Mission Statement
Hope’s Door seeks to end domestic violence and to empower victims to achieve safety, independence, and healing from the trauma of abuse.
Hope’s Door is Open to All
Domestic abuse does not discriminate by race, creed, color, ethnicity, disability, gender, socio-economic status or sexual orientation. Neither does Hope’s Door. We welcome everyone and work to overcome each victim’s unique barriers to safety.
El abuso doméstico no discrimina por la raza, el credo, el color de la piel, la etnia, la discapacidad, el género, estatus socioeconómica ni orientación sexual. Hope’s Door tampoco. Damos la bienvenida a todos y trabajamos para superar cada de las barreras de seguridad de nuestras víctimas.
Servicios en español: Llame 914.747.0828, Ext. 1003
Philosophy & Guiding Principles
Violence in intimate relationships is a pattern of coercive tactics that can include physical, psychological, sexual, economic and emotional abuse and is perpetrated with the goal of establishing and maintaining power and control. To stop violence, the community must act in concert to end abuses of power and to hold perpetrators accountable.
- Adult victims have the right to self-determination. Victims should and must be the ones to make decisions about their own lives.
- Children have the right to safety and protection.
- Abuse and battering are the sole responsibility of the abuser.
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- Physical violence perpetrated by an intimate partner is a criminal act, and it must be taken as seriously as stranger violence by the criminal legal system and all of its agencies.
- We oppose couple counseling, couple mediation and couple therapy in violent adult relationships because of inequities of power and danger to the victim.
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- We invite men and boys to join us in ending interpersonal and family violence.
- We encourage the participation of survivors in our work.
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History: From the Northern
Westchester Shelter to Hope’s Door
In 1979, the Junior League of Northern Westchester, with support from the criminal justice and interfaith community, conducted a needs assessment and identified domestic violence as an issue of deep concern. In 1980, these visionary leaders founded the Northern Westchester Shelter, which later became Hope’s Door.
In those early days, we operated a crisis hotline and support services out of the Peekskill YWCA while survivors found safety in the homes of families recruited through the interfaith community.
Within a few years, the emergency shelter program found a home in Pleasantville and program services expanded to meet the needs of survivors. In 1997, the organization purchased and renovated a 16-bed residence where survivors and their children continue to be sheltered to this day.
Over the next ten years, we continued to shelter survivors and to enhance services for them and their children. We also began to focus on the prevalence of teen dating abuse and to commit greater resources to ending the violence and breaking the intergenerational cycle of abuse.
In 2009, we clarified our purpose, revised our mission statement, and initiated a strategic planning process that compelled us to choose a new name to reflect the enhanced scope of our mission and the availability of our services to all of Westchester County. We became Hope’s Door.
Board of Directors
- Debra Kousouros, Esq., President
- Wendy M. Gardner, Vice President
- Jill Deitch, Secretary
- Julia Peloso-Barnes, Treasurer
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- Christine Bartels
- Blakely Brodbeck
- Erika Garcia-Lavyne
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- Kristen N. Gizzi
- Martha Obler Kohn, LMSW
- Ken Marsolais
- Dan Schorr
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Advisory Board
- Sheryl Dale, Chair, Assistant Director, Mohawk Day Camp
- Patricia Carrera, CFP®, CDFA, Financial Professional, AXA Advisors, LLC
- Jean Marie Connolly, Senior Director, Altium Wealth Management, LLC
- Alyssa Dweck, MS, MD, FACOG, CareMount Medical
- Tom Gardner
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- Gina R. Jackson
- Gerard A. Klingman, President, Klingman and Associates, LLC
- Penney J. Klingman
- Jeffrey Kohn, Managing Partner, New York, O'Melveny & Myers LLP
- Diane Rooney
- David M. Ryan, Chief of Police Pound Ridge
- Ira M. Schulman, Partner, Pepper Hamilton LLP
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- Joel Seligman, President & CEO, Northern Westchester Hospital
- Nancy K. Simpkins
- Michael A. Stillman, MD
- Helen Williams
- Eric I. Wrubel, Esq., Partner, Warshaw Burstein, LLP
- Irina Zhabinskaya, MD, Medical Director, Pediatrics, Northern Westchester Hospital
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Executive Staff
CarlLa Horton, MPA, Executive Director
CarlLa Horton was appointed Executive Director of Hope’s Door in 1997, three years after receiving her graduate degree from the School of Business and Public Administration at Bernard Baruch College where she graduated first in her executive MPA class. Horton grew up in a family plagued by poverty and domestic violence and sees her work as an outgrowth of her social justice and feminist principles. During her tenure at Hope’s Door, the agency’s annual revenues grew from $560,000 to more than $1.8 million while the annual number of victims served grew from 250 to 765. Horton serves on the Advisory Committee to the New York State Senate Task Force on Domestic Violence, the Westchester County Domestic Violence Council, the Westchester Women’s Agenda, the Legislative Committee of the New York State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, and as a member of the New York Women’s Equality Coalition, among other activist work. |
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Jennifer Ryan Safsel, BA, Director of Development & Community Relations
Jennifer Ryan Safsel joined Hope’s Door in January 2013 as Director of Development and Community Relations. A graduate of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, Safsel began her career on Capitol Hill as a staff assistant to then U.S. Senator John Kerry, now U.S. Secretary of State. She also served as the Hudson Valley coordinator of his presidential campaign. In addition, Safsel worked on Capitol Hill for the National Association of Counties and the American Nurses Association. As the founder of Sagamore Strategies, Safsel worked with non-profits, small businesses, corporations, and candidates for public office on a range of services that include grassroots volunteer building, communications strategies, fundraising, political action and policy development. |
Phillip G. Morton, BS, Chief Financial Officer
Phillip G. Morton joined Hope’s Door as Comptroller in 2008 after 25 years of work in both the private sector and nonprofit fund accounting field. Prior to Hope’s Door, Morton worked at Abbott House, Kaiser Permanente and Waldenbooks. Morton received his BS degree in Accounting with a minor in Psychology from the University of New Haven and serves as the Treasurer of the Tarrytown YMCA. |
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Dianne DeFilippis, MS, Director of Administration
Dianne DeFilippis joined Hope’s Door in 2008 as a Domestic Violence Counselor and Teen Educator, and now serves as Director of Administration. Her duties encompass facilities management at our sites in Pleasantville and Ossining, human resources administration, volunteer management, and oversight of IT needs. DeFilippis has a BS from Mercy College and a MS in Counseling from Pace University. |
Senior Staff
May Krukiel, MA, M.Ed., Director of Residential Services
May Krukiel joined Hope’s Door in January 2015 as the Director of Residential Services where she oversees service delivery in our emergency shelter program. She is responsible for client services, staff development, volunteer coordination, facilities oversight and grants management. Client services include survivor empowerment, safety planning, danger assessments, counseling, advocacy, support groups, life skills, court preparation, economic empowerment, and a 24/7 crisis hotline program. Krukiel is highly regarded for her work against gender-based violence. Prior to Hope’s Door, she served for eight years as the Director of Victims Assistance Services at WestCOP, a primary provider of domestic violence and sexual assault services, and for eleven years at the Rockland Family Shelter as their Director of Sexual Trauma Services. Krukiel is a current board member and past chair of the Westchester Women’s Agenda. She has served on the Westchester County Domestic Violence Council, the Westchester County Criminal Justice Advisory Board and the board of the New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault. She founded and co-chaired the Westchester LGBTQ Task Force and has been an active member of New York’s LGBTQ DV Network, among other activist work. Krukiel earned a BA from Douglass College of Rutgers University, an MA in Clinical and School Psychology from Adelphi University and a M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology from Boston University. |
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Debbie Lauro-Conn, LCSW-R, Director of Community Services
Debbie Lauro-Conn joined Hope’s Door in 2013 as the Director of Community Services. Lauro-Conn serves as a member of the Senior Management Team and oversees victim services and prevention initiatives at Hope’s Door sites in Pleasantville and Ossining and at the Family Justice Center in White Plains. Programs include counseling, support groups, courthouse advocacy, children’s services, teen program, multi-cultural services, and economic empowerment. Lauro-Conn came to Hope’s Door with over 30 years of extensive clinical, program development and administrative experience in mental health and substance abuse. Prior to Hope’s Door, Lauro-Conn was the Executive Director of AMIC, the Director of Development for Putnam Family & Community Services and the Mental Health Clinic Director at Family Services of Westchester. Lauro-Conn received her BA in Psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and her MSW in Direct Services from Florida State University. Lauro-Conn also has advanced training in Family Systems Treatment and Alcohol/Substance Abuse Treatment. Lauro-Conn is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and the Academy of Certified Social Workers. |
Gay French-Ottaviani, LCSW-R, CP, Senior Domestic Violence Counselor
Gay French-Ottaviani, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, a member of AGPA and NASW, and a Certified Practitioner of Psychodrama, Sociometry and Group Psychotherapy, joined Hope’s Door in 2001. French-Ottaviani serves as our Senior Domestic Violence Counselor, specializes in individual counseling and support group services for adult survivors of abuse, and provides supervision for the Hope’s Door counseling staff and interns. A graduate of New York University’s MSW program, Professor French-Ottaviani has taught Intimate Partner Abuse at Long Island University and Pace University and has run psychodrama groups for court adjudicated youth, dual diagnosis adults and adolescents at Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital. She is Co-Chair of NEWDAA, a consortium of DV experts, clergy, police and other first responders with common purpose to raise Domestic Abuse awareness in NE Westchester. She has a private practice in Pound Ridge. |
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Kristen Orlando, MHC-LP, Prevention Program Coordinator and Domestic Violence Counselor
Kristen Orlando joined Hope’s Door in 2013 as a Teen Educator in our Love Shouldn’t Hurt teen dating abuse prevention program and was recently promoted to be the Coordinator of that program. Orlando has expertise in presenting classroom workshops on healthy relationships, facilitating our Students Talking About Relationship (STAR) teen peer leadership program, organizing our annual teen symposium, and providing domestic violence counseling to teenagers and adults. Her primary goal in working with teens is to break the cycle of violence while promoting healthy relationships based on equality, respect and trust. Prior to Hope’s Door, Orlando worked at an outpatient counseling and recovery services private practice, mainly helping teens and adults struggling with alcoholism and substance abuse in St. Augustine, Florida. Orlando received her BA in Psychology from Siena College and MS in Mental Health Counseling from Pace University. |
Multi-cultural Services
Coco Kausar Alvi, BA, LCSW, Domestic Violence Counselor/Advocate
Coco Kausar Alvi joined Hope’s Door in 2005, where she provides counseling and advocacy services with a focus on South Asian and Muslim victims of abuse. Alvi is fluent in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, which makes her an invaluable asset for multi-cultural services. Prior to Hope’s Door, Alvi served as the Domestic Violence Program Director at the South Asian Women’s Association in Queens and with the United Nations Population Fund where she conducted research in the impact of gender-based violence on women and girls. Through Behbud USA, she works to empower Muslim and Pakistani women; and she is active with the American Muslim Women’s Association, which awarded her a Certificate of Recognition and Appreciation. Alvi has served on the Westchester County Women’s Advisory Board since 2011. She received her MSW from the Columbia University School of Social Work and her BA in Psychology and Women’s Studies from Purchase College.
Staff
- Lindsay Amoroso, MBA
- Natalie E., MBA
- Ashley Gil, BA
- Brittany H., BA
- Ethan Kravitz, AS
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- Maya Lloyd, BS
- Kristen Orlando, MS
- Chelsea R., BA
- Anna Riolo, MS
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- Brenda Rodriguez, MS
- Erin R., BS
- Ana Rubio, BA
- Tami Shimkin, BA
- Shannon Sullivan, BS
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Charity Accountability
Tax Exempt Status
501 c 3 Letter 2010 Hopes Door
Hope’s Door is recognized by the IRS as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit charity. Our federal tax ID number is 13-3023259. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent provided by law.
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Annual Reports
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Audits
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