About Us
Holly’s House is a non-residential child and adult advocacy center for victims of intimate crimes. It’s a safe location where adult and child victims of intimate violence are interviewed and connected to community resources and services as needed. Our agency is also active in the community to work toward the prevention of such crimes.
Our Mission
Holly’s House exists to empower victims of intimate crimes and abuse by providing support, promoting justice, and preventing violence.
We carry out this mission by …
Our vision is to be a local leader in preventing intimate crime and supporting victims and their families, while bringing awareness to the community.
We carry out this mission by …
- Providing Support to ensure victims of intimate crime receive compassionate and high quality services as they heal, both physically and emotionally. Holly’s House works closely with many community partners to help clients access counseling, medical care, and other advocacy services.
- Promoting Justice through our process for interviewing victims of intimate crimes. Holly’s House provides a comforting and confidential environment for victims to report the crime. These conversations are recorded to ensure the investigative team of community partners has an accurate account of the victim’s statement.
- Preventing Violence through community-based education and awareness activities that build knowledge about intimate crimes and skills for individuals to better protect themselves, as we work toward eliminating the occurrence of intimate crimes in our community.
Our vision is to be a local leader in preventing intimate crime and supporting victims and their families, while bringing awareness to the community.
Our Origin Story
Holly's House opened its doors to begin assisting victims of intimate crimes on September 2, 2008, after more than four years of development. Since opening, we have assisted more than 5,000 child and adult victims in our community. We have also taught our child abuse prevention program to more than 90,000 students and counting.
View a video depicting the timeline of Holly's House history.
View a video depicting the timeline of Holly's House history.
Holly Dunn Pendleton, Co-Founder
The organization's Board of Directors chose the name Holly’s House™ for the Child and Adult Advocacy Center in honor of the work Holly Dunn Pendleton has done in educating our community on how to assist victims of sexual violence, as well as her personal efforts to reach out and help victims of sexual assault. She served as the organization's Executive Director and Interviewer from 2008-2009.
An Evansville native, she is the only known survivor of the Railroad Serial Killer. Holly has used her traumatic experience to help others heal from, or hopefully avoid, similar situations. She lives as a survivor, not a victim. Holly speaks at schools, women’s events, before judicial panels, and has provided training sessions for the entire Evansville Police Department. Holly was the recipient of the 2006 Jefferson Award for Community Service, sponsored by the Evansville Courier and Press; and one of five honorees of the 2006 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting a Community. She also serves on the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence. For more information on Holly and her work, visit her website! |
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Detective Brian Turpin, Co-Founder
Detective Brian Turpin served as one of the initial presidents of the Holly’s House Board of Directors. He began his career with the Evansville Police Department in 1996 and worked with the sexual violence unit from 2004 until his retirement in 2022.
Detective Turpin was one of the leading forces behind the development of Holly’s House.™ He came up with the original idea of an advocacy center in Evansville after graduating in 2005 from Finding Words Indiana Training. Finding Words is a program that provides child abuse professionals with a comprehensive introduction to a forensic interview process that improves their ability to effectively and reliably interview children about sexual abuse. After attending this program, Detective Turpin began working on the development of what would one day become Holly’s House.
Through his work, countless hours of volunteered time, through the generosity of many people, and in his words, "by the grace of God," Holly’s House became a reality in September of 2008. As Holly’s House looks towards the future, the advocacy center hopes to serve the Evansville community in a way that positively impacts the lives of many people.
Detective Turpin was one of the leading forces behind the development of Holly’s House.™ He came up with the original idea of an advocacy center in Evansville after graduating in 2005 from Finding Words Indiana Training. Finding Words is a program that provides child abuse professionals with a comprehensive introduction to a forensic interview process that improves their ability to effectively and reliably interview children about sexual abuse. After attending this program, Detective Turpin began working on the development of what would one day become Holly’s House.
Through his work, countless hours of volunteered time, through the generosity of many people, and in his words, "by the grace of God," Holly’s House became a reality in September of 2008. As Holly’s House looks towards the future, the advocacy center hopes to serve the Evansville community in a way that positively impacts the lives of many people.