History of AVDA

Since 1980, Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse has provided advocacy, safety planning, and legal representation to over 60,000 victims of domestic abuse and intervention services to over 10,000 domestic violence perpetrators.

1980
Prior to 1980, a battered woman in Houston had little access to information on legal rights or to the services of an attorney. In response, the National Council of Jewish Women-Greater Houston Section founded AVDA to serve as an adjunct to local women's centers and as a resource for the thousands of battered women that shelters could not serve.

AVDA's Legal Advocacy Project operates with an all volunteer staff in space donated by Gulf Coast Legal Foundation.

1982
AVDA hires a contract attorney to represent abuse victims who fall through the cracks of available services in family-law litigation.

Rhonda Gerson, AVDA's Executive Director, serves on Houston Police Department task force created by Chief Lee P. Brown to ensure that HPD's arrest policies complied with state laws criminalizing domestic violence.

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1984
Each weekday, volunteers from AVDA and the League of Women Voters interview family violence complainants in the District Attorney's Community Intake Office. Legal Advocacy Project volunteers recommend charges, screen applicants for protective orders, and provide crisis counseling and social-services referrals. With the support of District Attorney Johnny Holmes, this pilot project evolves into the Family Criminal Law Division of the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

Increased arrests and improved prosecution mean that more batterers were being court-ordered into counseling. So, too, are battered women seeking intervention to end the abuse, but not the relationship. Such specialized services for domestic violence perpetrators are not readily available. AVDA contracts with Toby Myers, Ed.D., to expand her PIVOT Project with perpetrators to include a psycho-educational counseling group for men who are abusive in their intimate relationships.

AVDA receives funds from Gulf Coast Legal Foundation for attorney and new paralegal.

Dr. Toby Myers is named to the Family Violence Advisory Committee, Texas Department of Human Services. Myers chairs this committee from 1984 to 1987.

1985
Dr. Myers is appointed to the Surgeon General's Workshop on Violence and Public Health by Surgeon General, Everett Koop, M.D.

1986
AVDA's Legal Advocacy Project receives Victims of Crime Act funding from the Office of the Governor, which is used to add a full-time Client Advocate.

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1989
The PIVOT Project becomes AVDA's second, full-fledged program.

Texas Council on Family Violence creates the Toby Myers Statewide Leadership Award. Myers also wins a Spotlight Award from the National Council on Crime Prevention.

1990
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Community Justice Assistance Division awards AVDA one of its first grants to provide court-mandated battering intervention services. AVDA then expands to five battering intervention groups per week.

1991
AVDA brings battering intervention to the suburbs. By the end of 1992, AVDA is providing battering intervention services in Pasadena, Katy, Rosenberg, Texas City, Baytown, Webster, Northwest Houston, Conroe and Bay City.

1993
AVDA's Legal Advocacy Project expands with two additional contract attorneys, a second paralegal and a legal secretary. This move greatly expands battered women's access to protective orders and divorces in Harris County.

The PIVOT Project adds Spanish-language services for Harris County participants.

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1995
AVDA serves on the Battering Intervention and Prevention Project Strategic Planning Work Group that drafts the original "minimum state guidelines" for battering intervention and prevention adopted by the TDCJ-CJAD.

AVDA is one of four sites selected for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded national study to evaluate the effectiveness of batterers' programs.

1996
AVDA's leadership results in the formation of the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, to foster a coordinated community response across public and private sectors.

1998
The Department of Human Services finally makes non-residential centers eligible for Family Violence Program funding. AVDA uses its first DHS grant to hire a Case Manager and much-needed second Client Advocate and to contract with a fourth attorney to provide legal representation. Thanks to the additional program staff, AVDA's Legal Advocacy Program is able to go on-site to meet clients at battered women's shelters.

AVDA sits on the statewide Battering Intervention and Prevention Project Guidelines Revision Committee.

1999
AVDA receives its first contract from the Harris Co. Community Supervision and Corrections Department to provide battering intervention to low-income probationers.

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2000
AVDA celebrates its 20th anniversary with a luncheon bringing together 250 allied professionals and friends.

2001
AVDA moves both programs into one new Midtown location. The PIVOT name is phased out to help create one identity for all of the agency's services. PIVOT's work with abusers continues under the name "Battering Intervention and Prevention Program."

Rhonda Gerson retires as after 20 years as AVDA's founding Executive Director. Jennifer Holmes was hired as Executive Director.

2002
Dr. Edward Gondolf and Sage Publishing release Batterer Intervention Systems: Issues, Outcomes and Recommendations, which contains the results of CDC-funded research conducted at AVDA and three other "model" intervention programs nationwide.

BIPP wins contract to be the primary provider of intervention services to the Harris County Community Supervision & Corrections Department.

BIPP Director Jose Sanchez serves as chair of the Texas Council on Family Violence's Curriculum Subcommittee charged with developing an accreditation process for battering intervention service providers across the state.

2003
AVDA joins the Fort Bend Community Response Team, becoming increasingly active in the development of that first-responder agency.

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2004
Jacqueline Pontello is hired as the third Executive Director in AVDA's 25-year history and as the first attorney to lead the agency.

2005
AVDA celebrates its 25th anniversary with Home Safe Home, its first-ever gala.

AVDA reorganizes the Legal Advocacy Program, abandoning its traditional contract-attorney model for a staff-attorney model. Case acceptance decisions are now made within 24 hours and community emergency legal capacity is greatly improved. At year-end, AVDA has four full-time staff attorneys (including the Managing Attorney).

AVDA is featured in a film produced by Texas Equal Access to Justice Commission regarding the importance of legal aid services.

AVDA launches a Domestic Violence Clinic in cooperation with the Clinical Law Program of the University of Houston Law Center.

AVDA receives a "Helping Hands of Justice Award" from Lone Star Legal Aid.

BIPP wins one of first Family Protection Fee Grants, from monies raised through a fee assessed on each divorce filed in Harris County. The grant underwrites BIPP services for abusers referred by CPS and other units of the Harris Co. Family & Youth Commission.

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2006
AVDA relocates to 1001 Texas. Ave. at Main, in proximity to the Harris County courts.

AVDA's launches a Protective Order Project. A full-time staff of three – attorney, paralegal and client advocate – go on-site at District Attorney's Office (for overflow applicants) and at outlying battered women's shelters to improve access to the most basic of legal protections.

AVDA's Working Poor Initiative becomes reality, thanks to an extraordinary $50,000 grant from United Way funds a single attorney. AVDA can now serve working-poor victims who (1) earn too much for government legal aid but not enough for a private lawyer AND (2) are at high-risk of fatality violence using the Wynn Fatality Assessment.

2007
AVDA serves as attorney of record in 1,819 cases pending in the Harris County Family Courts, with 4,244 adult and minor victims provided with free legal representation.

BIPP expands to Galveston County at joint request of the local battered women's shelter, the Galveston Co. District Attorney and by vote of the Galveston Co. District Judges.

BIPP provided 23,084 hours of group counseling to 1,139 male and female abusers. Some 66% of the abusers "graduated" to hopefully lifelong patterns of non-violence.

A New Voices Fellowship – funded by The Ford Foundation – provides a dedicated lawyer for Katrina and Rita evacuees trapped in the cycle of family violence.

2008
BIPP expands to 20 groups, adding locations in Beltway 8 & Westpark, Tidwell & I-45, Bellaire & Hwy. 6 and Clear Lake. Also new is a second group for female abusers.

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2009
AVDA assembles a bipartisan collision of local and state law makers that successfully enacts legislation establishing Harris County’s first Domestic Violence Court. Led by Commissioner Steve Radack, Senator Rodney Ellis and Representatives Beverly Woolley and Senfronia Thompson, this coalition engineered the conversion of an existing state civil district court into a court designed to fast-track protective orders. The 280th State District Court and Judge Tony Lindsay began hearing exclusively domestic violence cases on November 1, 2009.

The Honorable Doug Warne recieves the Deedee Ostfeld Award, on the 30th anniversary of his authorship of the Texas Protective Order Statute.

AVDA was accepted as an affiliate agency of the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast, the only charity to be admitted to the United Way membership in 10+ years.

2010
AVDA Executive Director Jackie Pontello is one of 12 domestic violence advocates nationwide to be honored with the Sunshine Lady Peace Award, bestowed by philanthropist Doris Buffett.

Dr. Toby Myers recieves the Deedee Ostfeld Award.

2011
AVDA adds an attorney/paralegal team to its staff, bringing the total number of attorney/paralegal teams to 6.

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