Photo By David Poe | Members of the La Casa staff at their Las Cruces, N.M., facility, Oct. 2, 2019. In...... read more read more
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A mother and her 3-year-old arrive at a shelter in Las Cruces, N.M., without much more than the clothes on their backs. Once settled in for the evening, in hopes of making the visit a bit more comforting, a volunteer brings two dolls to the child and he commences smashing them together in a gleeful, violent mood.
“Sometimes children who have been in violent situations truly believe hitting is normal,” said Pamela Strobbe, the event coordinator at La Casa of Las Cruces. “We’ve heard ‘that’s what daddy does to mommy.’”
This is a harsh reality, and few know it better than the staff at La Casa, whose mission it is to be a safe haven for domestic violence survivors, regardless of race, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin or disability, as well as to strive to end the cycle of violence that occurs in families over generations if left unchecked.
The nonprofit, the largest of its kind in New Mexico, offers a myriad of services for survivors and families victimized by domestic violence and abuse. Guests can stay in the emergency shelter for up to 90 days, and longer if the situation calls for that. They’ve also recently re-opened a satellite office in Anthony, N.M., that has the same services offered in Las Cruces, other than the emergency shelter.
“While they’re here we have support groups, we have [domestic violence] 101, we have financial literacy classes, because sometimes our victims have never been out on their own,” Strobbe said. “We have a parenting class called Circle of Security,’ because children sometimes only know the violence they have seen firsthand.”
La Casa staff members can assist with transitional housing case management, life skills training and advocacy that goes to helping individuals and families find safe spaces well beyond their main Las Cruces facility.
The nonprofit also offers civil legal service support that connects survivors with services regarding protection orders, child support, and custody, paternity, and divorce, as well as immigration services for victims seeking hardship visas and self-petition under the federal Violence Against Women Act, among other services.
While the organization strives to offer comprehensive services under its roof in Las Cruces and its satellite office in Anthony, staff members also work beyond their walls with an outreach and education program to raise the public’s awareness about domestic violence and the services La Casa offers. Specialists travel to speak to schools, as well as visiting with professional and community groups.
While helping others and raising awareness on domestic violence as a community epidemic is a work close to staff members’ hearts, Strobbe said it doesn’t come without its struggles – one being a limit of what they’re able to provide those in need.
“When we have 83 people in our shelter and a family of six comes in, we can’t help, our hands are tied,” she said. “We would like to expand our shelter so that we can house more families and more people that come in – having to turn people away is the hardest part.”
Strobbe said she encourages Team Bliss members to give what they can, and never to think that there’s any such thing as a contribution too small. Most of La Casa’s funding comes from grants and donations from the community, including help from CFC.
“People come in sometimes with just what they have on their backs because they’re fleeing a dangerous situation,” Strobbe said. “To break the cycle of violence is the number one mission here. There are studies that say 70 percent of children who witness violence will be in an abusive relationship themselves, or they will become abusers.
“To try to change that is huge,” she said.
For more information on La Casa, visit www.lacasainc.org.
The 2019 CFC drive is underway locally at Fort Bliss until Dec. 20. If you’re a service member, government civilian, or a military retiree, and you’d like to help La Casa, or any of the approximately 20,000 nonprofits that benefit from CFC contributions, talk to your unit or office CFC project officer or visit https://cfcgiving.opm.gov/welcome.
| Date Taken: | 10.02.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 12.26.2019 12:31 |
| Story ID: | 357255 |
| Location: | LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO, US |
| Hometown: | ANTHONY, NEW MEXICO, US |
| Hometown: | EL PASO, TEXAS, US |
| Hometown: | LAS CRUCES, NEW MEXICO, US |
| Web Views: | 91 |
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This work, CFC Power of Giving: La Casa Inc. (CFC #91674) serves domestic violence survivors, works to end cycle of abuse, by David Poe, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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