About Prudence Crandall Center

Detailed History

Prudence Crandall Center for Women was established in June of 1973 by a group of caring and concerned women who envisioned a place for women to meet, share, and support one another. The initial focus of the Center was to identify the health, employment and social service needs of area women and empower them to participate in all aspects of community life.

Prudence Crandall Center was originally located in the basement of the South Congregational Church in New Britain. During the Center’s first two years, it offered a variety of services to women in the community including, training, a newsletter entitled, “New Beginnings”, a meeting place, and support groups. A survey was conducted by the Center entitled, “A Sense of Wholeness.” The survey produced documentation that women in the community desperately needed emergency housing particularly after divorce, separation, or when violence was occurring in the home.

The first approach was the creation of a “Safe Home” network in which concerned individuals within the community took battered women and their children into their homes to provide safe refuge from abuse. In October of 1975, a six-room apartment was rented in New Britain to provide temporary shelter to battered women and their children. This “Safe Apartment”, was very significant as it represented the first shelter for battered women in Connecticut. It was a historic event for the battered women’s movement, marking the second battered women’s shelter in the United States.

Eventually, the need for shelter far surpassed the capacity of the small apartment and Prudence Crandall Center began to look for larger quarters. A house was purchased in November of 1977 with a down payment secured through extensive fund raising efforts in the private sector. The following year, a Connecticut Labor Department grant was secured to hire a nine person staff to work with the residents of the shelter.

April 11, 1978 was another historically significant date for the Center. The doors of the new shelter officially opened for the first time. The house was to serve the communities of New Britain, Bristol, Plymouth, Southington, Plainville and Berlin. The twelve- room house can accommodate a maximum capacity of sixteen women and children with an average length of stay ranging from thirty to sixty days. Shelter services include crisis intervention, counseling, information and referrals, advocacy, a 24-hour hotline, and 24-hour access to emergency shelter. A child development program and a full time Child Advocate were added to help meet the needs of the children in the shelter.

In June of 1982, Prudence Crandall Center opened an office in the First Church of Christ Congregational in New Britain to be more accessible to women in the community and to other area agencies. The office space enabled the Center to expand its community education services and to offer training on domestic violence issues. This office served as the administrative headquarters and provided a center for thirty-two hours of counseling services to the New Britain community per week.

In 1983, an office was established in Bristol, which offered women in the Bristol area all the services that were available in New Britain. Initially, the office was staffed for twenty hours per week. Presently, the office is staffed for forty hours per week. The Bristol office provides individual counseling, three weekly support groups for women and child clients, in addition to the hotline and shelter services.

The 1986 passage of the Family Violence Prevention and Response Act helped the battered women’s movement by establishing family violence as a crime, making criminal protective orders and next day arraignments available, which greatly assists victims of these crimes. It also created and funded positions for shelter based victim advocates. In 1987, The Prudence Crandall Center was able to hire a full time Victim Advocate. Currently, there are three Victim Advocates, making it possible to have a full time Advocate in New Britain, Bristol and Meriden Superior Courts.

Community involvement and education are essential tools to creating a society free of family violence. The Coordinator of Community Involvement is responsible for recruiting as well as organizing and developing the volunteer training program, which is offered at least twice per year. The Coordinator of Community Involvement also develops and presents workshops on domestic violence related topics tailored to the audience of children, teens, students, professionals, social/civic groups or clergy throughout our service area. These presentations offer information and options in assisting and working with victims of family violence.

In May of 2002, The Prudence Crandall Center moved their main administrative office to 18 Hart Street. This new location offers more space and is right on the bus line. The Prudence Crandall Center currently employs ten full-time employees, fourteen part-time employees, and twenty volunteers in addition to the countless number of dedicated community members who offer support in a variety of services including: distributing literature, donating items, and assisting in fundraising efforts.

In early 2003 our name was changed from Prudence Crandall Center for Women, Inc. to Prudence Crandall Center, Inc. This decision was made to better reflect the diversity of clients we are helping, which includes women, men and children. Along with the name change came a change in our logo. We decided to revitalize a logo that we had used in the early days of the Center to once again recognize the importance of our history.

Also in early 2003, the Board of Directors approved a long-range plan for the agency. This plan focuses on all areas of the Center and will guide us through the next five years. One of the major goals of the plan involves the development of a supportive housing program. The Daughters of Mary of the Immaculate Conception were approached to partner with us by allowing us to utilize a building on their property.

In December of 2003 we received our first confirmation of funding to support developing the Prudence Crandall Center Rose Hill Campus project. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the Center over a million dollars to fund the supportive housing program. We launched a capital campaign that raised $8 million and completed the renovations of the Rose Hill Campus in 2008.

In March of 2009 the first families moved into the transitional and long term housing apartments at Rose Hill. Our dream has finally become a reality. These formerly homeless individuals and families now have a safe supportive environment to help change their lives in a positive direction.

We are proud of the ways in which the service has grown and equally proud of the ways in which it has remained the same. We still have a newsletter, “New Beginnings,” that is distributed quarterly. We still empower our clients to make their own choices while respecting their life experiences. We continue to believe that no individual should be abused nor should they have to live in fear. Our 30 years of forward strides gives us the opportunity to provide increased services to victims of domestic violence while working to meet the needs of a diverse community.

We shall not forget our roots or the struggles of our founders. Just as in our beginning, we remain dedicated and strive to bring an end to violence in the homes and lives of all women, men and children. We work and hope, with our clients, on their behalf, and in their memory towards the day that we close our doors due to our victory in eliminating domestic violence.