Support Groups
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Support Groups
Our Sisters' House was founded in 1995 to fill a gap in services for girls of color who were adjudicated in the juvenile system. Today the organization continues to fill in a gap in services for Black and African American women and children who have been impacted and victimized by domestic violence.
OSH has 5 programs that address juvenile family violence, children who have witnessed violence, a support group for African American women who are survivors of domestic violence, and advocacy programs that assist women fleeing their abusers. In Pierce County, there are several mainstream domestic violence agencies but only OSH is able to provide culturally specific advocacy and services to African American women and their families.
Our programs New Directions and Stepping Stones are the only programs in Pierce County that address juvenile family violence and children exposed to violence using a holistic approach that involves the entire family with a parenting support group component.
Sisters Seeking Change is a culturally specific support group that caters to African American individuals. Nonetheless, we welcome ANYONE that is a survivor of domestic violence.
Over the course of the 8 weeks, topics relevant to domestic violence such as safety planning, establishing healthy relationships, rebuilding self-esteem, setting boundaries, and overcoming cultural barriers that African Americans face when dealing with domestic violence will be discussed. This program also provides childcare free of charge.
Stepping Stones uses a psycho-educational family intervention model to address the potential risks and impacts of domestic violence on the family. The intended outcomes of the program are to increase parenting skills, address coping strategies for parents & children, safety planning skills, and decreasing the effects of post-violence stress.
Eight weekly sessions will be held with the non-offending parent and their children. Stepping Stones is for families with children ages 6-11 years old who have been exposed to domestic violence.
New Directions is a family focused juvenile violence prevention program. At-risk teens are taught skills which lead to successful resolution of teen initiated violence against family members. Our goals are to stop the violent behavior; increase confidence in teens to make positive changes; strengthen the family unit; and prevent juveniles from becoming involved with the juvenile justice system.
The program is offered at no cost, provides 40 hours of treatment, skill development with interactive training. The sessions are 8-weeks and meet one night a week, providing teens with individualized and tailored training on critical issues including effective communication, ability to identify triggers that cause aggression, crisis intervention and anger management..