Sim Gill remembers the case as though it happened yesterday, not years ago.

He had just won a conviction for domestic abuse, despite a victim who recanted her allegations on the stand and accused Gill and police officers of being "liars."

Outside the courtroom, Gill urged the woman to seek shelter for herself and her children because, he said, "I don't want to find you dead."

"The woman silently mouthed, 'Thank you very much.' And then she turns around to go join [her abuser] because she's going to go home with him tonight," said Gill, now Salt Lake City prosecutor.

It was, he said, "a very empty win."

The experience strengthened Gill's belief that society would never be able to "arrest and prosecute" an end to domestic violence. What was needed, he realized, was a paradigm shift -- the same shift then being advocated by Asha Parekh at the YWCA.

Today, that new approach has taken shape in the Salt Lake Area Family Justice Center, which provides one-stop help for abuse victims -- shelter, support and employment services and access to attorneys, victim advocates and prosecutors.

The center, located in the YWCA Lolie Eccles Center at 344 E. 300 South, has assisted more than 2,000 victims of domestic violence since opening its doors two years ago. About half returned for follow-up services, which Parakh considers a "remarkable" sign of success.

"It is a victim-centered approach, not a prosecution- or law enforcement-centered approach," Gill said. "A victim's entire psychology has been about abuse and about power that somebody else has over them. This is a place where they have their own voice. This is where they feel as a person that they are getting control back in their lives."

That's exactly how "Lee" describes what the Family Justice Center did for her. Her real name is not being used for her safety.

The 25-year-old came to the center in February, about a week after her boyfriend was arrested for physically attacking her. A friend who had used the center encouraged Lee to visit; so did a victim's advocate who contacted her to follow-up on her case.

"I feel like a completely different person than when I first came," Lee said.

The YWCA was among 400 groups that applied for but failed to land one of 15 federal grants issued in 2004 to fund family justice centers around the country.

"That's when we turned to each other and we said, 'Heck with it, we're going to do it anyway," Gill said. "The idea was compelling, the need was overwhelming and the mission was clear."

The approach was pioneered in San Diego, which the Office on Violence Against Women says marked a 95 percent drop in domestic violence homicides in the 15 years after the launch of its Family Justice Center. Today there are 55 justice centers around the world, and 100 more in planning stages, said Gael Strack, chairwoman of the National Family Justice Center.

By locating services all in one place, the centers reduce road blocks that can keep victims from getting help, supporters say.

Victims of domestic violence -- a majority of whom are women -- tend to operate in a state of "hyper-vigilance" and one obstacle is all it takes to throw them off track, Gill said.

Victims are afraid their abuser will find out, that somebody will see and report their efforts to get help, that they don't really have the freedom and help they need to walk away from an abusive situation, he added.

The risk of that happening is reduced by bringing services together so a victim can move seamlessly, privately, from one agency to another.

"If a person feels safe and secure, if you can address those underlying issues which gives her a harbor of safety and you treat her as a person, not as a commodity towards convictions or prosecutions . . . then she is going to be empowered to a position where she gets to make her own choices and one of those choices could be to follow through with prosecution or with law enforcement," Gill said.

Lee said that as a single mom who works full time, "it's really important to have everything close together so I can do everything."

Partners in the Utah center include the Utah Department of Work Force Services; Legal Aid Society of Salt Lake; the Salt Lake City Police Department; Salt Lake City Prosecutor's Office; YWCA of Salt Lake City; and the law firm of Gonzalez & Tran-Layton, which specializes in immigration services. The center hopes to add medical services in the near future.

With the help of Legal Aid Society, Lee was able to get a protective order to keep her boyfriend away. She also entered into counseling with a therapist at the center.

"I don't think I would have done anything if it weren't free," Lee said. "They are just really efficient."

And the center's safe, calm atmosphere was welcoming, she said.

"We all come from very different cultures in terms of how we approach working with the victim but everyone is open to looking at things differently and how we can work in the best interests of the victim," said Parekh, center director.

That came through in a recent discussions with women served at the center.

The women "talked about how surprised they were that they were treated with respect and dignity, that [it] was such an important part of receiving services here," Parekh said.

Gill said the Family Justice Center approach is not a substitute for prosecution.

But, he said, "if you want to empower people and you want to stop the cycle of abuse by getting victims moved away from abusive relationships so the next generation doesn't sit there and witness this over and over again, this is the kind of model that you need."