra Williamson
Latham & Watkins, LLP
Chandinie Francis
Pajamas for Peace
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: