City offers monetary support to Women’s Center

In 2019, the Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center served 59 victims from the Wimberley area, 15 of which were forensic interviews of child abuse victims. It is a stark reality that abuse exists even in the bubble of the Wimberley Valley.

The Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center is a local nonprofit that offers free and confidential services to women, men and children who are victims of family violence, dating violence, sexual assault and child abuse. They service individuals who live, work, or attend school in Hays and Caldwell Counties.

“The Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center provides services that, unfortunately, are necessary in our community, and we are lucky to have an organization like them available to provide these services in the Wimberley Valley and our region in general,” Wimberley Mayor Gina Fulkerson said.

Beyond the 59 local victims last year, the HCWC served 2,023 victims in total in 2019.

The center even continued its work through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have had to change everything that we do, but what I am proud of is we didn’t miss a single day or even a single hour of services,” Marla Johnson, Executive Director of the HCWC, said. “It has been our intent to meet peoples needs.”

Johnson said that calls on the center’s helpline increased during the beginning of the pandemic and the foot traffic slowed as people were scared to go into the shelter for fear of catching the disease. However, she stated that the center has taken preventative measures to make sure everyone is as safe as possible.

“We have safety measures in place everywhere,” Johnson said. “…We have barriers set up. We have not had a single case. We have 50 staff members. We have not had any clients contract COVID here.”

The Wimberley City Council elected to pay the HCWC $2,000, which is similar to the amount the city has given in the past. The council also stated that they would like to plan to give more in the future as the expenditure this year was not budgeted.

“The $2,000 is still $34 per incident of what this organization has helped our citizens with so I would like to see us budget for more next year,” Councilmember Christine Byrne said. “But I understand that it is not in the budget this year.”

It was stated that this is not considered a donation from the city to the center rather it is a payment from the city in lieu of services, which the city administrator stated is typical when the services are something the city could be involved in providing itself.

To donate to the Hays-Caldwell Women’s Center visit hcwc.org/get-involved/#donate.