Hill Country Crisis Council serves 1,000 individuals a year across six counties — and doesn’t want to be a secret anymore

When a child arrives at the Kids’ Advocacy Place on what Brent Ives calls “their worst day,” the goal is simple: make sure they only have to say it once.

A family advocate meets them at the door. The child enters a forensic interview room. In a separate observation room, law enforcement officers, Department of Family and Protective Services investigators, and local prosecutors watch via closed-circuit feed. The interview ends. The multi-disciplinary team immediately convenes to map the investigation. The child does not have to repeat their story to a detective, a prosecutor, and a social worker on separate occasions.

“The hardest job that I’ve ever felt like that anybody has to do,” Ives said Thursday on Lead Live’s Nonprofit Week, “is to be an investigator for the Department of Family and Protective Services.”

Ives — now in his ninth year as executive director and 16th year with the organization — appeared alongside Chief Development Officer Chandler Collins, in his third year. Together they represent an organization that most Kerr County residents know exists but few fully understand.

The Hill Country Crisis Council, incorporated in April 1984, operates what Ives describes as a genuinely rare structure for a rural territory: three distinct programs under a single nonprofit umbrella, serving Kerr, Kendall, Kimble, Bandera, Gillespie, and Mason counties.

The first is Kids’ Advocacy Place — the forensic interview and child advocacy center serving youth ages 0 to 17 referred by law enforcement or DFPS following physical abuse, sexual assault, or exposure to traumatic violence. KAP guides 300 children and 200 non-offending caregivers through its process annually.

The second is the Red Doors Shelter, an emergency housing facility providing crisis intervention, safety planning, and long-term assistance for individuals and families escaping intimate partner violence. The shelter houses 75 to 80 individuals at any given time.

The third is the Steps Program — non-residential advocacy, counseling, and legal assistance for survivors of domestic violence and adult sexual assault who do not require shelter but need sustained support to rebuild their lives.

Combined, the organization intersects with more than 1,000 individuals annually — and once someone becomes a client, they can remain one indefinitely.

“If you are someone that becomes one of our clients,” Ives said, “you can be a client of ours forever. We will still provide advocacy services, mental health services to you for as long as you need them or want them.”

Ives shared a finding from current research that reframes a common assumption about child sexual abuse: children are perpetrating on other children in at least a third — and possibly up to half — of all child sexual offense cases. The data is not an occasion for despair, he said. Because children are still developing, they can be successfully rehabilitated through targeted early intervention in ways that adult offenders typically cannot. Catching and addressing the behavior early breaks a generational cycle.

The organization’s facilities tell a separate story. The Red Doors Shelter operates in what was originally the property’s farmhouse — aging infrastructure with electrical limitations severe enough that running a toaster and microwave simultaneously can blow the entire system. A long-term capital campaign to build a modern shelter and convert the farmhouse to administrative offices is a strategic priority. The Kids’ Advocacy Place is also, in Ives’ words, heavily “space-challenged” and needs a physical expansion.

The shelter also maintains an on-site dog kennel and cat house — because leaving a pet behind is a genuine barrier for survivors trying to escape abuse. The open-door pet policy recently produced an unplanned office event when a resident checked in with snakes, one of which escaped overnight and required an impromptu morning-wide search.

State and federal grants cover HCCC’s baseline program costs, but strict regulatory limitations leave significant gaps. Collins focuses entirely on raising private, unrestricted donations to cover what grants will not: facility maintenance, emergency appliance repairs, the pet shelter, and direct transition assistance — rental deposits, utility bills, moving costs — for survivors leaving the shelter for independent housing.

Ives closed with a line that captures the organization’s central tension.

“We don’t want to be a well-kept secret anymore.”

The Guardian Program offers monthly recurring giving. The Big Give regional fundraising campaign runs in September. The Monte Carlo Casino Night is the organization’s signature annual gala. To volunteer or coordinate shelter donations, contact Suzanne at suzanne@crisiscouncil.net. Administrative office: (830) 257-7088. 24/7 crisis hotline: (888) 621-0047.