Every day, Safe Places works in the community creating safe places - and envisioning a world without violence - for children, young people, and families.
Meeting the deepest need of a child who has been abused or a family who is living in the shadow of violence is at the heart of what we do.
In 2007, we provided compassionate, competent and supportive services to more than 1,700 children and their families - in our community, throughout Arkansas, and across the nation.
The following are some of the services Safe Places Staff provides:


Safe Talk & Play Sessions for young children


exposed to violence and abuse, and support for


their non-offending family members
- Trauma-focused intervention for children, adolescents and their non-offending families
- Support groups for victims of violence
- Criminal justice advocacy
Transforming Anger is an eight- to twelve
week group experience for children and youth
at risk for violence.




The Chances & Changes Program 




for adolescents at risk for violence
- Specialized, therapeutic victim impact sessions for children and young people
- Referral services and Information
- Online information, support, and resources
- Online psycho-educational support groups and conferences
Safe Places offers help that is holistic in nature. When a person's life is rearranged by violence, the healing process must include not only physical healing, but also emotional and spiritual healing. Our professional staff knows the importance of this, and are trained to provide support for the body, the mind, and the spirit.
We work with individuals, couples and families . . . adults, adolescents, and children. Our staff has years of experience helping victims of family violence, sexual violence, and child abuse, as well as victims who are experiencing grief and loss from other forms of violence. Our professional staff has specialized expertise spiritual care and counseling, criminal justice advocacy, support group facilitation, trauma therapy, and the mental health issues that sometimes affect victims of violence.
Violence Prevention Education and Transforming Anger Groups
Each week more than 350 children and young people are involved in group experiences that promote safe and healthy relationships or in groups that help young people understand and transform anger. Groups are held in locations throughout the community.
Community Education and Training
We also provide education to individuals and groups who desire to effectively assist victims of violence. This training is useful for counselors and therapists, educators, health care and mental health providers.
Please browse this site to learn more about our services, our vision and our mission. For complete biographical information on our professional service providers, go to Our Staff.
Support for Safe Places
The advent of The Center for Healing and Hope was made possible through the Alliance of Baptists Bridges of Hope Mission Offering. The Alliance, which is based in Washington, D.C., has supported our work since 2002. Now called Safe Places, we have support from a variety of sources including individual contributors, corporate donors, and various grants.
Our services are provided to victims of violence at no charge, though many of them contribute to our work to the extent that they are able.
We welcome your financial contribution to help fund the services we offer to victims of violence.
Safe Places: The Center for Healing and Hope is incorporated in the state of Arkansas as a non-profit victim assistance organization and has 501(c)3 status from the Internal Revenue Service. Safe Places is a program of The Center for Healing and Hope, Inc.
All donations are tax deductible. Our standard of service is modeled after the
Standards for Victim Assistance Programs and Providers published by the National Victim Assistance Standards Consortium. The Consortium, a multi-disciplinary and geographically diverse group of victim service experts convened to examine standards and credentialing for victim assistance providers, was established by the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Victims of Crime.