Each program staffs a 24 hour a day hotline. Hotline workers provide crisis intervention counseling, support, information and referrals. Crisis workers meet abuse and rape victims at police stations, hospital emergency rooms or court houses to offer in-person crisis counseling and support. Workers also provide legal information and support, explanations of court and police procedures, and identification of and transportation to safehomes, shelters or other appropriate resources.

Safehomes are rooms in volunteers' homes where victims and children may stay for short periods. The shelters provide a safe place for victims to stay for up to 4 weeks.

Workers chauffeur and accompany victims to shelters or safehomes within the county or in other counties, and to doctors, attorneys' offices, court houses and social services.

Trained staff and volunteers provide legal support in the form of information about the legal process, and accompany the victim through it.

Advocates provide support and necessary explanations as well as transportation and child care during law enforcement investigations and court appearances.

Financial advocacy services include: locating emergency loans for food, transportation, medicine and clothing; assistance in filing for workers' compensation, unemployment, welfare and Medicaid; making victims aware of the Victim Compensation program as well as aiding them in gathering needed documentation and making application. Personal advocacy may include intervention with employers, landlords, creditors and others as well as assisting victims in securing rights and services from other agencies.

The programs offer initial and repeat crisis intervention, individual follow-up counseling over the phone or in person, and support groups. Peer counseling groups involving other physically and sexually abused women and survivors offer victims the chance to meet others in similar situations, share open dialogue and develop friendship/support systems. Victims may also be referred out for private counseling.

The use of alcohol and drugs as self-medication for feelings of anxiety, isolation, depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome is a well-known phenomenon in the literature on victimization. So substance abuse education and counseling is an important component of services offered by many programs.

In addition to counseling, the focus of many children's groups is the prevention of the intergenerational cycle of abuse through teaching conflict resolution skills. While mothers are in counseling or are seeking medical, judicial, legal or social services, the programs provide formal child care. Several programs offer parenting skills training, and all programs also refer battered women to parenting support services.