Shaquille O'Neal's hero gives abuse victims a way out

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Volunteering with local law enforcement, Shaquille O'Neal has learned from his peers that domestic violence calls are among the most dangerous for police officers.

"[It's] a very disturbing thing," said the NBA star, who has dealt mainly with children's cases. "I don't really think a lot of women know what to do."

That's where Karen Earl comes in.

As executive director of the Jenesse Center, the oldest domestic violence intervention program in south central Los Angeles, California, Earl is a "tireless and fearless" champion of women and children living in abusive situations, O'Neal said.

The Phoenix Suns center called Earl "the pillow of women's society."

For more than two decades, Earl has helped give victims a way out through the Jenesse Center, which provides shelter, education, outreach and legal services to more than 8,500 victims of domestic violence every year.

"Thank God for Miss Earl," O'Neal said. "She takes women that have been involved in domestic abuse situations and gives them a place to come rest their head."

According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, an estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year, and one in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.

Earl has heard countless stories of domestic abuse and has seen a range of tipping points before victims seek help. She is working to lower these statistics.

She recalled one woman whose husband beat her with an iron; for another, "the beatings were standard, but when he sold their refrigerator and she couldn't keep her baby's milk cold anymore, she knew it was time to go."

These women were able to find shelter and support -- and ultimately safety and success -- through the Jenesse Center.

"It is not normal to go to bed afraid," Earl said. "And the thing that I know for sure is that there is help."

When Earl began volunteering at the center in 1986, she said, she often thought of what her own mother went through.

"I remember us having to run out of the house at midnight with sheets wrapped around us. I know the impact it had on my mom, and of course the impact on me and my siblings," she said. "I wish there were a place back then, but nobody talked about it. It was just family business; it was personal." Watch Earl discuss the center's mission to heal through art »

Today, Earl serves as Jenesse Center's executive director and calls her work with staff, fundraising and volunteer recruitment "a 24-hour thing."

The process of healing for victims generally starts with a phone call to the center's hot line, she said. The center provides counseling and literature and has a 30-day emergency shelter for women and their families.

Earl said this emergency period "is a time of regrouping" and lets the women know that they're not alone and that they didn't do anything wrong.

The center also provides long-term support.

"Women and their children can stay for two years," Earl said. "Every able body, every day, gets up and takes classes. And when they're not taking classes, they're looking for employment, going through counseling sessions or [getting] legal assistance."

For Earl, comprehensive care through a team approach is the key to the center's success. She said she has seen women at the center earn graduate degrees and become "full-fledge" professionals -- and that changing lives is what keeps her going.

O'Neal said the center helps point women in the right direction and gives them the chance to overcome adversity.

"They'll help you get an apartment. They'll help you get a job. They help you get back on your feet and become the beautiful woman that you are."

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