SafetyNet Reaches Out To Prevent Domestic Violence

Many Palm Beach County families are under stress like never before. For more than a year, a global pandemic has upended their lives with numerous challenges: preventing or coping with debilitating illness, losing a job, being an “essential” worker under hazardous conditions, or working remotely as their children try to learn at home. Left unchecked, stress can lead to child abuse and domestic violence, tearing families apart.

HomeSafe has more than 20 years of experience helping families break the generational cycle of abuse through the SafetyNet domestic violence prevention and intervention program, which provides individual and group therapy to parents and their children. Now, the program is expanding its reach into the community and establishing support groups to help families prevent violence at home by learning ways to better cope with stress through a pilot program called Project ReachOut. This project’s start-up phase has been made possible with a grant from the S.L. Gimbel Foundation Fund of the Inland Empire Community Foundation, and HomeSafe more recently was awarded a grant from the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties to expand Project ReachOut.

The goal of Project ReachOut is to address stress-related issues which may lead to child abuse, domestic violence or other family dysfunctions before there is a violent incident, according to SafetyNet Program Supervisor Brian McCarey. Stephanie Vega, a former SafetyNet intern, has been hired to coordinate Project ReachOut, and is working to identify families who feel isolated or lack access to supportive group services. The groups will focus on topics such as stress and anger management; coping with anxiety; substance abuse and addiction in families; and separation, loss and grief.

“We know from our work with families in the community that the daily challenges caused by social, economic and physical issues are only increasing,” McCarey said. “So many families are already living ‘on the edge,’ and the pandemic in particular is causing additional hardship and stress. Through Project ReachOut, we can help them learn how to handle stress so they can avoid a crisis in the home.”

Since its recent launch, Project ReachOut already has enrolled seven Spanish-speaking families and has received a great deal of interest from word of mouth alone. In partnership with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, the SafetyNet team has also identified a local mobile home park that experiences the highest incidents of domestic violence and child abuse in the county. The team has reached out to the neighborhood’s management team to discuss opening it up to all residents, and there has been a great deal of interest.

SafetyNet envisions enrolling 50 families in the program in the first year and to offer both English and Spanish-speaking options. In addition, HomeSafe is seeking additional funding so that the team has enough resources to further expand Project ReachOut, improve community outreach and hire staff to facilitate even more family sessions.

“The most powerful way we can reverse the trend of domestic violence is to break the cycle of abuse before it has begun,” McCarey said. “Through Project ReachOut, SafetyNet can achieve that goal.”