San Pedro agency helps domestic violence victims

Callers to the domestic violence hotline operated by San Pedro-based Rainbow Services are looking for emergency shelter, but they find much more than a safe place for them and their children to spend a few nights.

Rainbow Services’ motto is “Providing Help and Hope,” and it does that in several important ways. Tapping into a network of 18 other domestic violence shelters across Los Angeles County, bilingual staffers at the agency’s 24-hour hotline first find safe emergency housing, for up to 30 days, for a caller who is deemed to be in immediate danger.

“The risk of harm is an important component,” said B. Bennett Schirmer, the nonprofit agency’s executive director, noting that staffers always find a place for high-risk domestic violence victims, usually outside their communities to increase safety.

The secured shelter locations are kept secret so that a victim needn’t fear that her abuser can find her.

Traditional, publicly known homeless shelters generally cannot take women who have experienced domestic violence within the last 12 months out of concern that their abusers will show up and put not only their own families at risk but also others staying at the shelter, said Elizabeth Eastlund, the agency’s program director. That makes domestic violence shelters even more crucial.

But providing emergency shelter is only part of what the 24-year-old Rainbow Services offers its clients. Medical assessments, crisis intervention, counseling, legal assistance, advocacy and other support services await a domestic violence victim who arrives at Rainbow House Emergency Shelter. If help is needed beyond the one-month limit at the emergency shelter, the agency offers continuing care for up to one year at Villa Paloma, its transitional shelter that aims to help victims work toward emotional and financial independence.

The agency’s Outreach Center, in a secured building in San Pedro, offers support groups, counseling sessions, and legal advocacy and other referrals. All services -- free to the clients -- are provided in English and Spanish.

“We try to build on the strengths of that woman and that family,” Schirmer said of the agency’s approach, “and we try to fill in the gaps” in education, job skills, parenting skills and the like. The agency’s goal is not only to aid current victims of abuse but also to help the children of abusers before they grow up to become victims or abusers themselves, as is often the case, he said.

“Those 30 days go fast, and for most, it’s not enough,” Schirmer said in explaining why Rainbow Services puts so much emphasis on its outreach and transitional programs. “Our goal is always self-sufficiency, to help a woman get to the point she can stand on her own two feet.”

Rainbow Services got its start about a quarter of a century ago as a San Pedro YWCA program to aid victims of domestic violence. But the need proved too great, so the program was spun off as a separate agency, Schirmer said. “We got a shelter, and the rest is history.”

Today, the agency serves about 5,000 people a year, mostly women and their small children, on a budget of almost $2 million and with a staff of 40, Schirmer said.

About 75% of the agency’s funding comes from government grants; the rest, about $500,000, comes from donations. Rainbow Services received a $15,000 grant from the Times Holiday Campaign this year.

Donations go toward providing “extras” such as a staff nurse to do medical evaluations of clients and their children and a cook to provide nutritious family meals at the emergency shelter, Schirmer said.

Schirmer and Eastlund spend considerable time working with police officers, hospitals and social workers and speaking to civic groups to raise awareness of domestic violence and its often unseen prevalence. Domestic violence victims often are reluctant to seek help on their own, either out of shame or fear or because they deny to themselves how serious the situation is until a crisis develops, Schirmer said.

“Any way we can get the word out and let people know we are here, that’s a help,” Schirmer said.

The annual Holiday Campaign is part of the Los Angeles Times Family Fund, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, which this year will match every dollar raised at 50 cents on the dollar.

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jean.merl@latimes.com