Family Crisis Center is grant recipient

FAR WEST TEXAS – The Family Crisis Center of the Big Bend Inc. has received a $7,500 grant from the Trull Foundation to supplement its shelter program.

The grant will help provide for shelter client needs, including new clothing when needed, prescription refills, first-month rent deposit, utility deposits, rent and utility assistance, bus tickets and/or gasoline to be used to move clients to other cities to ensure their safety, shelter groceries and shelter aide services.

In 1967, Florence M. Trull and her children established The Trull Foundation to receive the assets of the first B. W. Trull Foundation. B. W. and Florence M. Trull established the B. W. Trull Foundation in 1948 for religious, charitable and educational purposes until its expiration by terms of indenture in 1973.

For more than 60 years, these foundations have been actively interested in various educational, religious, cultural and social programs, the majority of which have been in the State of Texas. Both foundations have supported Presbyterian interests, without being limited to only those interests. The Trull Foundation continues to be concerned with people, with improving the quality of life, especially for those living in poor or oppressed conditions.

The Family Crisis Center of the Big Bend began as a program of the Alpine Community Center in 1981, growing out of the concerns of three Alpine residents who recognized the problem of violence in families.

In June 1982, the center became a separate entity, incorporating as a Texas non-profit in May 1983. The center expanded services with funding from the Department of Human Services, Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), Hogg-Meadows Foundation, Bowers Foundation, and other private donors, to all victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and personal injury crimes in the five counties of Brewster, Jeff Davis, Pecos, Presidio and Terrell.

In 1998, the agency purchased a building opposite the Alpine Elementary School on 5th Street as its headquarters. The Meadows, Abell-Hangar, and Swalm Foundations generously granted funds to allow this purchase. Sul Ross State University Industrial Arts Department assisted the mission of the center by building a new thrift store in Alpine. This store, which has recently been improved with a sorting room addition, continues in operation at 202 N. Phelps Street.

In 2000, Mary V. Stringfellow donated an office building in Presidio in memory of her husband, Charles.

After 30 years of service, the center has served thousands of clients, and more than 150 local residents have served on the Board of Directors. The center hires 25 employees to carry out its programs, and there is opportunity for the addition of further services in the vast service area of the last frontier in far-west rural Texas.

The mission statement reads, “Strengthening Communities through Empowering Individuals,” and the center advocacy philosophy is to help primary and secondary victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and violent crime by empowering them with the needed tools to build a new life, and to teach them to advocate for themselves and others in the future.

Information: Sara Stropoli, Executive Director, 432- 837-7254.