About Safe Journey
A Letter From Our Executive Director
As executive director of Safe Journey, I welcome you to our updated website highlighting the free and confidential services we offer for victims of domestic violence in rural Erie County.
I have had the privilege of working with victims and their children for more than 22 years. Many victims believe they have no voice or that they don’t matter. Safe Journey was established more than four decades ago to help victims regain the personal power that was taken from them through no fault of their own. We provide a loving, homelike environment to support all victims with the respect they deserve.
We are here to serve all victims: women, children, men, adults, teens, the elderly, people with disabilities, and members of the LGBTQ community.
Some people believe Safe Journey is just a shelter, but we are so much more. While we do offer shelter, if needed, our core services include a 24/7 emergency hotline, individual and group counseling for adults and children, assistance and transportation for court matters, safety planning, assistance with Protection From Abuse orders, school and community prevention programming, parenting and financial planning classes, and more.
As an essential organization that provides direct services to victims, Safe Journey has remained open during the COVID-19 health crisis. Still, the pandemic is changing the way our nation and our agency conducts business.
Because many people are staying home due to the pandemic, more victims are remaining in violent relationships and not seeking the help they need to escape their abusers.
Safe Journey is meeting the challenge by adding safe and confidential telecounseling and chat options to our array of free services. While remote technology may never replace face-to-face interaction with counselor advocates, telecounseling offers another option for victims to connect with services they need to escape domestic violence.
PurpleOne, Safe Journey’s communitywide domestic violence awareness and prosocial bystander inititiative, also is making a difference. Ten free trainings have been held, with about 330 individuals completing the program. More than 60 locations are now certified safe places where victims can obtain information on Safe Journey’s free services.
If you need help or more information, please give us a call. Our counselor advocates are trained to listen to your concerns without judgment.
My hope is that everyone who comes to Safe Journey feels they are emerging from the darkness into the light. We provide a nurturing atmosphere for them to begin their healing journey to empowerment.
We are here for you.
Lori Palisin
Executive Director
Safe Journey Executive Director
Lori Palisin
At Safe Journey I was not alone. I felt like the staff was compassionate and understood where I was coming from. They didn’t judge me, they listened to me, they supported me in my process and there was help for my kids. I didn’t know there were resources out there to help me. I realized I wasn’t alone. If it wasn’t for Safe Journey, I don’t think I would be where I am today.
– Anonymous
Who We Are
Caring & trained advocates providing individual support counseling and advocacy to women and children as well as friends and family who know or suspect that someone they know is being abused.
Safe Journey was organized in early 1978 by a group of concerned residents in Union City, PA, that included people of faith, the justice of the peace, police officers, a social worker and other townspeople who were instrumental in identifying the need for domestic violence services.
Victims Served Yearly
Counseling Services Provided Yearly
Individuals Educated on Prevention Yearly
Our Great Team
Trained advocates are caring and provide 24-Hour hotline counseling and in-person trauma-based counseling that promotes healing and emotional wellness. We also provide the daily empowerment groups for victims, their children and teens to help victims understand that domestic violence is not only an individual experience, it affects one in four women in their lifetime regardless of race, ethnic or religious group, class, disability, sexuality or lifestyle, which helps them to overcome any feelings of guilt, shame and loneliness as they become aware of the fact that their experience was not “their fault”.
Get Help today
If you or someone you love is a victim of domestic violence, get help today. Safe Journey is here for you – In Person. On the Phone. Online.
Make A Donation
Giving a donation to Safe Journey can help us to help more women and children transform their lives for the better. Join your hand with us for a better life and beautiful future.
A Special Thanks To Our Contributors
