Discovery House Family Violence Prevention Society

Discovery House Family Violence Prevention Society, established in 1980, provides a continuum of care to women and their children fleeing domestic violence. The Society facilitates transitional housing – offering longer-term, safe places for women and children to call home while they begin to rebuild their lives. Discovery House provides women access to counselling support and programs to ensure they never return to abusive partners, and mitigates the effects of trauma in children to prevent the cycle from repeating.

Discovery House is about hope and healing. Every woman and child who stays at Discovery House is partnered with a case manager, and receives integrated wrap-around services, including:

Essentials: relocation, transportation, food, clothing and other basic needs.
Support: trauma-informed counselling, programming, and clinical services.
Quality of life experiences: opportunities to foster their value as members of the community.

Additionally, Discovery House collaborates with a wide range of nonprofit organizations, university research institutes (including Harvard and the University of Pittsburgh), and other community partners to drive transformational social change.

Last year, we provided supportive housing to 423 children and 210 women fleeing domestic violence, but had to turn away 611 due to lack of capacity. At any given time, we house 19 families in our shelter and up to 100 families in the community.