From the surface, One Protected Place is a nondescript industrial constructing tucked behind a retail retailer in San Marcos. However inside, it’s a spot of of therapeutic and hope for victims of violence.
The brand new, 40,000-square-foot facility is the place service teams will come collectively to supply assist for anybody affected by household or home violence, baby or elder abuse, sexual assault, human trafficking or hate crimes.
The teams are anticipated to supply acute disaster care and forensic medical exams, counseling and remedy, in addition to connections to secure shelter and housing to these in want. Suppliers may join purchasers with help for submitting restraining orders, mentoring, academic and employment alternatives, and primary wants like clothes.
The power, known as One Protected Place — The North County Household Justice Middle, formally opens July 5. A ribbon-cutting was held Thursday morning.
One Protected Place is a venture led by the San Diego County District Legal professional’s Workplace and options greater than 70 suppliers who’ve signed on to assist.
“It’s laborious to think about there’s something {that a} sufferer or survivor wants that isn’t going to be met,” District Legal professional Summer season Stephan mentioned in an interview final week.
“What I’ve by no means favored is if you discuss hope with out giving folks a actuality of hope — of issues which are concrete, which are going to assist raise them out of the despair, ” she mentioned. “It will assist do this.”
For years, downtown San Diego has had a Household Justice Middle (now known as Your Protected Place) that served the county. Stephen mentioned such facilities are thought of a “finest observe,” and the information confirmed a necessity for a website in North County.
North County is residence to about 1,000,000 folks, roughly a 3rd of the county’s inhabitants.
In keeping with the District Legal professional’s Workplace, greater than half the experiences of elder abuse between July 2014 and June 2017 had been in North County. In 2019, six of the area’s 13 home violence homicides occurred there.
From July 2019 to June 2020, Little one Welfare Providers obtained 38,653 hotline experiences of abuse or neglect, representing almost 69,000 youngsters. Greater than 1 / 4 of that quantity — roughly 18,800 youngsters — lived in North County.
Chief Deputy District Legal professional Tracy Prior within the youngsters’s room in a brand new household justice heart in San Marcos. The positioning, One Protected Place, is designed to serve victims of violence in North County.
(Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“I feel we’re going to burst from the seams once we open, there may be a lot want for it,” mentioned Chief Deputy District Legal professional Tracy Prior, a veteran prosecutor who has spent a long time working with victims of household violence. She guided the creation of the location, which she expects will serve a whole bunch of individuals every month.
There aren’t any boundaries to receiving service. Victims can present up and get assist with out having to report against the law.
Palomar Well being, with its nationally accredited baby advocacy heart, is among the anchor companions, and its work will embrace forensic medical exams and interviews of kid victims.
“We’re right here that will help you heal. We’re right here to maneuver the entire boundaries out of the best way,” mentioned Sheila Brown, chief working officer at Palomar Well being. “We’re going to get you to a street of restoration the place you’re a survivor.”
She mentioned placing many providers in a single place serves the entire household. “That’s the distinctiveness of this partnership ,” she added. “We’re capable of present wraparound providers to hunt to interrupt the cycle and stop future violence.”
The whole lot in One Protected Place is intentional, in accordance with the District Legal professional’s Workplace, from white noise to subtly color-coded carpet, from murals of bamboo for its affiliation with resiliency, to hints of pyramids in some décor — a pyramid symbolic as a stable construction that survives centuries.
Prior mentioned the concept is to be inviting to purchasers — who’re known as “members” or “visitors.”
“If it’s sterile, you received’t wish to lean into it,” Prior mentioned. “We would like folks to come back again a number of instances.”
The Gown To Thrive Boutique is a characteristic of One Protected Place, a brand new household justice heart in San Marcos.
(Eduardo Contreras/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
This place gives greater than acute care. Right here, folks can take yoga or a cooking class, use a pc, perhaps get a haircut from a volunteer stylist. There’s a “retailer” with donated however new garments — tags nonetheless on — which might be significant for an individual’s dignity.
The hours are deliberate to be 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, and 4 hours Saturday mornings. The middle may even present free rides to and from the middle for purchasers who ask.
One Protected Place is the type of place Isabel Rosales, 39, mentioned saved her as she clawed again her life, bodily and metaphorically, after she was attacked in 2018. Her then husband plunged a knife into her neck twice. She misplaced a variety of blood, and spent 4 days within the ICU.
She fought to maneuver ahead after her 17-year marriage ended, she mentioned. Her former partner was convicted of tried homicide and sentenced to 23 years in jail. She needed to show to a decide that she may present a secure residence for her youngsters, whom authorities had taken from her after the assault within the household’s San Diego residence.
She obtained assist from the Household Justice Middle in San Diego.
“It made me really feel like I used to be secure,” she mentioned. “I didn’t have to fret about something. I couldn’t consider all of the questions, they requested me the questions. I don’t know what I would like. I simply know that I’m free. I simply wish to be certain he doesn’t get out and my children are secure.”
She mentioned it “takes a complete neighborhood to assist a survivor.” For her that included the Household Justice Middle, her church and her “work household.”
4 years later, she mentioned, “I’m at a spot the place it’s peaceable. I’m on this journey of self therapeutic and self love.”
And she or he has her youngsters again.
One Protected Place might be reached by way of electronic mail at gethope@OneSafePlaceNorth.org or by calling (760) 290-3690. For extra info, go to onesafeplacenorth.org.
