“Every time you do a good deed you shine the light a little farther into the dark. And the thing is when you’re gone that light is going to keep shining on, pushing the shadows back.”

Charles de Lint

“In 1975 Social Worker Ruby Scarborough realized the desperate need for a local shelter for battered women in Santa Fe. The following year her colleague, Mary Justice, who was a staff member of the Sangre de Cristo Mental Health Center, wrote and received a federal grant request to fund a women’s shelter. For the first time, a small shelter for abused women was set up on Williams Street in Santa Fe; not long after the shelter was moved to Old Santa Fe Trail. Eventually, the current shelter property was donated and today Esperanza Shelter can house 32 domestic abuse survivors.

Forty years later, Esperanza Shelter continues to wrap its arms around each and every domestic abuse survivor who comes through our doors. Today’s programs are a far cry from the mentality of 1976 which sought to simply provide a safe haven for “battered women.” Yes—we save lives—but we also shape futures.”