Safe house director leaving for new job

The director of the Safe House for Women in Cape Girardeau is leaving to head up the Missouri Coalition Against Domestic Violence in Jefferson City, Mo.

Cheryl Robb-Welch has directed the local shelter for nearly four years. She begins her new job on Monday.

A former deputy sheriff, Robb-Welch said she's excited about her new job. She said she's happy to begin her new job immediately rather than take a break. "If I would take a vacation in between, I would just go stir crazy," she said.

As director of the coalition, she'll lobby for legislation against domestic violence and direct training for shelters throughout the state including the eight located in Southeast Missouri.

Robb-Welch said operations at the Cape Girardeau shelter have improved. Besides helping abused women, the Safe House has an educational program that now reaches more than 700 junior high and high school students each semester in Cape Girardeau and Bollinger counties, she said.

"We talk about dating violence, peer pressure and substance abuse," Robb-Welch said.

She said domestic violence can occur even in junior high school. "When they start dating, there is that potential," she said.