The Good Shepherd Center for Battered Women with Children is also still a convent for nine Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd. Their foundress, St. Mary Euphrasia, was a Frenchwoman who had a preferential love for the downgraded, helpless and socially marginalized. During her lifetime (1796-1868) she established 110 houses with more than 2,000 Sisters on five continents. In 1904, the Sisters established a residence and boarding school for disturbed teenage girls at 1500 S. Arlington Ave. in Los Angeles. In the early 1970s, Cardinal Timothy Manning asked the Sisters to explore the possibility of opening a shelter for victims of domestic violence, which they did in 1977. Today, two Sisters still staff the shelter. The former executive director, Sister Anne Kelley, is the development director and Sister Eileen Robinson works in human resources and does catechesis with children and their mothers. The other Sisters continue to volunteer their services.“This is right at the heart of our charism,” says Sister Robinson, “because these women have been so victimized and lost all sense of their worth and dignity. And on top of that, many have been denied the right to raise their children. So the abuser has managed to remove everything from them. “So to bring that back, to restore that, to help them discover how gifted they are and how productive and what great moms they can be is our mission. We have seen such amazing success stories — not in the sense of the world, but of the person realizing ‘I am good. I can be a good mother. I can be a good citizen.’ And from that springs a desire to really make something of their lives.”Getting Help—East L.A. Shelter, (800) 548-2722—Free Spirit L.A., (323) 937-1312—Rainbow, San Pedro, (310) 547-9343—1736 Family Crisis Center, Hermosa Beach, (310) 370-5902—Sojourn, Santa Monica, (310) 264-6644—Su Casa, Lakewood, (562) 402-4888—Jenesee, (800) 479-7328—YWCA, (818) 242-1106—House of Ruth, (909) 988-5559—Haven Hills, (818) 887-6589—Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women, L.A., (323) 250-5241
