Company Profile
Human Options
Company Overview
OUR MISSION
Human Options provides a safe haven and life changing programs to help abused women, their children and families rebuild their lives — and works with the community to break the cycle of domestic violence.
Company History
OUR HISTORY
One in three women in the United States is a victim of domestic violence at some point in her life. Stunned by this statistic, Founding Chief Executive Officer, Vivian Clecak and three other women, Carolyn Churm, Anne Wright and Margaret Thoreau knew they needed to help and had to make a permanent change. In 1981, these four women founded Human Options in Laguna Beach, California, starting with a crisis hotline for victims of domestic violence. One year later Human Options opened the first battered women’s shelter in south Orange County, California.
Their vision: a world in which no woman or child should ever feel afraid in her/his home. Today Human Options still holds this vision.
Vivian began her role as founding director in 1981 and still continues today as the Chief Executive Officer. Since that beginning in 1981, we have grown from a small grassroots agency to a multi-service, countywide program which breaks the cycle of domestic violence at every stage.
Highly trained, experienced professionals and volunteers staff our organization. To date we have served:
More than 25,600 individuals in our counseling and shelter programs
More than 51,000 hotline crisis
More than 257,000 individuals in our prevention programs
Through research, education and the art of listening, Human Options has grown and continues to grow. We listen to our clients to find out exactly what they need to become free from domestic violence. With this information and our comprehensive research, we continue to develop and strengthen our programs.
We are one of the very few emergency programs to do such research in the nation. Independent academic research has found more than 90% of graduates of our emergency shelter and transitional living program are violence free one year or more after graduation.
Human Options is the product of a committed, caring community. We invite you to become part of a community that makes the difference.