What we talked about
Beth Flory is the CEO of Safe House in Henderson, Nevada, a comprehensive domestic violence agency supporting survivors and their children. Beth explains how Safe House provides a 62-bed emergency shelter in a confidential location, a 24/7 crisis hotline, victim advocacy through the legal process, licensed counseling, and community outreach.Always free of charge.
Show notes
Beth Flory became CEO of Safe House not through a planned career track but by relentlessly volunteering for whatever needed doing, HR, bookkeeping, volunteer coordination, COVID protocols, until the founder told her she had skills the organization wasn’t using. Her route to the top was via midnight shifts chatting with survivors who woke from nightmares, and five years working one-on-one with the children in the shelter.
What we covered
- Safe House in Henderson, Nevada operates a 62-bed emergency shelter at a confidential location that cannot be found on Google Maps, a 24-hour crisis hotline, victim advocacy through the court system, licensed counseling, and community outreach, all free of charge to survivors and their children.
- Nevada consistently ranks in the top five states for domestic violence-related homicides, and a significant share of women experiencing homelessness are there because of violence in the home. Safe House also helps pay security deposits and first month’s rent when survivors transition out of shelter.
- Research shows that 99% of domestic violence victims experience financial abuse. Beth describes the range: an abuser who tells a partner not to work, then controls all income; an abuser who takes a partner’s paycheck and gives a tiny allowance; and an abuser who opens credit cards in a partner’s name and charges them up, leaving the victim with debt they didn’t create.
- Beth’s own motivation traces to 2002, when a man followed her into her apartment building and attempted to assault her. When she called the police two weeks later after seeing him again, nobody came. She moved to Las Vegas and applied for the entry-level position at Safe House after seeing a job listing in the Las Vegas Review Journal newspaper.
- A former client who came into the shelter furious, yelling at staff, yelling at other clients, was connected with a counselor who taught her to channel that anger into writing. She discovered she was a poet, began performing publicly, and is now what Beth describes as “the calmest, most zen person you would ever meet.” Another former client who arrived speaking only Spanish, with no citizenship, later got a real estate license, then an insurance license, now owns her own insurance branch and serves as vice president of Safe House’s board of directors.
- Beth’s advice for anyone who wants to support someone in crisis is one sentence: “I’m here when you need me.” She explains that victims are often isolated from family and friends by their abuser, and that simple phrase plants something in their mind that can trigger a call at the moment they’re finally ready to leave.
About Beth
Beth Flory is the CEO of Safe House in Henderson, Nevada, a comprehensive domestic violence agency she joined in 2008 as an entry-level residential advocate. She rose through direct services, children’s programs, and operations before being succession-planned into the CEO role by Safe House founder Julie Proctor.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beth-flory-mhrm-shrm-cp
- Website: http://www.safehousenv.org
Episode 92 of the PreVetted Podcast.