We are Hopeful Horizons

Hopeful Horizons is a local 501(c)3 nonprofit children’s advocacy, domestic violence and sexual assault victim service organization that works to create safer environments by promoting respect, safety, and non-violence and offering a path to healing. The organization provides safety, hope and healing to survivors of child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault through evidence-based practices, outreach, prevention and education. We serve Beaufort, Allendale, Colleton, Hampton and Jasper counties.

Our professional staff has years of knowledge, training and experience that are the backbone of Hopeful Horizons. Committed to our core values of compassion, collaboration and a commitment to excellence, our team is highly trained in their specialties and has a national reputation for excellence in delivering evidence-based, victim-centered services.

Hopeful Horizons welcomes everyone, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, or disability. We provide accommodations for the languages spoken in our service area through staff or interpreters and offer our services equally to the deaf or hard of hearing and the visually impaired.

Protect, Treat + Prevent

We will provide safety, hope and healing to survivors of child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault through evidence-based practices and lead in ending abuse through primary prevention and education.

A Community Without Abuse

Our vision is to be the Lowcountry leader in ending child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault.

Our Story: Where We Come From

Hopeful Horizons has been assisting victims/survivors in the local community for more than 40 years. After being raped in her home in Beaufort, Shirley Parsons wanted to make sure that no other victim would have to face the trauma of an assault without support. So, in 1983 along with a group of concerned citizens, Shirley founded Citizens Against Rape (CAR) along with a hotline for victims to call. The organization started to receive a lot of calls from women who were being sexually assaulted and/or physically abused by their husbands or boyfriends. The local Women’s Network along with CAR’s director, Bonnie Connolly, recognized these callers needed a safe place to go to escape the violence in their homes and they began to work on establishing a local domestic violence shelter. Thanks to this group, Citizens Opposed to Domestic Abuse (CODA) was founded in 1986 and began to operate a shelter for victims of domestic violence.

Over the years, CAR and CODA grew and evolved to meet the needs of the community. In 2002, CAR which was then known as Rape Crisis Center of the Lowcountry, merged with the Child and Adult Crisis Center and became Hope Cottage and then Hope Haven of the Lowcountry – a children’s advocacy and rape crisis center. Hope Haven provided a hotline, evidence-based therapy, forensic interviews, hospital accompaniment, advocacy, a Multi-Disciplinary Team, education and prevention programs. CODA provided a hotline, emergency shelter, transitional housing, civil legal services, case management, counseling, advocacy, education and prevention programs. Hope Haven and CODA worked alongside each other serving different victim populations, but recognized there was a high co-occurrence of child abuse, domestic violence and/or sexual assault in the families we served. Under the leadership of Shauw Chin Capps (Hope Haven) and Kristin Dubrowski (CODA), the two organizations began to partner on a variety of programs and services. Then, in 2016, CODA and Hope Haven began to explore the possibility of merging the two long-standing nonprofit organizations to expand services and more holistically serve victims and their families. After two years of due diligence and planning, the boards of directors of both organizations approved a merger.

Hopeful Horizons was born on January 1, 2017 as a children’s advocacy, domestic violence and sexual assault victim service organization. Today, we continue to enhance and expand services, to grow and to learn, and to re-affirm our commitment to providing the best care for victims/survivors. Hopeful Horizons continues to educate the public on the connection between child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault and provides holistic services to empower victims/survivors. We believe in putting victims’ needs first and sending a powerful message that we all have a part to play in creating safer environments by promoting respect, safety, and non-violence to end the cycle of abuse.

Our Leadership Team

Our Leadership Team brings decades of professional expertise, education and diverse life experiences to ensure that Hopeful Horizons is a good steward of its resources and that we fulfill our mission by providing exceptional services.