40th Anniverary Benefit
40 Years of Hope and Healing - 40th Anniversary Benefit

Thank you to everyone
who stood with survivors
and VIP, uplifting voices,
nurturing healing, and
turning hardship
into hope.

If you couldn’t join us,
click here to enjoy the
evening’s moments.

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Playground

Violence Intervention Program Timeline

Scroll horizontally and click on any date on the timeline to learn more about VIP’s history.

1984

VIP is Founded

1988

Shelter Established

1989

Harlem Office & New Hotline Established

2001

Doors Open in the Bronx Community

2005

Transitional Housing Program Opens

2006

Doors Open in Queens Community

2009

Community Outreach Begins

2010

Economic Justice Program Launched

2019

Sexual Violence Program Opens

2020

Operations During Pandemic

2021

4 Exciting New Programs Open

2024-2025

40th Anniversary

Violence Intervention Program Timeline

Click on any date on the above timeline to learn more about VIP’s history.

VIP is Founded

Founded by Beth Richie and Elsa Rios in 1984 as a program of EHCHS and focused on three key areas: providing bilingual and bi-cultural direct services to survivors of domestic and sexual violence, offering community education for cultural change in the Latinx community, and engaging in community organizing by inviting hospitals, police, and legal services programs to address domestic violence with culturally relevant strategies.

Shelter Established

Established Moriviví Safe Dwelling Program, the first domestic violence shelter for immigrant Latinxs in NYC.

Doors Open at Harlem Office & New Hotline Established

Became an independent nonprofit and established its first office in East Harlem to provide community-based Expanded services to include a bilingual hotline and advocacy work.

Doors Open in the Bronx Community

VIP opened a second non-residential office to serve its community in the Bronx.

Transitional Housing Program Opens

Casa Sandra opens its doors as a transitional housing program dedicated to aiding survivors of Domestic Violence.

Doors Open in Queens Community

VIP opened a third non-residential office to serve adults, children, and youth in Queens.

Community Outreach Begins

Introduced the Promotoras initiative, assembling a group of survivors and former clients to facilitate outreach and engage in meaningful dialogues with the community, based on their personal experiences.

Economic Justice Program Launched

Established the Economic Justice Program, an innovative and culturally proficient approach to support survivors who face challenges in finding traditional employment, especially immigrants.

Sexual Violence Program Opens

With support from the Fund for Me Too Movement and Allies at the New York Women’s Foundation, in collaboration with Tarana Burke, VIP opens the Sexual Violence Project aimed at providing support for immigrant and spanish speaking survivors of sexual violence with experiences of complex trauma.

Launched Brightly East Harlem (now Up and Go), a worker-owned cleaning cooperative comprised of 19 worker-owners providing residential and commercial cleaning services.

Hosts Mujeres, Migration and Money, our first ever symposium on economic stability for immigrant survivors.

Operations During Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, VIP operated at full service providing emergency resources to survivors and their families, connecting survivors to relief efforts made available through government, philanthropy, and/ or other nonprofits, and promotoras distributed materials in public areas.

4 Exciting New Programs Open

VIP partners with the Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender Based Violence to launch the Home+ program into the Bronx community, offering survivors home alarm systems and security-related repairs to keep them safe in their homes and prevent homelessness due to domestic violence.

Established the Child and Adolescent Program to offer clinical support to children and teens aged 3-18 who have experienced or witnessed domestic, sexual, and community violence, disasters, traumatic grief, medical trauma, and refugee trauma. This is the first therapeutic and trauma prevention programming offered to children in VIP’s history, and establishes a unique clinic culturally tailored for the needs of Latinx youth.

Established the Rapid Re-Housing Program to prevent homelessness and/or reduce the time spent in shelter for survivors and their families.

Strengthened the Community Engagement Program with three main components: the Promotoras Initiative, digital education and outreach, and preventative workshops.

40th Anniversary

Violence Intervention Program celebrates its 40th anniversary of empowering Latinx survivors and building stronger communities.

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