Annual Report FY 2020-21
Celebrating 50 years
lifting up generations of survivors
of domestic violence
committed to ending
domestic violence in the
moment… and for all time.
CONTINUING TO MAKE HISTORY
a letter from the Board Chair
Dear Friends,
This year will go down in history as one of the most challenging for the agency as COVID reared its ugly head in our community, in our nation, and across the globe. The magnitude of this public health crisis was unexpected and we, as a community, were unprepared for how widespread and enduring the threat of COVID would be. Over two years later, we remain on guard and are evaluating the devastating impact on the health of our clients, employees, and community. Global data indicates that domestic abuse has, since January of 2020 spiked year over year compared to the same period in 2019. And despite the pandemic, we continue to deliver our services and be there for survivors and the community. While we pivoted to working remotely for the safety of the public and our staff, we are proud that our programs and services never stopped. The Shelter and 24-hour Hotline remained in operation — without interruption and various forms of technology allowed us to maintain contact and engagement with our clients and to connect with new clients seeking help.
When the agency’s story began back in 1971 — a time when very little support and resources existed for survivors, Bea Robinson Mendez and her friends pioneered a hotline and emergency shelter. While stepping into the unknown, they began a trend of support and programs that would spread across the state and the country. Fifty years later, Next Door Solutions continues to pioneer important efforts in Santa Clara County, including:
- Promoting the Domestic Violence and Healthcare Partnership Initiative, which provides training and technical assistance for health care systems and clinics to enable effective, trauma-informed screenings, with an emphasis on how to discuss domestic violence with patients and how to make referrals to appropriate services so those patients who are experiencing domestic violence can access the support they need.
- Advancing the Promotores Model (Community Health Worker) to provide education and awareness in Latinx and multicultural communities about domestic violence; its impacts on individuals, families, and health, and to better connect those
communities with appropriate resources. - Launching a Prevention Initiative: Coaching Boys into Men, which is a curriculum to promote healthy relationship behaviors among high school athletes.
- Introducing Families for Peace, counseling services based on the ‘whole family’ framework where support is provided for the survivor, children, and the person who harms.
I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to Esther PeralezDieckmann for her five years of leadership to Next Door Solutions and her service to our community. During her tenure, Next Door Solutions has thrived and evolved, establishing new and innovative partnerships for prevention efforts. She leaves the agency in a strong position to carry on the critical work of reducing the number of people who will experience an abusive relationship in their lifetime. We are excited for Esther as she transitions into a key role with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren’soffice. And, we have begun the process of finding a new leader to continue our trajectory of expanding services to survivors.
As we move into our next fifty years, we are grateful for the unprecedented level of support from our community, the trust of our clients and their families, and an outstanding team of advocates who are unrivaled in Silicon Valley. We invite you to connect with us and to join us as we recommit to ending domestic violence in the moment… and for all time!
Hillary Weingast
Board Chair
NEXT DOOR SOLUTIONS’ PROGRAMS:
OF PROVEN RESULTS
24/7 EMERGENCY HOTLINE
Often the first step victims take to get help, trained staff provides a vital portal to all of Next Door Solutions’ services or community resources. Hotline Advocates provide crisis counseling, risk and housing assessments, referrals and vital information to assist survivors of domestic violence in making decisions around their safety.
WALK-IN CRISIS COUNSELING
Advocates and clients work together to develop risk assessments and safety plans. Crisis and Community Support Advocates coordinate emergency services, provide options, counseling, and refer clients to other NDS programs and community partners to address housing, health, hunger, legal and other concerns. During COVID there was a significant increase in requests for services. 92% indicated that they can identify at least one way to increase their and their children’s safety.
24/7 CRISIS SHELTER
The confidential, safe Shelter provides ethnically and linguistically sensitive safety planning; holistic case management that helps clients address the myriad of physical and emotional impacts of domestic violence; risk and housing assessments; living necessities; meals; and a healing environment. 100% of responding Shelter surveyed clients stated that they were now aware of legal, economic, and social resources in the community.
LEGAL ADVOCACY
Our Advocates provide bilingual help with restraining orders, family law and custody cases, referrals to attorneys, criminal justice advocacy, and follow-up services. NDS’ Legal Advocacy works with legal service community partners and contracted attorneys in the specific legal issues affecting DV survivors and their families. 90% reported having a greater understanding of their legal rights, and the legal process.
HOUSING ASSISTANCE
Through a self-sufficiency case management model immediate and long-term housing needs are addressed. Advocates assist in decreasing or eliminating barriers to immediate and permanent housing in collaboration with survivors. 93% of our Housing First Program clients remain housed.
SUPPORT GROUPS
NDS addresses the physical and emotional needs of DV survivors through customized, peer support groups facilitated virtually by trained facilitators, including groups in English and Spanish, a Men’s Group, LGBTQIA+ and a Self-Sufficiency group that focuses on the Life- Generated Risks. 85% of clients attending support group, can better manage stress when it occurs. A Teen Support Group was piloted with 14 teens attending and 135 sessions offered.
SELF-SUFFICIENCY PROGRAM
This program provides self-sufficiency and financial literacy workshops, individual peer counseling, mobile and in-house case management, and employment assistance. SSP was developed based on survivor-identified need to address the life-generated risks (housing, employment, income, food, health, and wellness). 79% have maintained or improved their self-sufficiency.
THERAPY SERVICES
Therapy Services, provided by LMFTs, assists clients and their children in addressing trauma
and other impacts due to exposure to domestic violence. Therapy services were provided
virtually with 91% reporting that what they learned from therapy led to positive
changes in their lives.
DV AND HEALTHCARE PARTNERSHIPS
This Initiative looks to build awareness among health providers about the importance of universal domestic violence education, shared best practices, and models. NDS established partnerships with three residential health programs (Valley Medical Center OBGYN, IHC/Stanford Health Center, and Kaiser Permanente) and provided health-related presentations to medical service providers within the community. In partnership with the East San Jose PEACE Partnership, NDS provided a community-wide Symposium for health care providers interested in improving their screening process for domestic and intimate partner violence, and advancing universal education with more than 105 participants.
YOUTH PROGRAMS
As part of the Prevention Initiative with the focus on Men, Boys, & Gender-Based Violence the Coaching Boys Into Men program trains high school Coaches on a curriculum developed specifically for student-athletes and developing healthy behaviors. Three virtual Rooted in Resiliency — Youth In Action Conferences were conducted for youth 13-18 years of age. Topics addressed healthy relationships, technology, and youth activism to build confidence rooted in equity and wellness. 98% of youth reported their knowledge of a healthy relationship improved.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Outreach is both a prevention and advocacy strategy. Providing awareness on the definition and impacts of domestic violence with individuals, groups, and systems is core to impacting social change. Outreach and presentations were made to community groups, schools, government agencies, medical systems, faith communities, and grassroots community-led organizations with the goal of building community collaboration and allyship.
EL COMITÉ DE MUJERES FUERTES
A survivor-led committee of Community Health Workers (Promotorx) that provides education, outreach, and training on the effects of domestic violence on individuals, families, and our community. As an advisory committee to Next Door Solutions and trusted community leaders, they are the bridge between service/health providers and the community.
LEGAL ADVOCACY GROWTH BY YEAR
Clients that received Legal Advocacy such as help with restraining orders, free confidential legal consultation with an attorney, referrals to legal services and attorneys, and court accompaniment.
488
522
1165
MAKING AN IMPACT TO END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: 1971-2021
1971
Established Emergency Hotline
First in the US that is bilingual. Bea Robinson Mendez recognized the lack of services available for victims of domestic violence. She rallied a group of friends, Latinas, and established a hotline number out of a garage, with each of the group members taking turns fielding the calls and providing information and support.
1974
Incorporated as WOMA
WOMA, The Woman’s Alliance, was conceived as a resource center for low-income and minority women offering information and referral services, counseling, a speakers bureau, a food/clothing bank, and transportation. WOMA staff members also were engaged in a variety of political activities concerned with women’s issues.
1975
Casa WOMA Shelter officially opens
Second DV Shelter in California. Many women who received WOMA’s services were being battered and did not know what to do or where to go prompting WOMA to offer emergency housing for women and their children.
1979
WOMA’s Community Office located in Willow Glen
Expanded services under Bea’s leadership to include legal advocacy and no-cost attorneys, support groups, children’s aligned services, and self-sufficiency case management; all at no cost to the survivor. They also collaborated with local law enforcement in order to better assist survivors in reaching support services.
1989
WOMA becomes Next Door
Recognizing that domestic violence is prevalent in every community and that it will take the community working together to open the doors to lasting solutions, the name Next Door represents the many doors that will open to usher in a healthier and safer life for survivors and our community.
1993
A Permanent Home for the Shelter
Safe accommodations for approximately 19 people per night are provided for women and their children. Often those that come to our shelter do so with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Addressing this sudden and abrupt departure, our confidential shelter and supportive services are a safe place where women can make informed decisions about their future. Two of our rooms are pet-
friendly.
2001
HomeSafe Santa Clara opens
The only housing of its kind in Santa Clara County specifically for survivors of domestic violence, with Next Door Solutions providing services to the residents and their children. Founded to address the need for long-term housing and Next Door Solutions worked in partnership with other community partners to build two sites.
2003
HomeSafe San Jose opens
The second complex opened for survivors and their children, also providing 24 units of permanent, affordable, shared-housing and case management and support services by Next Door Solutions. Through case management services, residents can work with the Advocate towards increasing their level of self-sufficiency and assets to be able to move their family from HomeSafe to a home of their own.
2003
WATCH merges with Next Door Solutions
With a long history of collaboration between Next Door Solutions and Women and Their Children (WATCH) and our shared commitment to ending domestic violence, Next Door Solutions increases its financial stability, resources, and strength to create new programs and ultimately safer communities.
2014
DV and Healthcare Partnership
Working together with MayView Community Health Center created a seamless system with healthcare providers to identify victims and help them access domestic violence services. By reviewing domestic violence as a health issue, healthcare providers can partner with patients to address the issue. A toolkit was created for other healthcare providers to utilize and develop a working partnership. Learn more at www.dvhealth.nextdoorsolutions.org
2016
Launch of DV Housing First
An innovative initiative that focuses on helping survivors get into safe and stable housing as quickly as possible and on providing services to help them move forward with their lives by promoting housing stability through mobile advocacy, flexible funding assistance, and community engagement with housing providers. Next Door Solutions was one of only seven agencies throughout California to pilot this model.
2021
50th Anniversary
Celebrating at Next Door Solutions’ Light Up the Night gala: From left, Senator Dave Cortese, Founding Executive Director Bea Robinson Mendez, Santa Clara County Board Supervisor Cindy Chavez, and NDS Executive Director, Esther Peralez-Dieckmann.
FINANCIAL STATEMENT FY 2020-2021
INCOME: $5,141,301
Government Grants
Foundation/Corporations
Individual Donors
Other Support
In-Kind Donations
EXPENSES: $5,173,632
Self-Sufficiency
Community & Systems Advocacy
24-Hour Emergency Services
COVID-19
Fund Development
Administration
Prevention
DEMOGRAPHICS
AGES
GENDER
Total Unduplicated Clients:
2,530
0 – 18
19 – 40
41 – 59
60+
Female
Male
Genderqueer, Intersex, Non-binary, Transgender
SUSTAINING THE PATH OF HOPE
Your financial support ensures that Next Door Solutions’ programs remain available to those affected by domestic violence. It is through your generosity we can provide a path they can follow that leads to a new life. We are sincerely grateful to all of our donors and would like to especially thank the following supporters for their gifts of $5000 or more:
Boucher Family Foundation
Cheryl & Ken Branson
Jena Catanzaro
Michael & Alice Chetkovich Foundation
David and Lucile Packard Foundation (The)
Davidson Family Foundation
Anita & Kevan Del Grande
El Camino Health
Futures Without Violence
Heppy Trust
Hurlbut-Johnson Fund
In-N-Out Burger Foundation
Kaiser Permanente Norther California Community Benefit Program
Kieve Foundation
Jennifer Secoy Krach
Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation
Philip A Mahoney
Nasiri Foundation
Orr Family Fund
Palo Alto Foundation Medical Group Community Healthcare Fund
Pinpoint Foundation
Presentation High School
PYSF Family Foundation
Rosendin Foundation (The)
Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church Vestry
Srinivasan Seshadri
Sobrato Family Foundation
Stanford Health Care
Harise Stein
Stevens Family Fund
Sunlight Giving
Thomas & Ellen Hogue Family Foundation, Inc.
TJX Foundation
Towne Family Fund
TSMC North America
Ursula Summey Trust*
Jennifer Van Dalsen
West Valley Federated Women’s Club
Wilson Sonsini Foundation
Michelle Winner
* Legacy Society Member