Eliza’s Helping Hands was founded in 2015 in Winston-Salem with a focus on helping victims of various crimes, including survivors of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. Since its founding, the organization has served over 5,000 clients.

2026 Update!!!

When we opened the doors of Eliza’s Helping Hands in 2015, we did so with a simple belief: that people in crisis deserve support, and that anyone willing to show up for them should be welcomed, not obstructed.

What we did not anticipate was how hard the Bureaucratic! systems designed to help survivors would make it to actually help them.

Over the past decade, we have encountered entities and individuals we believed shared our mission — organizations, agencies, and professionals who presented themselves as allies and partners. Some were. Many were not. What we found, too often, were gatekeepers more concerned with protecting territory than protecting people. Bureaucracies that prioritize process over persons in pain. Spaces where politics, competition, and self-interest quietly determine who gets to serve — and who gets pushed out.

We are a small nonprofit. We started with very little, built relationships one client at a time, and poured ourselves into this community. And still, we have had to fight — not just for funding, not just for recognition — but simply for the right to continue doing work that our clients need.

It should not be this hard to help people in crisis. It should not require navigating hostility from the very systems meant to support survivors. And yet, here we are — still standing, still serving, and still committed to being the kind of organization we wish others had been to us.

We have learned that the devil is always busy, and his minions often come disguised as allies. But we also know that what is built on purpose and truth cannot be permanently stopped — only delayed. Every obstacle has made us more discerning, more resilient, and more rooted in why we started.

We share this not out of bitterness, but out of transparency. Our community deserves to know that the road to real advocacy is rarely smooth, and that the obstacles placed before small agencies like ours ultimately hurt the people we all claim to serve.

We are rebuilding — with clearer eyes, stronger boundaries, and an unshakeable commitment to this mission.

Thank you for trusting us. Thank you for standing with us.

— The Eliza’s Helping Hands Team

Making a Referral

If you would like to make a referral, please complete this form and email it to us, or call our office during regular office hours.