Domestic  Violence
Services

Youth Services

Counseling Services

Free Medical Exam Night

Adventure Based Course

Domestic Violence Services
Empowering Women to Strengthen our Community

Imagine for a moment, feeling unsafe in your own home, afraid of physical and emotional abuse from the person who is supposed to love you the most.  Imagine being trapped, unable to feel any sense of personal safety.  Imagine your children in the same situation.   The women and children who live in the Equinox Domestic Violence Shelter and utilize our nonresidential Domestic Violence Services do not have to imagine this horror.  They have lived it. They come to Equinox as a last resort.

The first, most basic need Equinox fulfills is providing a safe haven for those who come to the shelter.  After giving them a safe place to live, we then offer a safe place to express their fears and concerns and assist the clients in exploring all of the options available.  Once in the program, women may receive legal advocacy to help with restraining orders, custody issues, divorce, and criminal charges against their abusers.

Equinox is the primary domestic violence service provider in Albany County, offering shelter to 144 women and their children, and advocacy and counseling to 508 individuals in 1998. The innovative techniques used in the shelter and throughout the long term care programs have been praised by other human services agencies because of their ability to build self-confidence, self-esteem, and educational and employment opportunities.  These are the tools needed to strengthen individuals and our community as a whole, emotionally, spiritually, and economically.

Our programs have also been very successful in addressing hidden populations such as the elderly, disabled, gay and lesbian, and immigrant populations.  We hear the need in these communities and join them in their efforts to eradicate violence from their lives.

Currently our clients who are at our shelter or involved with our outreach services must travel, oftentimes with their children, between multiple sites to avail themselves of these services.  With all of the issues these women and men face, they become discouraged when dealing with the difficulties of finding transportation, parking, and childcare.  In our new Community Services Center, clients will be able to receive individual counseling and group support, participate in parenting and life skills courses, learn about trust and teamwork on the Adventure Based course, receive employment counseling, attend the medical exam night, and have child care all in one location.  This seamless integration of all of our outreach services will decrease the burden on our clients and improve the continuum of care.

Perhaps one of the most important goals of our Domestic Violence staff is transitioning clients to a violence-free way of life .  We provide both intense, individualized counseling, with a focus on the specific needs of each client and group meetings where women realize they are not alone in their struggle. Clients are encouraged to respect themselves, to feel a sense of community, and to turn past images of violence into dreams for the future.  In the search for a better way of life, many of these people find themselves for the first time and find their place in the larger community as well.

Emergency Shelter (continued)

Equinox is the primary domestic violence service provider in Albany County and operates an 18-bed emergency shelter for women and their children. While living there for up to 90 days, residents receive room and board, individual and group counseling, parenting education, advocacy and support. The shelter is open 24 hours a day and is staffed by trained professionals. The innovative techniques used in the shelter build self-confidence, self-esteem, and can lead to educational and employment opportunities. Thanks to the generosity of the New York State Homeless Housing Assistance Program, the Equinox Domestic Violence Program was awarded a grant of $1.4 million to relocate and expand Albany County's only domestic violence shelter.  The new shelter, to be located at a confidential location, will house up to 30, providing more programming and living space as well as wheelchair accessibility

Youth Services
Hope, dreams, compassion and respect are often missing from the vocabularies of the children that come to Equinox.  Many are not only lacking solid family foundations and healthy relationships within their community, they are often homeless, hungry, poor and in crisis.

The Youth Services of Equinox try to address the many and complex issues these young people face.  Our Youth Outreach Program has the unique ability of connecting with at-risk youth in their environment—on the streets, at night, close to danger.  Our outreach team goes out each evening offering help and building trust.  The goal is to draw these kids into our Youth Shelter, Independent Living Program, or Outreach Services and help them rebuild their lives in a safe, nurturing and structured environment.

The Equinox Youth Shelter is a place troubled youth can find a safe haven, food, clothing and emotional support.  We have been operating a small youth shelter serving this population since 1975.  There is no other agency in this area that provides emergency housing to youth age fifteen and younger and this is the only shelter that will take kids right "off the street" without a funding stream attached. Our model shelter is designed to serve up to eighteen youth.  The goal of the program is to reunite youths with their families or, when this solution is not possible, to find a safe and permanent alternative

Many children needing our services are too old to stay in the Youth Shelter, or are at a stage in their lives where they need "assisted independence".  These clients can enter the Equinox Independent Living Program (ILP).  Each client receives his or her own apartment, financial support and counseling.  The program is very structured; kids are required to finish high school, maintain a job and budget their money with the assistance of their case manager.

Once kids successfully complete the ILP they become eligible for Project Independence .  At this time, they move out of our apartments and into apartments they have chosen for themselves.  Our role is to support them as they successfully transition into the community.  Young adults in the program are assigned an Intensive Case Manager who offers them the caring support and guidance ordinarily provided by a parent.  Clients receive a housing subsidy to assist with rent costs, legal advocacy, childcare assistance and training in long-term employment planning.  Youth may participate in the program for up to two years as they increase their ability to move toward self-sufficiency.

In the Community Services Center we have space to increase life skills training for these young people.  We can have cooking classes in the kitchen, resume writing and job skills training in the computer room and team building exercises on the Adventure Based Course in the basement.  And there is private space to counsel kids in crisis and help them work through their problems.

We house dozens of youths in our apartments and assist thousands of young people through our Outreach Services.  Many of them have no other place to go but the streets.  With the support of our counselors, these young people now have a chance in life.  Our goal is that each young adult leaving the Youth Program will exit with a structure for living and a foundation for success, as well as the ability and strength to make a positive contribution to our community.  Judging from the success stories, many of them have. (back to top)

Counseling Services
From a single volunteer driven program of drug intervention and referral, Equinox has grown into a multi-service agency assisting clients with issues relating to the homelessness of teens and young adults, domestic violence, and substance abuse.  As the agency has grown and matured, so have the services offered in our Substance Abuse Counseling Center.  The goal of substance abuse counseling is to help abusers achieve sobriety and recover their lives through innovative, cutting edge techniques that help clients regain the self that was abandoned long before an addiction started.  Our professional, affordable, confidential services give clients the courage to change and the opportunity to manage their lives with dignity. 

Counseling is seamlessly woven through our services for youth, adults struggling with addiction and victims of domestic violence. What makes our programs so unique is that we specialize in a variety of issues related to drug abuse, such as relapse prevention, anger management, sexual abuse, relationships, sexuality, culture and ethnicity, job retention, stress management and family alcoholism. The programs and treatment techniques are truly holistic with a direct focus on each individual's needs above all else .

Our Adventure Based Program in our Community Services Center gives clients from across our programs the chance to take advantage of this treatment that helps build confidence and develop trust.  Acupuncture and meditation therapies will reach many who could never succeed with traditional therapies.  And the life skills and employment information courses offered for our youth will be available to counseling clients, as well.

Some clients come to us as users.  Others come after years of sobriety because they feel they are at risk for a relapse. But all come for the support and the innovative programming offered by the professional and caring staff at Equinox. Together we help them find the courage and the strength within themselves to rebuild their lives and become contributing members of the larger community. (back to top)

The Equinox Free Medical Exam Night
The free Medical Exam Night is the result of a collaboration of volunteer medical students from Albany Medical College, volunteer physicians and key Equinox staff.  This service is offered to the clients of Equinox's Domestic Violence Services, Counseling Services and Youth Services. The medical exam does not replace or duplicate services that are offered elsewhere in the community.  Rather it tries to serve as a gateway to needed services, a safe and non-threatening way to enter the medical system for people who have been disenfranchised.

The Community Services Center has dedicated space for the medical exam night where doctors can lock up supplies and instruments, medicine samples and medical records. The area has a waiting room and an exam room. As we expand our medical exam services we look forward to offering a number of educational programs on topics such as nutrition, asthma, smoking, first aid, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS prevention, and common childhood illnesses, all topics of interest to the people Equinox serves .

For the Counseling Center, the medical exam night provides a medically supervised program, offering the comprehensive treatment clients need in recovering from substance abuse.

For Domestic Violence Services, many women have avoided medical services to hide the abuse they have suffered or haven't had the ability or resources to access regular medical care.  The medical exam night offers these women and their children free and easy access to medical care where they can engage confidently with doctors and receive expert guidance regarding their needs, as well as referrals when necessary.

For Youth Services, abused and neglected children have higher than average physical needs and the traditional medical systems are often too complicated for youth to access.  Youth feel safe about seeking services on the medical exam night.  Doctors take great care with each youth during the interview and examination to make them feel comfortable and trusting.  The medical exam night helps youth take the first step in the direction toward more complete medical care, receiving referrals when needed.
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Adventure Based Course
The Adventure-Based Course offers a high-ropes course and climbing wall for use by clients in all programs.  This experiential learning course, combined with counseling, works to build confidence, trust, teamwork, conflict resolution and problem-solving skills. It is the largest indoor course of its kind in the region.

For the Counseling Center, adventure-based counseling provides an intervention that combats the deterioration of the family unit, lack of positive role models, lack of communication and trust between people.  The course helps to break down the barriers between people and provide an experience in which participants can feel good about themselves, have a sense of belonging and a "sober" way to have fun.

For Domestic Violence Services, women are often conditioned by their circumstances to minimize their ability to feel or be successful, to become isolated from others and not realize the support they could receive from working with others. Adventure-based counseling allows them to experience the joy of teamwork, the challenge of trust and the satisfaction of accomplishing the seemingly impossible.

For Youth Services, abused and neglected children often have undeveloped life skills.  Adventure-based counseling is an effective way to reach less verbal youth, helps youth to strengthen self-confidence, build trust, assist with conflict resolution and problem-solving and can bring humor into their lives.
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