40 Years of Safety… Rose Brooks is here.
Rose Brooks Center is about saving lives. Each year, Rose Brooks Center reaches over 14,000 individuals and pets. While hundreds of individuals find safety in emergency shelter, thousands more are served outside of shelter each year. We accomplish this through groundbreaking programs and services, built over the past 40 years.
To see an artist’s rendering of our entire 40 years, you may view Tim Hogan’s piece HERE.
Our Mission
The mission of Rose Brooks Center is to break the cycle of domestic violence so that individuals and families can live free of abuse.
Our Vision
Rose Brooks Center envisions a world free of violence. We will serve as a leader of innovative comprehensive family violence services, sharing our legacy of hope through advocacy, education, and empowerment.
Our Initiatives
Our initiatives are centered around three pillars – Keeping Families Safe, Creating a Safer Community, and Ending the Cycle of Violence.
Our Story
In the mid-1970’s, a small group of emergency room nurses called on the community to provide additional resources for victims of domestic violence. These committed citizens were seeing a recurrence of victims coming into the hospital related to injuries and other symptoms. A task force was created with nurses, the police department, court systems and other community resources. In 1978, the domestic violence task force was introduced to the family of Rosa Brooks. Rosa (who went by Rose) was a generous woman who always helped those in her community, so when she passed away, the Brooks family generously donated her home to the task force. 
Rose Brooks Center was established in October of that same year and in 1979, the doors to the new Rose Brooks Center emergency shelter opened. Within 24 hours, all 19 beds were full.
Because of the humanitarian legacy of Rosa Brooks, and her willingness to share her home and life with others who needed reprieve, Rose Brooks Center has grown into the largest one-site, comprehensive care facility in the state of Missouri. Today, hundreds of domestic violence survivors, their children and pets, seek shelter while escaping violence each year, while thousands more are served outside of shelter through groundbreaking community programs.
Our comprehensive programming and community partners continue to this day, with innovative ways to prevent and end the cycle of domestic violence. To learn more about our community outreach, please visit our Community Outreach page.
