Agency Information

DVC envisions a Greater Cleveland that upholds the fundamental right to feel safe in one’s relationship – free from domestic violence and its impact on the community. As a dynamic community leader, we will create solutions and partnerships to address abuse and provide services to those who need them.

DVC is guided by four core values:

Respect: We practice compassionate treatment of others without regard to age, race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, disability, income, sexual orientation, marital status, politics or religion. We believe in the inherent worth of all people and in honest, open communication.

Empowerment: We stand for an environment where individuals can make decisions and move forward with their lives – free from bias, coercion, and fear.

Accessibility: We are committed to overcoming any cultural, geographic or other barriers to share our expertise and extend our services into every corner of the community.

Safety: We uphold the right of all individuals to be free from harm and enjoy relationships based on fairness and trust.

Domestic Violence Center and its parent organizations, Templum and Center for Prevention of Domestic Violence, have a thirty-year history of serving the Greater Cleveland community with intervention and prevention services for victims of intimate partner violence, As our community has evolved and best-practices have emerged in the field, DVC has tailored its work accordingly— moving from a shelter-based model to the more comprehensive approach of providing leadership to create responsive systems, offering an array of services and programs, and addressing the need for primary prevention.  The organization has just completed a strategic plan that charts its course for the next five years and redefines and clarifies our commitment to the community.

Agency Background

Concern for the safety and security of women who were being abused in their own homes prompted caring individuals to find ways to shelter them. Advocates sought compassionate treatment for victims and ways to lessen the danger. The Center for Prevention of Domestic Violence, founded in 1976 and Templum, founded in 1978 both emerged as a part of this humanitarian response. The two agencies were pioneers in the state of Ohio and in the nation when they began to offer shelter and hotline services to help battered women.

Both organizations share a mission of commitment to ending domestic violence and offer well established and widely recognized programs addressing the many facets of domestic violence. Increased federal funds, funneled through state and local government programs in the mid-1990s, fueled steady growth and expansion of victim's services. Over the past three years the two agencies have become highly interdependent sharing resources and collaborating on projects to benefit victims of domestic violence in Cuyahoga County.

The merger between Templum and the Center for Prevention of Domestic Violence became effective on July 1, 2001.

The Templum Story

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When Templum opened its doors in 1978, the goal was to give victims of domestic violence a safe shelter.  The only other shelter for victims of domestic violence in operation had been forced to turn away significant numbers of women and children from lack of space. Realizing the need for a shelter, Bernadette Boyce, one of Templum's founders, approached Father Bob Begin with the idea of opening a shelter for homeless as well as battered women.  The upper floor of Father Begin's home, formerly the Vincent Haas House of Hospitality for men, became Templum House on October 15, 1978, with a capacity for 14 women and children.  The first staff included only a director, two women's advocates and a residential manager, all donating their services.  Financial support came from a broad-based group of foundations, religious organizations and individuals. However, it was soon realized that victims of domestic violence were in need of much more than safe shelter.  Lacking any alternatives, women were returning again and again to violent homes, with dire results.  So Templum evolved.  The services grew to help women heal then return to the community to build lives free of violence and meet the basic needs of housing, food and employment.  Templum also became the first agency in Ohio to develop special services and programs to meet the needs of children. Templum's mission remains one of commitment to ending domestic violence by advocating for justice and social change, educating the community, holding offenders accountable, empowering survivors, sheltering women and children, and providing supportive services.   Its programs and services offer support for every person involved in domestic violence:  the victim, children, and the batterer.  It offers crisis assistance for victims, legal advocates to guide victims through the entire legal process, programs geared specifically toward children and teens, programs to educate batterers and empower the community to recognize domestic violence as a social problem rather than a private family matter. Each year since 1980, Templum has experienced a 40 percent increase in residents.   In 1984, Templum served nearly 800 women and children, and received over 8,000 calls on the 24-Hour Hotline.  In 1991, Templum's Family Violence Hotline logged over 15,000 calls.

But much remains to be done.  In Cleveland, police estimate they respond to 2,000 calls a month for domestic violence.  Published police blotters in suburban newspapers now publish specific arrests for domestic violence.  The abuse continues and agencies like Templum continue to work with victims, their children and batterers to stem the tide of violence.