Safe Journey

Safe Journey has provided essential services for victims of domestic violence in rural Erie County since 1978. Based in Union City, we provide individual and group counseling for adults and children, a 24/7 hotline, clothing, food, transportation to court hearings and appointments, help filing protection orders, safety planning, housing assistance, parenting and budgeting classes, school prevention programming, and shelter when needed. All our services are free, confidential, and personalized to meet each individual's needs.

We are the only state-recognized domestic violence agency in rural Erie County, where support services for survivors are often scarce or nonexistent. Our goal is to have services available for survivors anywhere within a 10-mile radius in rural Erie County. The need is great. 1 in 3 women, 1 in 4 children, and 1 in 5 men experience domestic violence. 

Statistics reveal our small but effective agency is making strides in its mission to serve survivors and eliminate domestic violence. During 2024-25, we helped a record number of 783 survivors. That's 233 more than our 20-year average of 550 clients served annually. 

More work needs to be done, but we can't do it alone. Eliminating domestic violence and creating communities united against domestic violence will take everyone. That's why Safe Journey created PurpleOne and Orange Circles, domestic violence awareness programs that empower the community.

Our national-award-winning PurpleOne program trains community members to recognize and respond to domestic violence and to refer victims to Safe Journey’s free, confidential services. About 80 county locations have been approved as Safe Places for Domestic Violence Victims. Safe Places are locations with at least one PurpleOne-trained individual where survivors can discreetly obtain DV information and receive a referral to Safe Journey. Since its inception in 2019, the positive response to PurpleOne has tripled our hotline calls and quadrupled monthly referrals, showcasing its effectiveness and the increasing need for our services. 

Our newly developed Orange Circles program trains educators, school administrators and staff, and the community about the dangers of teen dating violence and family violence. The goal is to provide comprehensive support for youth who are affected by domestic violence and to teach them the value of healthy, violence-free relationships. In the past year, our prevention team held multiple trainings attended by more than 550 education professionals.

In rural Erie County, there are more than 70,000 potential victims of domestic violence among our family, friends, and neighbors. To connect them with the services they need to escape from violent relationships, we rely on the collective commitment and support of our supporters like you. Together, we are creating Communities United Against Domestic Violence.