The Family Justice Center delivers comprehensive services to address offender accountability, safety, healing and prevention that enables clients to live free from domestic violence.

Clarissa Rias knows the center well. When the 32-year-old mother of two personally faced domestic violence, the Family Justice Center, which depends on Campaign for the Community Contributions, was there to help.

“I didn’t know what to do,” says Rias. “The whole episode was so draining, but the Family Justice Center presented me with the choices that I had and how to go about making those decisions.”

Now, Clarissa is helping others find the peace the Family Justice Center provided her. 

The Center recently featured Rias in its “Voices Ending Violence” video and she is always willing to share her story on how the center helped create a recovery path for Clarissa and so many others.

“I was in a bad place at the time of the incident,” she says. “I was exhausted physically and mentally, financially strapped and since we had two children together, I had to deal with visitation from someone who tried to hurt me.”

It wasn’t until she began working with the Family Justice Center that Clarissa knew the extent to which her relationship had decayed.

“I didn’t see myself as being in an abusive relationship,” she says. “I thought domestic violence happened to weak people and I’m not weak.”

But she was overwhelmed.

“There was so much going on with me emotionally,” says Clarissa. “I was trying to find a new job, raise two young children, and I didn’t know what had to be done to keep my family safe.

“It’s a lot to go through.”

The Family Justice Center filled in the knowledge gaps and processed what Rias said she never would have had to time to complete.

“When you reach a point where you don’t know what to do because of domestic violence it’s important to understand that the Family Justice Center is there to support you,” she says.