The phone rings thousands of times a year. Approximately 10,000, to be more precise.
Some are just asking questions — for a friend or maybe for a “friend.” Some are in need of urgent services. Some just want to know there is someone out there, just in case.
For most seeking help at Hope’s Door New Beginning Center (HDNBC), that phone call is just the beginning.
HDNBC is a domestic violence services organization for victims and perpetrators.
The organization started as two separate entities — Hope’s Door opened in Plano in 1985, and New Beginning Center opened in Garland in 1983 — that joined together in 2016.
“They were both doing the same [work] … serving pretty much the same folks in Collin County and in this very specific area of Dallas,” Hope’s Door New Beginning CEO Megan Valdez says. “When we merged, it helped us to serve the community better, just as one united organization.”
The combined organization serves more than 1,700 new individuals every year and between 2,200 and 2,500 total clients annually across the center’s emergency shelters, counseling programs, legal advocacy and outreach services.
For Valdez, the work is deeply personal and long-standing. Her first job out of college was at New Beginning Center’s Garland shelter, where she worked directly with clients on the hotline and in case management.
After several years, she transitioned into child welfare, but found that the lessons of domestic violence advocacy stayed with her.
“It’s something that you can’t really unlearn,” she says.
In 2021, she returned to the organization, overseeing shelter operations before moving into broader leadership roles. By fall 2024, she had been named CEO — a full-circle moment shaped by years of experience both inside and outside the organization.
Not everyone who calls in is looking for emergency shelter, Valdez says.
Services for survivors also include case management, legal advocacy and counseling for adults and children. Perpetrators utilize the 24-week battering intervention and prevention program, which provides a structured, skills-based group that promotes accountability and behavior change, especially for those who have been required to take classes by the courts in a divorce, child custody or protective order case.
While about 78% of the organization is government funded, donations and the HDNBC Resale Store fund the remainder.
The Resale Store, located at 2109 W. Parker Road, allows shelter residents to shop for items with vouchers. The remainder of the items are sold to the public.
Still, despite the large client base and four-decade history, awareness of services is one of the biggest hurdles.
“It still surprises me that people aren’t aware that we exist,” Valdez says.
With that lack of awareness comes misconceptions. That domestic violence only happens in certain types of relationships. That it is a private matter. That it’s only driven by anger or substance use.
Hope’s Door New Beginning teaches against these misconceptions through community advocacy in classrooms, churches and workplaces in an effort to spread awareness.
“There are full-grown adults walking around that don’t know how to set boundaries,” Valdez says. “That’s a good practice to teach young people, so they feel comfortable saying no.”
The most important takeaway: Domestic violence is not an isolated issue. It’s a public health issue.
To help mitigate the lack of awareness, Hope’s Door New Beginning has a Youth Advisory Council, a Young Professionals program and will soon have an Ambassador program for those who want to help but don’t have time to volunteer.
“We want to make it easy to get involved,” Valdez says.
For those who want to do so, Hope’s Door New Beginning is looking for volunteers of all kinds, whether it’s administrative work, shifts at the Resale Store or working with one of the community advocacy programs.
For the thousands who call each year — and the many more who may one day need to — that consistency matters.
