The name speaks for itself. Healing Hearts & Families. The compassionate, caring and proactive staff and volunteers at Healing Hearts & Families do just that. They heal individuals’ and families’ hearts that have unfortunately encountered domestic and sexual violence.
Their vision: to eliminate domestic and sexual violence in our society. Their mission: working collaboratively with 
others in our communities towards a world without domestic and sexual violence, through client services, education and empowerment.
Their main office, located in Broken Bow, and satellite office in Ord serves an expansive 7,000 square miles in Blaine, Custer, Garfield, Greeley, Loup, Sherman, Valley and Wheeler Counties. Since their establishment in July 2010, they have been providing services, free of charge, for survivors, and their families, of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking. These do so by assessing client and family situations as well as provide immediate safety needs, technical and emotional support, safe shelter, assistance with attaining protection orders, transportation, crisis support and referrals to local community resources and professional agencies.
Healing Hearts & Families also provides an Adult Domestic Violence peer support group and are willing to explore offering Children Domestic Violence, Teen Rape Survivor and Adult Rape Survivor support groups.
Along with the one-on-one support for their clients, the six employees of Healing Hearts & Families also provides education and prevention programs and connects with local law enforcement, therapists, medical facilities, churches and schools.
All services are confidential while being based upon individual client needs. Suellen Koepke, Executive Director, and Valerie Harris, Program Manager explain their belief that “all individuals and families should receive caring, empathetic, non-judgmental support while making this change in their lives.”
Healing Hearts & Families also strives to create awareness about human trafficking, a form a modern day slavery in which people profit from exploiting others through force, fraud, coercion or deception. The U.S. government has identified human trafficking as the fastest growing criminal industry globally.
Additional information on human trafficking, provided by Healing Hearts & Families, can be accessed with the links below:
Human Trafficking is Modern Day Slavery (Healing Hearts & Families)
Human Trafficking in Nebraska: Local Perspectives on a Global Issue (Healthy Youth Nebraska 2015)
Nebraska’s Commercial Sex Market (Women’s Fund of Omaha)