About Us
Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending domestic violence and sexual assault by providing shelter, support services, and advocacy for survivors
Learn Our Cause
Our Mission
Our Mission
To end domestic and sexual violence, as well as child sexual and physical abuse, through a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to investigations, advocacy, and support, while working in the community to change attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors
Nuestra Misión
Nuestra Misión
Poner fin a la violencia doméstica y sexual, así como al abuso sexual y abuso físico de infantil, a treves de un enfoque colaborativo y multidisciplinario en las investigaciones, la defensa y el apoyo, mientras se trabaja en la comunidad para cambiar actitudes, creencias y comportamientos.
Our Vision
Our Vision
To offer security and comprehensive support to all victims of domestic violence and promote activities that work to eliminate violence against men, women, and children.
Nuestra Visión
Nuestra Visión
Para ofrecer seguridad y apoyo integral a todas las víctimas de violencia familiar y promover actividades que trabajen para eliminar la violencia hacia hombres, mujeres y niños.
Learn Our Cause
Our Mission
To end domestic and sexual violence, as well as child sexual and physical abuse, through a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach to investigations, advocacy, and support, while working in the community to change attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors
Our Vision
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Who is Ruth's Cottage & The Patticake House?
Ending Domestic, Sexual, and Child Abuse Through Collaborative Advocacy and Support
The Tifton Judicial Circuit Shelter, Inc., DBA Ruth’s Cottage and The Patticake House began in 2002 with the Ruth’s Cottage Domestic Violence Program that included a 12-bed emergency shelter and 24/7 Hot Line. Legal advocacy services were added soon after to assist those seeking protective orders, including stalking. In 2020, the shelter was expanded to serve 25 victims of domestic violence. In 2005 The Patticake House Child Advocacy opened to provide forensic interviews. In recent years, they center has added services to victims of commercially sexually exploited children and in 2024, a forensic medical exam program was added. In 2017 the agency began steps to implement and develop a third program service area of adult sexual assault advocacy. In 2018 the first victims of sexual assault were served. The addition of a sexual assault advocacy program rendered the organization true to its logos of houses with three doors, by opening the third door of service to victims. Answering a need to better service victims from the Latinx Community, our Latino Outreach Program was launched in 2021. Since its inception, the numbers of Latin victims served by RCPCH continue to grow each year.
RCPCH is a 28 position/staff member organization with a 21-member governing board of directors. The agency offers 10 outreach/education presentations to the community. Joining with the Alliance of Children, RCPCH supports an annual training event that brings best practice education, inspiration, and motivation to our MDT partners and beyond our circuit into the state. The first all day training event designed for those who work to serve our Latino population was held in 2024 and is now an annual event. The agency has four distinct bi-lingual (English/Spanish) professional advocate positions, two in our domestic violence prevention program, one in sexual assault, and one in child advocacy. For the community, RCPCH offers monthly support groups for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. These groups are facilitated by a licensed therapist. In other community and circuit areas of support, RCPCH provides the leadership in both a Child Abuse Protocol and a Sexual Assault Protocol. The organization also provides an annual Hope for Kids Holiday Project that provides a magical Christmas for children and youth who have been maltreated.
Our History
What Makes Us Stand Apart
The Tifton Judicial Circuit Shelter, Inc., DBA Ruth’s Cottage and The Patticake House (RCPCH) was founded in 2002 to primarily serve the Tifton Judicial Circuit (Tift, Turner, Irwin and Worth Counties. This organization was the vision of a group of seven local women with a passion to bring services for victims of family violence, child abuse and sexual assault to the circuit, to be a triple program. After much research and visits to organizations around the date, and along with support from the local district attorney, they began meeting and planning. The first program service area begun was domestic violence prevention after one of the seven women, Joy Hill, lost her life in a murder suicide after coming home from an advisory meeting on the project. This motivated all concerned to begin with a domestic violence prevention program. Tift County offered a property they owned for use as a 12-bed emergency shelter, a 24/7 Hotline, and legal advocacy services to help those who sought a protection order. The program was named “Ruth’s Cottage” after the story of Ruth in the Bible. With the domestic violence prevention program on its feet, the group then moved to open another door of service with the purchase of a house to become a child advocacy center, The Patticake House. The name of “Patticake” came from organizers wanting to appreciate the hard work of Patti Stafford to have a child advocacy program. With the spelling of her name being “Patti”, thus the name for the program that relates to a child nursery rhyme and to a woman who strongly advocated for the program. Services to victims of child abuse and their non-offending caregiver began in August of 2005. To complete the initial vision of a triple victim service organization, a sexual assault advocacy program was initiated in 2017 with the first sexual assault victim served in 2018. In 2020, work began to include a forensic medical exam program at The Patticake House, and the first child was served in 2024. RCPCH is also state certified to service victims of human trafficking, child and adult.
Services Provided
Aside from our specialized programs like Latino Outreach and the Children’s Advocacy Center, Ruth’s Cottage & The Patticake House offers the following services:
- Mental Health Support
- Legal Advocacy
- 25-bed Shelter
- 24/7 Hotlines
Towns Served
Ruth’s Cottage & Patticake House provides essential services to multiple counties, including Tift, Worth, Irwin, Turner, and Ben Hill counties in Georgia.
People Helped
Since the founding of the Patticake House in 2005, they have served over 2,200 children and their caregivers