Per the Texas Council on Family Violence, 132 women in Texas were killed by domestic violence in 2014. TCFV’s annual report promotes our belief that intimate partner fatalities are knowable, predictable, and ultimately, preventable.
Houston/Harris County Coalition for the Homeless (July 31, 2012) reported that “8,700 people are without a home on any given night” and that domestic violence is a root cause for homelessness among women and children. Victims should not have to choose between staying with their abusers and sleeping on the street.
Bay Area Turning Point, a not-for-profit agency, was formed to fill a gap in services following a 1990 community needs assessment conducted by St. John Hospital and the United Way of Houston/Bay Area that indicated a priority need for shelter and crisis intervention services.
Bay Area Turning Point is included in the Governor’s Plan for the State of Texas and is the “model” agency for Texas for domestic violence/sexual assault, which are ranked in the plan as a top priority service need among Texas women and children. The Harris County Community Plan states “The primary goal of Harris County is to provide preventive and continuing support for survivors of domestic/sexual assault and their families through counseling, hospital accompaniment, education, legal advocacy, and shelter services (Harris County Community Plan, page 30).
BATP serves Houston-Sagemont, Houston-Clear Lake, Friendswood, Webster, Nassau Bay, Pasadena-Bay Area section, El Lago, Taylor Lake Village, Seabrook, Morgan’s Point, Shore Acres, Clear Lake Shores, Dickinson, League City, unincorporated areas of Harris County and the entire Chambers County.
Incorporated in November 1991, BATP began providing non-residential crisis intervention services in 1992, and for that year and the next, community volunteers solely provided these services on a limited basis. In 1994, Diane Savage, was hired as President/CEO to expand those services and begin the establishment of a shelter facility.
The shelter opened debt-free in May 1996 and has provided nearly 361,602 nights of safe refuge and recovery services to 10,632 persons as of the end of 2015.
Through the years BATP has expanded its services to incorporate programs for the prevention of domestic/sexual violence throughout the Bay Area and works with Clear Creek ISD, youth and women’s organizations, civic groups and corporate businesses.
