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Jill Montes and Family — The Heart of Shield

Welcome to the Shield Project Resource Network

This growing library brings together verified support organizations, legal aid, and survivor services from across the United States. Many listings were drawn from The Survivor’s Handbook, co-authored by Dr. Ramona Probasco and Shield founder Jill Montes through the HWLFF Foundation.

Our goal is to make trustworthy help easy to find—whether you need immediate safety, legal guidance, or long-term recovery resources.

About Our Resource Network

The Shield Project is building the world’s most comprehensive, survivor-centered database of family-court and domestic-violence resources. Our vision is to make help accessible by zip code—connecting survivors, advocates, and researchers to verified local and national services in real time.

Beginning with national hotlines and foundational programs, we are expanding city by city to create a living map of protection, education, and hope. Our goal is not only to help survivors find safety but to ensure that advocates, policymakers, and researchers have the data they need to study, understand, and reform a system that has too often operated in the dark. When accurate information becomes visible, awareness follows—and so does change.

To paraphrase the classic line from Field of Dreams, if we build it, they will come.

This resource index was inspired by and developed with gratitude to the HWLFF Foundation, founded by Dr. Ramona Probasco. We also thank Shield Project founder Jill Montes, co-author of the HWLFF survivor handbook and director of HWLFF, for her year-long research and ongoing dedication to supporting survivors and families nationwide.

Emergency Hotlines & National Resources

  • National Domestic Violence Hotline — 800-799-SAFE (7233) or 800-787-3224 (TTY); www.thehotline.org

  • Resource Center on Domestic Violence, Child Protection & Custody — 800-527-3223; www.rcdvcpc.org

  • National Coalition Against Domestic Violence — 303-839-8459; www.ncadv.org

  • National Center for Victims of Crime — 202-467-8700; www.ncvc.org

  • National Organization for Victim Assistance — 800-TRY-NOVA; www.trynova.org

  • VAWnet – National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women — www.vawnet.org

  • National Resource Center on Domestic Violence — 800-537-2238; www.nrcdv.org

  • National Sexual Violence Resource Center — 877-739-3895; www.nsvrc.org

They rely on your silence. They thrive in the shadows of "immunity."

While you read this, children are being returned to the arms of their abusers. Mothers are being silenced by the very benches meant to protect them. Some of these survivors are no longer with us; their voices were extinguished by a system that chose the "protection" of a professional over the life of a child.

We do not just ask for change. We demand an end to the impunity that allows trauma to be ignored and lives to be shattered. We speak for the broken, the unheard, and the fallen.

The following resources are your weapons. Use them to hold the system to the standard of the law. Strike back on behalf of those who no longer can.

STRIKE BACK: The National Accountability Hub

San Diego & Los Angeles

New York City

Chicago

Miami

Boston

Philadelphia

Atlanta

Phoenix

Texas

Continue below for State & Local Support, Legal Aid, and Parenting Tools ↓

State & Local Support

Counseling & Mental-Health Support

Legal Aid & Rights Information

Additional & Specialized Support

Digital Safety & Mobile Apps

Sexual-Violence & Assault Resources

  • RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) — 800-656-HOPE (4673); www.rainn.org

Family & Parenting Resources

Inclusive & Demographic-Specific Support

For Men

For LGBTQ+ Individuals

For Immigrant Women

For Teens

Help for Abusive Partners

We will continue to expand this list as additional trusted partners and survivor-focused organizations are identified.

Learn more about our mission on the About page, or support our work by visiting the Donate page.

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  • Trauma-informed therapy and survivor-focused mental-health resources; includes county mental-health access lines and tele-therapy options.

  • Rental-relief, emergency-fund, and transitional-housing programs for women and children leaving abuse situations.

  • National DV Hotline 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) | California Partnership to End Domestic Violence Resources | Local crisis and shelter numbers.

  • Guides to restraining orders, custody procedures, and survivor education workshops.