Oct. 3, 2024
BY JOHN BAILEY
The Catawba County United Way (CCUW) recently completed the purchase of the local domestic violence shelter, formerly owned and ran by the Family Guidance Center (FGC) in Hickory.
In August of 2024, the FGC announced on its Facebook page that it was closing due to falling revenue. The agency had been in operation for 65 years at that point.
The CCUW is currently in the process of cleaning out the property, which has been vacant for nearly a year. The United Way will eventually turn over ownership to the Shelter Home of the Foothills, who will reopen it again to serve victims of domestic violence. Shelter Home also runs the domestic violence shelter and related services in Lenoir, NC.
When the Family Guidance Center announced it was ending operations, Catawba County United Way immediately took action to ensure vital services continued for local victims of domestic violence, CCUW Executive Director Mark Bumgarner said.
In the previous three years, FGC sexual assault/domestic violence programs helped more than 2,900 individuals in the county according to CCUW funded partner end of year reports.
Working with local and state agencies, CCUW secured Shelter Home of the Foothills to continue providing these services. However, the actual shelter home remained ensnared in the dissolution of Family Guidance Center.
“It was a slow process. We were not only negotiating with the Family Guidance Center board, but with the NC Attorney General’s office,” Bumgarner said. “But we knew how vital the shelter was to our local court system, law enforcement and social services. More importantly, we knew how vital this building was to the victims of domestic violence.”
Statewide, more than 55,400 individuals benefited from similar services throughout North Carolina, according to the NC DOA Council for Women and Youth Involvement.
The CCUW will ensure, through deed restrictions, that should the local building not be operated as a domestic violence shelter the United Way will take back ownership.
“With this, we can ensure our community that we will never be in the situation again of not having a domestic violence shelter locally,” Bumgarner said.
To learn more about the Catawba County United Way’s impact visit ccunitedway.com.