On Wednesday, October 15, the Top of Texas Republic Women held their monthly meeting, with Penny Harvey, Executive Director of Tralee Crisis Center, as the guest speaker, introduced by TOTRW President, Kathryn Green. After the meeting, Penny was presented with 17 bags of grace put together by members of the TOTRW, filled with goodies and basic necessities for the clients of Tralee.
“It is my distinct pleasure to introduce Penny Harvey, Executive Director of Tralee Crisis Center for Women, Inc., who has served for the past two years. Prior to this role, she was the chaplain at Interim Healthcare and Hospice for almost eight years, serving patients suffering from terminal illness. She graduated with a Master’s in Biblical Counseling from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in May of 2009, and has a Bachelor of Arts in Religion with missions’ emphasis from Wayland Baptist University, graduating in December 2004. She has always had a need and a passion to help others through difficult times in their lives. Her parents tell her now that many times they couldn’t find her after church and when they did, she would be in a corner with someone counseling them, young and old alike. She has enjoyed serving those within our community through hospice ministry, and now gets to serve those that walk through the doors of Tralee, be it a victim or an employee. Her desire is to help Tralee continue to move forward within the nine counties that they serve by bringing more awareness to help victims through domestic violence, sexual assault, and other violent crimes. Please give a big welcome to Penny Harvey.”
“So how did Tralee get started? Has anyone heard of Travis Plumlee? Travis was a social worker for our hospital here in Pampa, and he actually had a patient come in who had been assaulted. She came and got help from him and she turned around and went home with her husband who was her abuser because she had nowhere to go. Travis connected with Altrusa and they formed Tralee which has been serving this community and other communites for 41 years-almost 42 years. Because of Travis and his vision and what he saw happen that night, that woman changed many people’s lives because Travis was touched. He saw something that needed to be changed within our community.”
“What do we believe? All victims, whether domestic violence, sexual assault, or any violent crime, deserve to be treated with respect and dignity and given every opportunity to heal from their experience. We don’t discriminate. We believe them. It’s hard sometimes because you feel like someone won’t believe your story because sometimes they’re pretty outrageous or it feels that way to us, but it’s true. We believe them and we want them to know that we will help them where we can. We also have a 24-hour hotline and that means it is picked up 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Someone is by that phone at the shelter 24/7. We have emergency transportation. There have been many times where we have gone in the middle of the night to help someone. We’ve picked people up in the middle of the day and taken them to shelter. We get them help to where they feel safe. We do crisis intervention, peer counseling, and support groups. We actually just started four new support groups last week. We are very excited and they are all for something different. We have one that is for domestic violence, but it’s in English and Spanish, and we’re very excited about that. We have one about parenting, and we also have one to help sexual assault victims.”
“We do accompaniment to medical visits. Any time they go to law enforcement to make a report or go for an interview, we go with them if that’s what they desire. We help with criminal justice appointments and we assist with protective orders and Crime Victim compensation claims. Crime Victims is money that is set aside by our state that helps victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. It will pay for things such as medical visits, hospital visits, damage, things like that. It’s just an extra amount of money that is set aside, but of course they exhaust every other option first, and then they get to that.”
“Other ways that we help is clothing, food, and household goods from community donations. We provide referrals for professional services, we have counselors we refer to. We also just hired a social worker, so we’re really excited about that too. Other social service-based agencies and faith-based agencies refer to us as well. The great thing about that as well is we work in conjunction with other entities within our counties. Because we are all trying to obtain the same goal. That’s what we want-we want to help people. We want to help them feel safe, we want to help them feel comfortable, and we want to provide that for them.”
“Of course we provide education and awareness. There are actually a lot of people who don’t know that Tralee exists and even some law enforcement officers are learning about us. We have actually been in more contact with them and help more people that otherwise wouldn’t have had any help. If people want an advocate, we give them an advocate and that person is with them from the beginning all the way to the end. That is one of the things we like to do.”
“Tralee serves nine different counties: Carson, Childress, Collingsworth, Donley, Gray, Hemphill, Roberts and Wheeler. Who pays for Tralee? Tralee Crisis Center is a non-profit 501c3, which means that we are funded by federal and state funds, and donations by foundations, citizens and local organizations. I can tell you that I’ve written about 15 grants just this year, and that is a lot. We want to be able to provide what we need to, so that means paying salaries, and building costs, and having money set aside to help survivors. I pray that we will never have to use a grant again, but that’s all on God’s timing. We rely on donations from individuals, organizations, companies, and local businesses, especially from the counties that we serve. We have been highly blessed-God always blesses Tralee, and I always tell our financial manager when we need something, it’s okay. God will provide. The next thing we know, we have a check in the mail that we didn’t expect, or someone calls to donate. There have been many days that I’ve cried because our people are so generous.”
“Dynamics of family violence are important for us to know because you may be the one person who can help someone in those situations. Domestic violence is a pattern of coersive behavior that can include many forms of abuse: physical, emotional, financial, sexual, psychological. There’s many warning signs, such as excessive interest in activities and whereabouts, isolation from those that love you, significant changes in behavior. A lot of times I hear, ‘he was so nice in the beginning, he got me gifts and took me out all the time,’ and the next thing you know it never happens again and they pull you away from the people that care about you and can see these things. Extreme jealousy, frequent absences and accidents, public ridicule, physical injuries. Domestic violence is a crime, it is rarely a one-time occurrence. They’ll say, ‘I won’t do it again, I’ll change.’ I believe that God can change anybody, and I’ve seen it happen. But it’s rarely a one-time thing. An abuser’s violence can be deadly. Abusers make excuses for their violence. Abusers can be charming and lovable. Abuse is not accidental.”
“Why do you think people don’t leave? Sometimes fear is definitely a big deal and the kids. Finances are also a big deal. If don’t think you can leave and financially support your kids, you feel like there’s nothing you can do. Sometimes people don’t leave because of pets. We’re one of the rare facilities that take pets. There’s a lot of people that will never leave because they can’t bring their pets. When they try to leave, it can also be much more dangerous for them. A lot of time that escalates, and if they’re not in a safe place and they’re found-we’ve seen that in our own county where people have been murdered.”
“So what do we do at Tralee that you can do too? We listen, we can say something if we see something. Say something to the abuser only if you have protection. Help develop a safety plan, access community support, contact Tralee so we can help, and tell them Tralee’s 24-hour hotline which is also on our website. You can also become a Tralee volunteer. We recruit and train a diverse group of volunteers who provide direct victim services or indirect-you don’t have to be a direct volunteer, but you can be indirect, although we would love it if you worked directly with our clients. We also help them find financial resources. Sometimes we help them get into an apartment. That’s electricity, food, a deposit, furniture, clothes, utensils to eat with.”
“Tralee is such a wonderful organization. I wish I had one of my girls here. Her dad was actually in law enforcement. Next thing you know she’s in the hospital with a broken jaw and an eye socket that she didn’t know if she was ever going to be able to see out of again, and broken ribs. Her body was mangled. She was afraid to call her dad and ask for help. She called Tralee and Tralee helped her. Now she’s an advocate for Tralee. She’s only been there for a few months, but we’re so grateful to have her. There are stories like that each and every day. There are stories of victims-men, women, and children-we serve them all that have struggled and don’t know how to get out. When they do, they don’t know where to go. So Tralee has been developed to be able to do that. We are so thankful that you help us provide for the people who walk through our door. We are grateful that we get to serve and God has called each and every one of us to serve our people. Last year, we served 466 clients. That’s a lot of people. The first year I came, we served 286, and I’ve been here two years. That’s almost double.”
“What can you do to help Tralee and help the people? If you want to help Tralee, there are some ways that are coming up. I see these bags back here that are beautiful and I’m so excited about that. You can volunteer, but we also have some stuff coming up for the holidays. We usually help about 20 families a year for Christmas. That can be one child, or it can be six or seven in one family. That is through our Christmas Tralee Tree of Blessing. You can come to our office or go to the store and get one ornament or however many you want, and buy gifts for these children. We want them to have a good Christmas and to feel love from people. You can also go on our website and donate money and we can buy the gifts. What you donate goes into Tralee and most of that goes to clients. We are also a part of Panhandle Gives, which is where non-profit organizations around the panhandle get together and raise money through the Amarillo Area Foundation and they actually amplify the fund, so anything you put in, your money gets amplified. It gives more to the organizations and there are 14 in our community.”
“Help Tralee. I will ask everyday of my life, because Tralee is a beautiful organization. I love it and I am loving it more each day. Our advocates are the ones who serve our clients the most, and I get to see that and see the happiness of the clients. My job is to take care of the employees. So I want to take care of them too. Pray for me as a leader that I serve them in the way that they need to be served, and that I love on them the way that they need to be loved.”
The Christmas Tralee Tree of Blessing will go up the Monday before Thanksgiving and will have ornaments ready to pick that week, so be sure to keep Tralee and their clients in mind during this holiday season and help make a difference.
