After years of planning, the Pima Family Advocacy Center opened its doors this month, giving survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and elder abuse a single location to access law enforcement, legal support, therapy and victim services, instead of the patchwork of separate offices they've long had to navigate on their own.

The center's on-site partners include Defenders of Children, the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation's anti-violence project, the Pima County Attorney's Office, the Tucson Police Department, the Pima County Sheriff's Department, Palo Santo Psychotherapy and Wellness and the Arizona Child and Adolescent Survivor Initiative.

The center funds its supplies and resources through grants and donations, ensuring services are free for clients who come in looking for help. It's currently open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but staffers are hoping to extend those hours in the future.

"(We don't yet) have the capacity right now to be (open) 24 hours, but that's definitely a future goal to be able to have the staff capacity, the funding, to really operate when people need us, which is not always going to be (from) 9 to 5," said Program Director Kaitlyn Noris.

Noris is responsible for the daily operations at the center, including managing partners, making sure that things run smoothly and that clients who walk in, call or are referred from outside agencies get the services they need.

"We would like to be able to create a medical suite for this place, as well. We're seeking funding and seeking donations from the community to be able to make it a place where a survivor of abuse could receive medical help," said Executive Director Joseph Ricks. "Strangulation exams, sexual assault exams could all happen in the same place. They all can also receive trauma therapy (and) receive orders of protection as opposed to having to travel to 15 different locations to receive those."

The center launched a fundraising campaign at its grand opening to build an on-site medical forensic suite, which would let survivors get medical forensic exams on site in a private setting rather than at a hospital.

Marie Fordney, executive director at the Children's Advocacy Center of Southern Arizona, said children's voices are just as important as adults'.

"One member of our Voices Council really made a pivotal change for us. She told us about how when she went home with her caregiver ... that person wasn't really supportive of her and what she needed was to have her own person who was on her side," Fordney said. "We've really evolved our programs at the Children's Advocacy Center to make sure the kids have as much support or even more than their caregivers, because the CAC model is built on the idea that if you build up the home, then the child is going to be doing better."

One man, who asked to remain anonymous given the sensitive nature of the situation, said a resource like the center could have made a difference for his family growing up.

His sister was a client at the Children's Advocacy Center after a period of abuse in their household, and he saw firsthand what she went through trying to get help. In addition to witnessing the situation with his sister, the man was also subjected to verbal and mental abuse.

"I've had some friends who have in their adulthood been having difficulties," he said. "I wish they had (this) resource."

Drawing on his family's experience, he said job placement support and help with transportation, whether to interviews or to the center itself, would make a meaningful difference for someone in an abusive situation.

"One issue I've seen a lot of is that (people are) too afraid to come forward and say anything because they're afraid of the consequences that are to occur," he said. "My sister's situation and (mine) with my father and everything, (we were afraid) there would have been backlash and that he would have done something to her if she were to come out with it."

He also raised the challenge of proving abuse that doesn't leave physical evidence.

Staff and board members acknowledge there's room to grow, from expanding hours to adding services, but they see the center's opening as a major step forward for families in Pima County dealing with violence or abuse.

"As we celebrate this milestone, we're also looking toward the future," Ricks said in a news release. "With the support of our community, we can create a medical forensic suite that gives survivors another compassionate option for care and continues to transform how Pima County responds to violence."

Christy Russell is a journalism major at the University of Arizona and Tucson Spotlight intern. Contact her at crussell68@arizona.edu.

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