Group Hope

Purpose

The Domestic Violence Coordinating Council (DVCC) founded the DVCC Group Hope Advisory Council in 2005. The primary focus of this group is to add perspective and invaluable insight to the DVCC. This is a focused advisory group and is not a social support, counseling, or therapeutic group.

Members

Group Hope members draw from their personal experience of surviving domestic violence and express it to others as they choose. During meetings members are invited to make suggestions about how to improve, or implement specific projects.

Members are given numerous opportunities to volunteer their time, talents, and energy. This may include participating in a variety of activities including assisting with public speaking about domestic violence issues, interviews with media, providing written testimony for articles, serving on panels to educate students, or assisting at the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council.

Membership Criteria

Membership is open to any survivor of domestic violence regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or economic status. There are no dues. Perspective members are interviewed by the DVCC’s Executive Director to assess for group readiness. The primary philosophy is that survivors are not re-traumatized in any capacity regardless of their current situation or the length of time that has passed since their traumatic domestic violence event. The DVCC Group Hope membership offers opportunities for survivors to speak out about their message of hope and survival to others by utilizing public media, and other outlets.

Meetings

The DVCC Group Hope meetings are held every six weeks, or as needed on a designated  Saturday from 11:30am – 1:00pm. Lunch is provided. The meetings take place at the DVCC’s office located at: 115 S. 49th Avenue, Omaha, NE 68132. Meetings follow an agenda and open dialogue, suggestions, questions, and comments are welcome and encouraged. The meetings are scheduled by the DVCC Executive Director. Members are notified of meetings by email and reminder phone calls several days before the meeting. The DVCC staff all attend Group Hope Advisory meetings. Depending on the discussion topics, to complement the meeting’s content, occasionally guests or guest speakers are invited to attend.

Members may call 402-561-7537 .