A program that helps women and their children escape domestic violence wants to get out the word that it has space available.
"If they're ready for permanent, positive change, to work and really dedicate themselves for approximately two years, we're the place to be," said Lisa Rose, the founder and president of The Gatehouse in Grapevine.
It is not a shelter but a residential program that helps women escape at-risk situations such as abuse, divorce or underemployment and empowers them to become permanently self-sustainable.
"The Gatehouse program empowers women and kids overcoming crisis to become permanently self-sustainable. We're not a short term fix or a housing program but we're a comprehensive empowerment program where women receive the hand up to achieve the dignity of earned success through a career-based income, financial stability and the skills to manage their emotional, mental and physical and spiritual health, all at their own pace but up to two years," Rose explained.
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Since 2015, 600 women have graduated from the two-year program.
Rose believes in many cases, the pandemic has kept abusers at home and women unable to access a computer to apply for the program.
"Most women, they've come to the end of the rope and they know that they're going to become a statistic or their children will, and then they are ready to take that step which takes much courage and conviction but they do it. It takes grit and courage. And, they will find a laptop at work and they will find a way to apply and from there, we go through the interview process and see if we're the right fit," Rose said. "If a woman cannot get to the website, a friend, or a coworker or a family member can apply for her on the website."
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Rose says the nonprofit puts as much effort and resources into the children as it does the women - from social and emotional healing to academic success.
"You gotta work with those kids. We look at this as having the kids for only a couple of years or less, what can we do to empower those children to be able to become all they can be," Rose said.
"For those who are ready, it is transformative. and they change the lives of themselves and their children forever."
