Over four decades, Grace Smith House has empowered both women and men who come through its doors to change their lives. Sponsored by Mid-Hudson Subaru, the Hudson Valley non-profit provides numerous services for victims of domestic violence.
These stories demonstrate Grace’s extraordinary talent; her comic car-toting mother in “Dogside Story” and elemental, mythic yet fully human mother from “Between Earth and Sky” show how Grace can imbue even everyday details with profound significance.
Shelter
Grace Smith House provides shelter to victims and survivors of domestic violence. They offer various services, such as 24-hour crisis hotlines that provide information and assessment tools, emergency and transitional housing, as well as advocacy and counseling from experienced staff who specialize in working with domestic violence survivors.
Grace Smith House offers an emergency shelter with 25 beds to accommodate adults and children that is open all year long, staffed 24/7, and manned by trained advocates who help victims understand their options and formulate safe plans. In addition, emergency food, transportation, and employment support is provided at Grace Smith House shelter, as well as transitional housing consisting of 15 studio to three-bedroom apartments available to those leaving its cover – additionally, Grace Smith House also offers individual counseling as well as group sessions for victims/survivors of domestic abuse.
Additionally, FPUPC operates Brookhaven Apartments as a temporary shelter for domestic violence survivors. At Christmas time, their Mission Committee solicits gift requests from residents on small tags that are placed on a Christmas tree at Brookhaven Apartments; then, members of the community take one off the tree and donate the item that was requested.
Additionally, this organization operates a pro bono legal service program to assist battered women with family law matters. They partner with Westchester/Putnam Legal Services in offering free or sliding scale representation for low-income battered women; in addition, they employ a full-time bi-lingual Family Advocate/Latina Outreach Worker.
This organization seeks to empower people living free from domestic violence through services that include providing a professionally staffed 24/7 crisis hotline, emergency shelter, and transitional housing, client advocacy and counseling, prevention education programs, and initiating public policies that empower victims and survivors.
The organization’s corporate office is located in Poughkeepsie, New York, and employs 23 people; their average annual salary ranges between $34 to $44. They provide comprehensive domestic violence services, including 24-hour crisis hotlines, emergency shelters, transitional housing, and counseling outreach services. Their organization is privately funded but serves Dutchess County.
Counseling
Grace Smith House offers an extensive array of emergency, residential, and community-based domestic violence services – not limited to shelter – to combat domestic abuse. These services include an internationally trained crisis hotline that operates 24 hours per day for individuals in crisis with their children residing nearby; emergency shelter for individuals as well as their children living there; transitional housing options, counseling advocacy outreach; victim education prevention programs as well as community education about its severity.
Love Shouldn’t Hurt is one of their outreach and prevention programs that teaches students more about signs of abuse in relationships as well as safe ways to seek assistance or resources. Additionally, Love Shouldn’t Hurt also seeks to prevent teen dating violence – an increasingly prevalent form of abuse – ensuring more than 20 schools from 10 Dutchess County school districts participate. This event proved extremely popular!
People can contribute to the mission of an organization by making donations of items. One way they do this is through their Clothesline Project, an exhibition of decorated t-shirts decorated by victims and loved ones of violence against women. This year, the FPUPC mission committee added an innovative holiday twist by collecting gift requests from residents living at Brookhaven Apartments; tags with these requests were then attached to the Brookhaven Christmas Tree at church before gifts from members of the community were then donated for delivery on Christmas morning.
Grace Smith House Inc. employees generally make around an hourly wage of $34, though this figure varies based on department, location, and individual skills and educational backgrounds.
Grace Smith House in Poughkeepsie, New York, provides comprehensive domestic violence services that aim to empower victims and their children to live free from domestic abuse. Their services include 24-hour crisis hotlines; an emergency shelter whose doors remain open 24/7 for individuals and their children who require cover; transitional housing; counseling services, client advocacy support groups, advocacy and accompaniment services, Latina outreach initiatives as well as violence prevention education initiatives across communities such as schools.
Education
Grace Smith House provides emergency, residential, and community-based domestic violence services for individuals and families living in Dutchess County. Services provided include 24/7 crisis hotline response, emergency sheltering/transitional housing options, counseling/advocacy support, children’s programs, and prevention/education initiatives.
Crisis hotlines offer victims/survivors support by helping them assess their situations, understand the options available to them, and devise safety plans. Emergency shelters provide a haven for individuals and children until permanent housing options become available; transitional housing programs offer 15 studio to three-bedroom apartments to those leaving tops and transitioning into independent living environments; counseling services are also provided, as are family advocacy support groups and counseling for both adults and youth; the organization conducts outreach and education to raise community awareness regarding domestic violence’s extent, type, and seriousness.
As part of their outreach and education work, this organization also offers various training opportunities for community members. This includes professional development for salon/spa professionals; their “Cut It Out” campaign raises awareness about domestic abuse within local salons, as well as training that teaches school/college campus staff and students how to recognize warning signs and safely and refer clients for help.
As part of their efforts to raise awareness and funds, this organization hosts several events such as The Clothesline Project, featuring decorated t-shirts decorated by survivors and their loved ones, and the Love Shouldn’t Hurt conference, which brings high school students from across the region for interactive workshops and discussions about breaking the cycle of dating violence.
Additionally, the organization maintains long-standing and continuous relationships with schools in Dutchess County and regularly provides presentations to middle and high school students about bullying & cyberbullying, teen dating violence, safety planning, healthy relationships, and bullying & cyberbullying prevention & response measures using its Prevention and Education Team’s brief & efficient assessment tool.
Outreach
Grace Smith House offers emergency and residential domestic violence services to individuals and families in Dutchess County. Services provided include a 24/7 crisis hotline, emergency shelter, transitional housing, counseling services, advocacy/access services for resources, children’s programs, community outreach/prevention education, as children programs/programs.
Outreach programs of this organization aim to prevent abuse and empower victims through community events, education, and training programs. They collaborate with school districts and service providers in screening for domestic violence; furthermore, they host life skills workshops that help women gain independence so they can provide for themselves and their children more efficiently.
Grace Smith House is currently engaged in multiple initiatives to expand its services and reach, such as creating a pro bono legal panel to assist battered women with court actions relating to matrimony, child custody, and support disputes; also working on assigning a full-time family advocate/Latina outreach worker that will assist families in managing case management needs, legal services or accessing community resources.
As part of efforts to prevent abuse and empower victims, it is crucial to recognize early indicators of relationship violence. One such indication is controlling behavior, which can eventually lead to physical and emotional abuse; such behavior may start mild before intensifying over time.
Branka Bryan, executive director of Grace Smith House in Poughkeepsie, believes victims tend to conceal abuse because they don’t want to risk losing their partner. Counseling may only make matters worse for some women if their partner doesn’t recognize their behavior as wrong; she emphasizes the need to acknowledge its effects on everyone involved, including children.
Grace Smith House has launched the Clothesline Project as an effort to raise awareness. This display of decorated T-shirts decorated by survivors and loved ones to represent their experience with domestic violence will be on view at Gallery 40 in Poughkeepsie and Betsy Jacaruso Studio and Gallery in Rhinebeck.
