Nixon, Thriving Hearts reach agreement to put center in old police station

The City of Nixon and the Thriving Hearts Crisis Center (formerly the Guadalupe Valley Family Violence Shelter) reached an agreement Thursday, Sept. 19, that will create a satellite office for the center in Nixon.

The new office will be located in the former Nixon Police Department building on Third Street, next door to the current police station. Volunteers have been busy working to get the space remodeled and reorganized so it can be used by THCC, which seeks to assist survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in four counties, including Gonzales County.

Nixon previously had a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Rancho-Nixon Historical Association to use the old police station as a museum, but Interim City Manager Darryl Becker said Donald Hoffman of Rancho-Nixon has graciously allowed the city to work with Thriving Hearts instead as the organization is currently using space at the Aphne Pattillo Nixon Public Library instead.

“I was able to meet with Mr. Hoffman, and I'd asked him if he was still using the facility, and he told me that it's kind of too small for them,” Becker said. “The lady from Thriving Hearts (community engagement and volunteer coordinator Ashley Storey) came over to look at the building. It is an older building and it needs some work on it, but we decided that it was going to be one of the better locations for it, so we've been working on it, cleaning it and painting it.

“Most of the work being done is by volunteers. The American Legion showed up and assisted and painted. We also had officers show up and work and a lot of the city crews put in some spare time.”

Becker said the city was able to get some materials (doors, framework, cabinets, fixtures, water heaters, etc.) from the Casita at the Nixon-Smiley CISD campus, which was being torn down, and will be able to repurpose those items into the satellite office for Thriving Hearts in order to help keep down the cost of remodeling the building.

“We want to start by saying how grateful we are,” Storey added. “We keep talking about it over and over — we're just extremely grateful that you are supporting us, and that you are making this work with us.”

Storey said the shelter provides free, confidential services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and human trafficking, but their services are not restricted to women only.

“We used to be known as the women's shelter and that was part of the reason for the name change, because we serve men and children as well,” Storey said. “We serve four counties — Guadalupe, Gonzales, Karnes and Wilson. This office would have non-residential services, so it would be a satellite office where we would do counseling and also have a legal advocate which can help victims through the court processes as well.”

Sexual assault program coordinator Stephanie Johnson said the office will also provide sexual assault accompaniment services to hospitals and courts and offers a class for people seeking an affidavit of no-prosecution called Resource Information for Survivor Empowerment, or RISE, which the court liaison at the District Attorney’s office will recommend taking.

Andy Allen, who manages the Thriving Hearts thrift store, The Cranny, in Seguin, said a smaller version of the storefront eventually will be opened at the Nixon satellite office with all proceeds benefitting people who receive services from Thriving Hearts. However, anyone already receiving services from the center can get things they need from the thrift store at no charge.

Nixon Police Chief Miguel Cantu said he set up a temporary office in his station for Storey two weeks ago and “it assists us as far as having to travel, because usually for these services, we have to go to Seguin, which takes our officers away from the city of Nixon, so this really helps us out.”

City Attorney Eddie Escobar praised the agreement between the city and Thriving Hearts as “an absolutely phenomenal thing for this organization to be a part of the community.”

“Women, children and men sometimes don't have the ability to travel to get similar services down the road, for example, to Gonzales or Seguin,” Escobar said. “A lot of times, they're threatened in some way that if they go with anybody, anywhere, outside the city, that they're going to call Immigration on them. There’s a lot of threats that come from the person that's causing these assaults because of fear and because they know what they're doing is wrong.

“Giving some of the residents here locally the ability to go, even if they have to go on foot, to a facility like this to get some help — that's the first step. And having it in town is just a massive, massive move for the benefit of the residents.”

Storey said Thriving Hearts holds a candlelight vigil every October for those who are killed by family violence the previous year. While that is normally held in Floresville, this year it will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, in Nixon, likely at the Gladyne Finch Pocket Park just across the street from the police station and the new Thriving Hearts office.