On the south side of Saratoga Springs, at the edge of Spa State Park, the Saratoga Center for the Family building stands unassumingly.
Without walking inside, you might never know what actually goes on inside.
But, in a quiet back room, (describe what it looks like — are there couches? Comfy things?) Katie Gilbert shares her experiences of what led to her seeking help.
“I am a domestic violence survivor. I was shot in the face with a 12 gage by my son's father in 2018 center for the family was able to help myself and my children guide through all these traumatic events, mentally, physically, emotionally,” said Gilbert.
For the past eight years, Gilbert and her children have been living with the scars, both physical and mental, of her attack. She says she doesn’t know where they’d be without the center.
“They were able to give us the tools to be able to conquer ways on how to get through our feelings. They were able to come to come with us to court. A few times when I was testifying, to help me get through the hardest parts. My children had amazing therapy sessions here. They were able to conquer their goals with their feelings and being able to open up and express how they feel, rather than stuffing them, like a lot of children do, because of traumatizing events,” said Gilbert.
After years of waiting, Gilbert is expecting to get a new eye socket. Within the next year, she’ll be able to get a prosthetic eye.
Since the attack, she says Saratoga Center for the Family has been a vital lifeline for her and her children.
“We've conquered our goals with being able to talk about our feelings. We've conquered goals into how we handle getting bullied as a family, which is one great thing, because we can't go out to a restaurant or Great Escape and feel normal because there's always someone staring at me, which in turn makes them feel raw and not so much stuck, but feel helpless. And no one ever wants to see a child feel helpless. And that is why this place is so amazing, because they can come and not feel helpless or hopeless,” said Gilbert.
The center itself provides services to those in need regardless of their ability to pay.
The bottom floor of their Ballston Avenue headquarters houses Saratoga County's child advocacy center – where social workers and law enforcement officers are able to work with children following traumatic events and abuse, saving them from recounting those events in a police station.
Saratoga Center of the Family Capital Campaign and Community Engagement Director Derek Tefft has been with the center for three years.
“There continues to be a lot of demand from the community to have access to these services. So, we're trying to grow our services in that respect. Same with the child advocacy center, we've kind of outgrown our space we see last year, we saw 271 kids come through our doors, and those are only the kids we know about. So, we've been expanding our prevention education services to increase that awareness and give kids the skills that they need to stay safe,” said Tefft.
For Tefft, seeing a success story like Gilbert's means the center still has a purpose.
“You know, people can go on to live happy, successful lives no matter what the situation is, and some people try to take it on themselves, and some people have that resilience. Other people don't, and that's okay. That's why we're here, right? Is to provide that bridge, and our goal is to help people find help and hope and healing, no matter what situation and no matter how long it takes,” said Tefft.
Gilbert says thanks to the therapy and support her family received from the center, they’ve been able to find a new normal.
“We call ourselves like the mini-Terminator family. And it's not just with the one eye joke aspect of the Terminator, you know, but the fact that we could go through something so traumatizing and still find that positivity, because at the end of the day, mommy survived, we are still our family of three, despite that giant speed bump. So, we like to find our own normal like we're that family that will crack an eye joke to make someone feel uncomfortable before they try to call me Cyclops and make me feel uncomfortable,” said Gilbert.
Gilbert hopes her story and journey to recovery and inspire more people to seek help.
“It's okay to ask for help. That's the one thing a lot of people don't want to do, because they don't like feeling vulnerable. The hardest part I feel in healing is picking up that phone that weighs 25,000 pounds,” said Gilbert.
Saratoga Center for the Family's Gathering for Gratitude gala will be held Thursday at Universal Preservation Hall at 6 p.m.
