A Woman’s Place (AWP) provides free, private, confidential, and comprehensive shelter, service, support, advocacy, outreach, training, and education to victims of domestic abuse and violence and their children and the community. All services can be accessed by calling AWP’s 24-hour hotline at 1.800.220.8116.
Explore the links at the top of the page to learn more about AWP’s entire roster of services.
Direct service to clients bridges traditional advocacy to empowerment counseling on an individual basis, creating change one life at a time. This dual-purpose project addresses the needs of victims while working to identify and address barriers within institutions and systems to create lasting social change.
As the gateway to AWP, the 24-hour hotline is available to anyone in the community to answer questions about any issues related to domestic abuse and violence. Callers receive counseling, information, safety planning, and referrals. AWP’s full-service residential shelter provides a safe place for victims of domestic abuse and violence and their children. Residents receive ongoing support, safety planning, and guidance on housing, welfare, health, and employment issues, and can access all of AWP’s services. Children’s needs are addressed through structured activities and ongoing counseling. Individual and group counseling for victims of domestic abuse and violence and their children is available throughout the county. One-to-one counseling focuses on support, empowerment, and safety planning. Group counseling focuses on these same issues in a peer-supported environment.
Nationally recognized, this innovative project combines advocacy, counseling, and training to serve victims of domestic abuse and violence and their children and to galvanize the county’s healthcare community in the movement to end domestic violence.
New and ongoing advocacy work in all seven Bucks County hospitals and in area healthcare clinics helps ensure direct and effective domestic violence screening and response throughout the county’s healthcare systems, a vital link in ending the cycle of domestic violence. Training is provided for healthcare workers and staffs at area hospitals and healthcare clinics to raise domestic violence awareness and in screening patients for domestic violence. Patients can access AWP’s 24-hour counseling services from the safety of the hospital or healthcare clinic.
Combining advocacy, assistance, and First Response services, this project helps victims of domestic abuse and violence navigate the criminal and civil justice systems, while providing ongoing advocacy and training to individuals, agencies, and institutions within the justice system to create lasting social change.
The Legal Advocacy Program provides victims of domestic violence with legal options and safety planning counseling, assistance in filing Protection from Abuse Orders (PFAs), and court accompaniment. The Legal Assistance Program provides civil legal representation for AWP clients in matters including divorce, support, custody, welfare, child-related issues, immigration, and bankruptcy. Members of the First Response Team provide 24-hour, in-person crisis counseling, safety planning, information, and referrals to victims immediately following an incident of domestic violence.
Programs presented at elementary, middle, and high schools throughout Bucks County address domestic abuse and violence awareness and prevention in an effort to stop domestic violence before it starts.
Peace Works provides elementary school children with information and skills for recognizing and building healthy relationships. Dating Works, for middle and high school students, provides similar information focused on applying these healthy relationship skills to pre-teen and teenage relationships. Dating Works also raises awareness about resources and options available to students experiencing abuse or violence in their relationships.
Community-based initiatives and presentations provide ongoing domestic violence awareness and prevention education while engaging more of the community in efforts to end domestic violence.
The Men’s Initiative engages men in the community in domestic violence awareness and prevention efforts and activities through outreach, education, training, and advocacy. Similarly, the Faith Initiative engages faith communities in domestic violence awareness and prevention efforts and activities. Ongoing community-based domestic violence awareness and prevention presentations are given throughout the community to a variety of audiences, including government, law enforcement, business, and community-based organizations and groups.
As a community organization, AWP relies on the effort and support of volunteers to successfully deliver trainings, programs, and services to the community. As domestic abuse and violence is a specialized issue, volunteers complete training programs, offered throughout the year, that seek to inform and engage them in AWP’s mission and the ongoing work to end domestic violence.
CORE training gives volunteers an overview of the organization and issues related to domestic violence, with a special emphasis on public speaking. Direct Service volunteer training gives volunteers a more in-depth understanding of domestic violence and concentrates on skill building, preparing volunteers to fill openings throughout the organization working directly with victims of domestic abuse and violence and their children. Teen volunteer trainings prepare teenage volunteers to work directly with children staying in AWP’s shelter.
Located in the Towne Center Shopping Center in New Britain, Pa., the Full Circle is much more than a thrift store. It features a great selection of women’s, men’s, and children’s gently used clothing and accessories, and a variety of gently used household items are also for sale. Donations also are accepted at this location. For store hours and donation times, call the Full Circle at 215.340.0120. All proceeds from the store benefit A Woman’s Place. Full Circle also participates in the Student Transition Employment Program, providing retail training for special needs students in the Central Bucks School District.
