About us

Comprehensive Human Services, a not-for-profit corporation formed in 1987, was created to reduce administrative costs and enhance the ability of its programs to provide quality services.   The Shelter, the sole program of this corporation, is an emergency shelter providing domestic violence and sexual assault victim services. The services it provides are designed to empower women who have been battered or abused by an intimate partner, enabling the victim to begin the healing process and work towards regaining control of her life. The Shelter began in the 1970’s when a group of graduate students formed a volunteer organization to serve rape survivors.  As the organization became known, volunteers were overwhelmed with requests for service by women who were being battered by an intimate partner.  The organization became a part of Family and Children’s Services of Mid Missouri in 1983, and the first shelter building opened on Jan. 1, 1983.  Since this time, services have been provided to thousands of victims of domestic or sexual violence. 

In 2006, Comprehensive Human Services (The Shelter) experienced tremendous growth.  We have increased the number of facilities for agency operations from 1 to 3 which has enabled us to increase the overall number of services provided by 63% (provided 16,097 units of service in 2006 compared to 9,856 provided in 2005).  Below are the accomplishments that led to this increase:

Shelter and Nonresident Program Separation –Since the program separation in February of 2006, advocacy services have increased as anticipated and the agency is able to provide a better quality of service to more victims of domestic and sexual violence.  The majority of nonresidential advocacy services are now provided at the administrative location which has decreased traffic at the confidential shelter location.

Circle House Opens – In May of 2006, The Circle House, the agency’s Transitional Living Program, opened its doors and since then has provided extended transitional living services to seven women and eight children.  Programs offered include advanced case management, and supported housing to survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault.  During this start up phase, the program has added the following:

  • Collaborations with the University of Missouri on special projects
  • A youth council modeled after the community council has also been implemented.

Community Education and Outreach Prevention Programming—

  • In 2006, The Shelter contracted with three male trainers to provide domestic violence and sexual assault outreach educational programs.  MU athletes received this training in 2006.  The program plans to expand programming to include Columbia College athletes in 2007. 
  • The Shelter Outreach Coordinator has partnered with MU Service Learning students with campus programming and educational outreach. 
  • In 2006 educational programming expanded to include youth under the supervision of Department of Youth Services. 
  • Another new opportunity in 2006 involved the provision of dating violence education to ninth grade students at Jefferson Junior High School.

The Shelter Counseling Program –The Counseling Program continues to expand:

  • The program added an additional non-residential support group.
  • There was an Increase in the number of counseling interns from the University of Missouri.
  • The program provided outreach to the Latina community, specifically seeking funding to implement a support group and individual counseling (provided by a bilingual therapist) to Spanish speaking women currently on a waiting list.
  • The Shelter had a 38% increase in counseling services provided in 2006 (793).

Batterer’s Intervention Program –The Shelter continues to collaborate with The Family Counseling Center (FCC) on expanding and improving upon the batterer’s intervention program.

  • Three Shelter staff continue to provide co-facilitation for batterer’s intervention groups.
  • Of significance in 2006 was a shift from an anger management model to a batterer’s intervention model structured toward increasing accountability.
  • In 2007 a support group for survivors whose partners are participating in the batterer’s intervention group and DOVE clients will be offered and facilitated by a DOVE Advocate.

Continued Sexual Assault Program Expansion—The Shelter’s sexual assault program continues to expand.  The offsite collaborative rape advocacy clinic was implemented in 2006 and is staffed (on-call) by SANE nurses, rape advocates, forensic counselors, and law enforcement personnel.  This is one of relatively few sites in the nation specifically designated to provide hospital based SANE/SART services.

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