Mission
The mission of Cherokee Family Violence Center is to enhance the safety of Cherokee County’s victims of domestic violence by providing emergency shelter and crisis intervention services while fostering affordable housing; offering longer term education and support services; developing community partnerships and institutional awareness of domestic violence issues; and promoting a community standard of zero tolerance for violence in the home.

History
For more than 25 years, Cherokee Family Violence Center has provided professional, compassionate, and empowering support to battered women and their children in Cherokee County and beyond.

A committee of the Canton First United Methodist Church felt there was a strong need for an organization to help battered women in Cherokee County. In August 1984, this committee began gathering statistics from the local hospitals, police, judicial system and other social service agencies, as well as visiting other battered women’s shelters in the state. Cherokee Family Violence Center (CFVC) was incorporated as a non-profit organization on July 2, 1985, with by-laws and a working Board of Directors. The Center received its tax-exempt status January 1, 1986 and on April 17, 1986 CFVC “went public” with a conference at Reinhardt College. On June 26, 1987, the 24-hour crisis hotline was installed and the first shelter opened its doors in November 1987. The Center’s first support groups began in January of 1988. In May of that year, the organization moved to a larger shelter. The county donated two small offices in the basement of its old Tag and Tile Building in the Fall of 1988. The agency continued to grow, and in 1994, the administrative offices were moved to the county administrative building. The first major renovation of the shelter was completed in 1996.

CFVC works to end domestic violence by:

• offering safety and shelter for battered women and their children;
• restoring power, self-sufficiency and control to domestic violence survivors; and
• educating the public on the dynamics of domestic violence.
• providing a 24-hour crisis hotline and support groups for women and their children
• providing counseling, legal, child and client advocacy

Values

• Always do the right thing.
• Provide programs built on best practice.
• Embrace diversity as an essential component of all we do.
• Create a work environment built on trust and mutual respect.

Our Vision
A community free of domestic violence by empowering victims of domestic violence and holding the batterer accountable for his/her behavior through the continuing education of the community, provision of services and advocacy for the victims.