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Bringing Joy, Healing, and Play: Meet Lila, Newhouse’s First Recreational Therapist! At Newhouse, healing takes many forms—safety, therapy, advocacy, and even play, and Lila embodies this holistic approach as our first-ever Recreational Therapist. Since joining the team in May 2024, she has dedicated herself to bringing joy, movement, creativity, and healing to the survivors we …

“Mommy, I feel happy.”  These are the words every parent wants to hear from their children, especially when you’re a mom living in a domestic violence shelter with your two kids. When Maria* called the Newhouse 24/7 Crisis Hotline, she was terrified. Her husband, the father of her children, had been verbally aggressive, physically abusive, …

Author: Lissha Westmoreland, Newhouse Volunteer Meet Officer Charmainne Sanders Officer Charmainne Sanders of the Kansas City Police Department stands with survivors. She stands with survivors not only from a professional standpoint but from a personal one. Officer Sanders’ connection to an abuse victim, one of her older sisters, caused her to pursue a career in …

Q+A with Ryan Dupree, Newhouse Recovery Counselor National Recovery Month promotes and supports new evidence-based treatments and recovery practices, the nation’s strong and proud recovery community, and the dedication of service providers and communities who make recovery in all its forms possible. One of those service providers works right here at Newhouse. Ryan Dupree, LMSW, …

After Christine told her abusive husband of nine years that she wanted a divorce, an act of violence against her put things into perspective. “That was when it clicked,” she says. “I left and did not go back.” It started early in the marriage with insulting comments about Christine’s weight and intelligence. As time went …

Megan was a 21-year-old college student when she met a man and they started dating. “It began with him isolating me from my friends and family, even talking me into moving to a new state,” Megan explains. “Mental and verbal abuse was heavy after about 6 months.” Sixteen hours away from her hometown and support …

Meet Grey! Grey joined Team Newhouse in 2020 to help our organization evolve our approach to social work and domestic violence support. He is always ready to assist a child or adult client one-on-one and actively engages in high-level strategy at Newhouse, across the country as a speaker and trainer, and in the classroom as …

“My experience with domestic violence is intense,” says Crissy. “As much as I would like to think that my experience is unique, I know that it is not.” In January 2021, Crissy’s sister Melissa lost her life to domestic violence at the age of 38. “My sister Missy met a man that she thought was …

Growing up in Omaha through the 1970s and 80s, Tammy experienced domestic abuse at the hands her father. Her father physically, mentally, and sexually abused Tammy, her sisters, and their mother. Tammy’s mom sought help from social services in 1979, but after a few months in foster care and some therapy sessions, they ended up …

A Letter from a Survivor at Newhouse Imagine if your home was not a sanctuary but a place of fear… I don’t have to imagine because I am one of the 598 survivors who Newhouse supported in 2023. My two young children and I found refuge at Newhouse when we had nowhere else to turn. …