SAFE of Clarion County began in late 1979 as a service project by the local board of the League of Women Voters. The original goals of the project were to encourage coordinated services for victims of family violence, and to provide a forum for community education.

In 1983, SAFE filed as a non-profit corporation and began recruiting volunteers to provide direct services. As an all-volunteer organization, SAFE relied on the help of Clarion County Information and Referral Services, Community Action, and Human Resources to provide support services and technical assistance. In July 1984, SAFE was granted funding through the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence (PCADV) which enabled them to open a small office and to hire a part -time program director. In 1987 SAFE started their transitional housing project/shelter for homeless women and children.

On October 6, 2008, SAFE was proud to add Clarion County’s Silent Witness Project to the national initiative.

The Silent Witness Project was started in 1990 in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area by a group of women who were upset by the growing number of women being murdered by their partners or acquaintances. They felt an urgency to do something that would speak out against the escalating domestic violence in their state. Something that would also commemorate the lives of the 26 women whose lives were lost that year as a result of domestic violence. The result was 26 life-sized red wooden figures. Each bearing the name of a woman and the tragic story of their death. A twenty-seventh figure was added to represent those uncounted women whose murders went unsolved or ruled accidental. These figures became the original silent witnesses.

Clarion County has had 10 domestic violence homicides since 1997. However, these numbers do not include the suicides from on-going abuse.