Catawba County’s Only Domestic Violence Shelter Faces Closure

Domestic violence victims in Catawba County could soon have one less place to find help. Family Guidance Center is working to raise $150,000 in the next two weeks to keep serving clients through the end of the year.

Melissa Hall found help at Family Guidance Center two separate times.

“My mother brought me here. She was dying of cancer and she wanted me to receive therapy because I was having a difficult time. I came here as a 10 year old then she passed away and my services discontinued,” Hall said. “Then later on in life as an adult, I had to go to Catawba County Courthouse to do a protection order against my ex husband.”

Hall now works as the associate director of victim services at Family Guidance Center. The center served 1600 clients last year and the majority of them are domestic violence survivors.

After several years of funding reductions and higher costs of providing services, Family Guidance Center is at a crossroads. The organization needs $150,000 within the next two weeks to keep helping people get free legal aid, shelter, therapy services and more.

“There are a lot of clients that depend on this weekly,” Hall said. “We have groups of women that come and that’s their only support that they have, and for it to not be available to our community is very hurtful.”

Family Guidance Center runs the only domestic violence focused shelter in Catawba County. Without it, victims and their families would have to travel outside the county just to get help.

Robert Dalton, executive director says Family Guidance Center is a critical piece of the region and the community.

“Every county has a shelter facility available but all of us are full most of the time,” Dalton said. “But without our shelter that could have a ripple effect on all the counties around us.”

Dalton says the shelter prioritizes the highest need and immediate physical danger.

“We’re apart of the community social safety net. We’re the people that answer the phone at 2am when someone is in a crisis situation,” Dalton said. “We help those folks to stabilize immediately and then to be able to move forward.”

Hall says shes in a healthy relationship with a man that she is marrying in September. She credits the services at Family Guidance Center for getting her away from her abuser and back on track.

“If I wouldn’t have had this place, I probably would have took him back,” Hall said. “I would not have known that I deserve better. I probably wouldn’t have slowed down enough to get counseling therapy because I had to work two jobs to pay my bills to keep the house payment going and things like that.”

Family Guidance Center has been in the Catawba community since 1959.