Esperanza Shelter celebrates 45 years of tackling domestic violence, helping victims
Oct. 31—Snow was falling in the early morning hours Feb. 17 when Amy Windels made the decision to leave an abusive relationship. Instead of waiting for things to turn violent — again — she called police around 3 a.m.
"I was very scared," she said. "I was a little fearful of making that decision in and of itself, but I did it anyway." She had figured she would sleep in her car that night — in the cold, with no money.
But as the police were leaving, one of the officers came to her car window and gave her a business card for Esperanza Shelter.
"I never even thought about calling a shelter because I have a dog. And I was embarrassed. I was in denial," she said. "But for some reason, not just because of the snow, I called."
Esperanza Shelter, which opened a small house in 1976 to women fleeing abuse, was one of the nation's first domestic violence shelters. Now celebrating its 45th year in the community, it continues to provides 24/7 emergency services to residents of Santa Fe and neighboring pueblos. The shelter also has expanded its programs, offering life skills training to help victims of domestic violence get back on their feet, trauma counseling for adults and children, social media campaigns and outreach to teach teens about dating violence, and a 52-week program aimed at rehabilitating offenders.
The shelter serves hundreds of people each year — providing, above all, safety from a dangerous relationship. Windels, 74, was one of them in 2021.
She explained her predicament to the shelter's intake counselor, who told her the process could take hours. "It was 7 in the morning, [and] it was still snowing like crazy," she said. Then she got the call. "I got accepted."
Esperanza sent her and her blue heeler, Archie, to a place where she could stay without anyone else knowing where she was.
"I can't even tell you the expression of relief — almost like letting out the biggest breath that I've been holding in for a year when I walked into the room," she said.
A shelter advocate called her to assess her needs: food, clothing and toiletries. Then more phone calls came, each with an offer to help in different ways. "That created a way for me to repair myself and be the person I'm supposed to be," Windels said.
Esperanza helps participants "doing orders of protection. Sometimes they have to get their driver's license reestablished, they have to get a passport," said Marcos Zubia, the shelter's director of communications and development.
"We have our nonresidential program, which is basically the same thing as a shelter, but those clients can live safely in the community," he said. "They're still getting the support that they need."
Out of immediate danger, Windels began one-on-one online sessions with Esperanza's counselors. She said, "I was blessed with Maria — she 'got' me."
The shelter offers individual and group-session counseling for adults, as well as a children's program called Seeds of Hope. "They work with children to help them deal with what they may have experienced or seen," Zubia said. "For us, it's about breaking that cycle."
During fiscal year 2020, Esperanza Shelter served 362 clients, with 60 people in emergency shelters and 302 people in nonresidential programs. It received nearly 1,000 crisis calls during that period.
Those numbers were down by around 50 percent compared to 2018, the last fiscal year that wasn't affected by COVID-19, Zubia said. "The numbers were impacted because of how many people could safely come into shelter. Then [there was] the logistical piece of: How can we safely keep people in shelter without having any sort of [COVID-19] exposure?"
He said Esperanza saw more people seeking shelter than calling the organization's crisis line after the start of the pandemic because people were living together in lockdown.
"A lot of times, our survivors were with the offenders, and it was hard for them to contact somebody," he said. "People were connecting with us through Messenger on Facebook. Sometimes, when they went shopping for groceries, they would call us from that location."
"A lot of times, our advocates were planning with them on a way to safely escape that situation," Zubia said.
In addition to shelter and counseling services, Esperanza makes domestic violence presentations to businesses and the community, and it provides court advocacy for participants who need restraining orders, custody papers or those seeking a divorce.
The organization also does community outreach at events like Indigenous Peoples Day and Oktoberfest, and it reaches out through social media channels like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. "That's really geared for teens, in particular for us to educate teens about teen dating violence," Zubia said.
Esperanza Shelter has 32 full-time staff members. The group is supported by federal and state funds, community contributions, bequests, private grants and in-kind donations, with Zubia filling in any gaps through fundraising efforts.
Windels moved out of shelter services in the summer and began painting. "I would normally be writing," she said. "But I don't need words when I paint. It's a way for me to express myself without words."
Windels said she's grateful for the help she received when she needed it most. "I encourage people to reach out for help," she said. "The world is a loving, forgiving place."
