For someone experiencing domestic violence, reaching a place of safety can be life-changing. However, getting to safety is not the end of their journey; it’s the beginning of a new chapter. Over the past month, we’ve talked about what healthy relationships look like, what healing can mean, and the support available to survivors during and after a crisis. These conversations all lead to an important question: What comes next? The answer looks different for every survivor, but no one should have to face that next chapter alone.
Learning What A Healthy Relationship Looks Like
For someone who has experienced abuse, learning what a healthy relationship looks like can be part of the healing process. It can take time to recognize that love should never require fear, control, or giving up your sense of self. Understanding the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships also allows our entire community to recognize warning signs and encourage relationships rooted in safety and respect.
Learning What Healing Looks Like
Healing is part of what comes after emergency shelter, and it doesn’t follow a specific timeline. For a survivor who has spent so much time simply trying to get through each day, healing is found in moments that might seem small to someone looking from the outside, like being able to open your own bank account, get a job, counseling, and rebuilding self-esteem.
What Comes After Emergency Shelter?
Emergency shelter provides something survivors desperately need: safety. But once the immediate crisis has passed, there can still be so much to figure out. Where will I live? How will I support myself? What happens next for my children? How do I rebuild my life? How do I begin to feel secure again? Survivors shouldn’t be expected to have all of those answers immediately, which is why transitional housing matters.
The Bridge: A Place to Keep Moving Forward
The Bridge is so much more than a place to stay for survivors; it’s a place to keep moving forward. Stepping Stone’s transitional housing program provides survivors with continued stability as they work toward their individual goals.
It offers a safe place to continue rebuilding after emergency shelter while taking the next steps toward greater independence. Those steps may include finding employment, pursuing education, working toward permanent housing, managing finances, caring for children, or simply establishing a sense of routine and stability. The Bridge gives survivors room to breathe, plan, and move forward. Most importantly, it recognizes that rebuilding a life takes time.
How Our Community Can Help
As we head into October, it’s important to remember that survivors may have spent months or years making decisions based on staying safe. Once they reach safety, they deserve the opportunity to make decisions based on what they want for their future. Our community can help by listening without judgment, learning about domestic violence, sharing resources, volunteering, donating, and supporting organizations that provide services to survivors.
You are not alone. Help is available. Call our 24-hour hotline: (866) 879-4615
