Whether it’s one day or 60 or occasionally even more, there’s no time limit for freedom from domestic violence, said SABRA Sanctuary executive director Nancy Travis.

“We have no time limit as long as a victim needs our services,” she said. “We help by providing an emergency safe haven, and if needed, will try to find clients housing and a job.”

Last year, SABRA (Selma and Blackbelt Region Abuse Sanctuary) served 89 adults and children both inside and outside the shelter. Services are provided free to clients, thanks to agencies such as the United Way.

“We use the funds we receive from United Way toward food and supplies for our shelter,” Travis said.

While most victims stay only a few days before transitioning out, some stay much longer. One client, Travis said, lived at the shelter two and a half months while earning her GED from a program at the library, then found part-time work at Wal-Mart, saved her money and moved to an apartment.

“She has since moved from Selma to be closer to family but came here from Montgomery to escape her perpetrator since he knew where the Montgomery shelter was located,” she said.

Services include a 24-hour crisis hotline, counseling for clients and their children, advocacy for court cases, a support group that includes other victims of domestic violence, assistance with permanent housing and finances and prevention education.

Counselors teach victims that they are not at fault for the behavior of their abuser. Violence is a choice the abuser makes, and the abuse is more about establishing fear and a false sense of guilt in a relationship to gain control over the other person. Intimidation, threats, isolation and sometimes physical battering are methods used to coerce the victim.

The agency also distributes literature to assure people that they have the right to be treated with respect, to not be hurt physically or emotionally, to refuse affection at any time, to have friends and activities apart from a spouse or girlfriend/boyfriend, to end a relationship and to refuse sex.

Clients as well as school students are offered education about healthy relationships, how to identify a potential abuser and how to stop the cycle of abuse.

The center, which was founded in 1991 as a partnership of the Salvation Army, district attorney’s office and a committee of Dallas County citizens, violence. SABRA became an independent agency in 1994 and since 2000 also serves victims of sexual assault. Now, rape victims can receive medical care, advocacy and counseling.

Patricia Anthony is the sexual assault forensic examiner and works in coordination with Vaughan Regional Medical Center’s emergency department. Program Coordinator Sabrah Agee works closely with Anthony and Connie Wiltbank, the court advocate.

“The evidence has to be collected very carefully, and I usually go in to the hospital with Pat and explain

to the victim what is happening. I’ll also talk to family and friends of the victim,” she said.

The court advocate works with 300 to 350 clients each year, and while that number seems high, statistics show that only one in six victims report abuse, Travis said.

“They’re scared and have been told by their abuser not to report them, but in reality, reporting it is the best thing they can do for their safety and the safety of their children,” she added.

Women, Agee said, don’t report the abuse, men report abuse even less than women.

“A lot of times men who are victims won’t come in to the center, but they will talk to our counselor by phone. But we do make accommodations for men. We rent them a hotel room, and they get all the services as women,” she explained.

The crisis line (874-8711) is open 24 hours and even accepts collect calls if the person is calling long distance.