Chez Hope Inc

Chez Hope was established in 1983 to address the needs of domestic violence victims in the rural southern parishes of Louisiana. In the four decades since our founding, Chez Hope has grown from a program run completely by volunteers housing victims in their homes to a multi-parish organization with two emergency shelters, dozens of employees, four offices and multiple initiatives under their umbrella. We are fulfilling our missions of working to end domestic violence as well as changing how society views abuse. With comprehensive services including a crisis hotline, two unique shelters with a total of sixteen individual apartments, customized safety plans, children's programs, parenting classes, virtual support groups, legal advocacy and public awareness campaigns, we at Chez Hope have become leaders in our field. We opened our first Safe Exchange and Supervised Visitation Center in 2016 and our second in 2018. We also offer weekly Batterers' Intervention Classes to help abusers learn to end the cycle of violence and how to have healthy relationships. Children and teenagers throughout our service area are learning about healthy friendships, bullying prevention and teen dating violence on an age-appropriate level with our free school presentations. We also offer educational presentations to church and civil groups at no cost. Always looking for ways to become more effective and efficient, we opened our second shelter in 2022 and are working toward implementing a mobile advocacy unit in 2023.