Both shelters give battered women the safety and privacy to consider the impact of violence in their lives. Although they are often crowded, chaotic and noisy, they are a place of freedom. Freedom to sleep, eat, and converse without fear of being hit. They are safe places - places of nonviolence where the philosophy is "No One Deserves to be Beaten." Places where battered women and their children can temporarily live without fear or shame. Most days the shelters are at capacity with someone waiting to come in. There is no set limit on how long they can stay but the most common length of stay is less than five days. Each case is reviewed for specific actions advocates and the woman can take to keep the length of stay minimal and move her to more permanent affordable housing. Family size, available housing, protection through the courts, and minimal income make the difference in each family's situation.

Women's Programs

Community advocacy and criminal justice intervention are the programs through which we help battered women overcome the barriers that prevent them from long term safety.

For some the main barrier is economic and we help with food, basic care items, finding affordable housing, medical care, child care, etc. For some the main barriers come from the community's inability to provide safety or the battered woman's inability to get to the systems that provide the safety she and her children need. For some the barriers are multiple, including language and cultural barriers.

Thus besides offering safe housing to those who need and want it, women's advocates help women obtain protection orders, gain exclusive occupancy of the home, custody and support remedies, access the criminal justice system, provide advocacy with human services and legal systems, support groups, and information and referral. The short term goal of our advocacy programs is to help the woman through whatever barriers stand in the way of safety for her and her children. The long term goal is to give her the skills and means to get through those barriers and advocate for herself.

With funds from the Minnesota Center for Crime Victims Services, United Way of Red Wing, United Way of Olmsted County, and various United Funds, Women's Shelter is able to provide local advocacy services in Dodge, Olmsted, Goodhue and Wabasha Counties. 

In Olmsted County, Women's Shelter combines criminal justice and community advocacy services in a program known as the Intervention Project for Domestic Assault (IPDA). IPDA coordinates the criminal justice system agencies, thereby facilitating a consistent sensitive response to domestic assault victims, assists in the prosecution and monitoring of domestic assault perpetrators, and provides immediate and ongoing contact with the victims of battering.
 

Children's Program
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Children's House School

We know the best we can give to our children is a feeling of safety, some good rest and food, and some private listening with lots of "warm fuzzies." Our children's advocates spend individual and group activity time with the children and help the mothers care for their children. Our volunteer foster grandmothers help the advocates and the mothers. They rock babies, cut and paste with toddlers, read and tell stories, and most important, encourage bonding between the old and young by giving the child a temporary extended family member. If our children are our future - and we believe they are - then it is also in our best interest to invest in our children. We believe our children's program helps prevent future violence by being an example of nonviolent living and by giving the children a memory to carry with them when times get rough.

The Children's House School opened in 1996 and has had an average of 45 students per school year. With a teacher supplied by the school district and the children's advocate, Americorp member, and foster grandmother as assistants, Women's Shelter provides grades K-5 in the Children's House School. The school is fully supplied with teachers, books, a library for the children, various learning nooks, a 4-computer network, a classroom, lockers for books and clothes, a lunchroom and children's bathroom. The children follow the same curriculum as their public school counterparts and their academic progress has been outstanding. We teach nonviolence and cultural appreciation in all of our studies. We teach respect for physical and mental diversity as well as for ethnic diversity. To give our children the skills to succeed in life and the self-confidence to use their talents is our goal.
 

Transition House

The Transition House, a rooming house for homeless women and their children opened on the first of October, 1984. It was the first transitional housing program for women leaving a battered women's shelter. Designed to help overcome the economic barrier facing most families when they leave a battered women's shelter, the Transition House offers an economic transition from shelter to permanent housing and self-sufficiency. Renters pay a daily rent based on their income and are provided full room and board and part-time advocacy services for up to two years. Each of the renters is provided a private room and the main floor is shared by all. The cooking and cleaning are either shared or chosen as a job by an individual renter. The Transition House advocate offers women transportation to work, school and appointments, helps them find affordable housing, and helps them in reaching job services, education and job training programs.