SAFE HOUSE TO OPERATE TRANSITIONAL APARTMENTS; DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COUNSELOR JOINS STAFF

The Cape Girardeau Safe House for Women will purchase an eight-unit apartment complex in the city with a $215,000 grant received through the Affordable Housing Program.

The purchase should be complete in the early fall, shelter director Dena Pehlman said. The apartment complex should be ready for occupancy by spring after needed renovations are made.

The two-bedroom apartments will serve as transitional housing for women who are leaving the shelter.

In the nearly seven years since it opened its door in 1991, the Safe House has served more than 1,300 women. More than 1,200 women have actually sought shelter in the Safe House, some for a day or two, others for upwards of seven or eight months. The average stay in the shelter is one to two months.

Currently, when women leave the shelter, it is difficult for many of them to find adequate housing because many of the women come to the shelter with little or no income. The costs of apartments in the Cape Girardeau area can be prohibitive for many of the women.

By providing the transitional housing, the shelter hopes to decrease the chances the women will go back to an abusive situation.

"It's tough finding adequate housing," said Dena Pehlman, shelter director.

"This will give them a chance at nice, affordable housing while keeping them in contact with the Safe House," she said.

Women who live in the transitional housing will be required to attend weekly support group meetings conducted by the Safe House's domestic violence counselor.

Currently, the shelter can house 15 to 20 women and children. It is not unusual for the Safe House to be full, requiring the shelter to house women and their children in a motel or in another shelter.

The addition of transitional housing will also make more room available in the shelter for other women and children needing the service.

But the addition of the transitional housing is not the only new program being introduced by the Safe House.

Negotiations are under way with the city police department to place a representative of the Safe House at a new police substation planned for West Park Mall.

Shelter representatives would distribute information about services and programs offered by the Safe House. In addition, they would be able to assist women who came to the substation to get away from an abusive situation.

Efforts at educating people about domestic violence will increase through two new programs being initiated by the Safe House.

A mentoring program, which will begin in a week, will allow the Safe House to continue its efforts at educating women who have been victims of domestic violence. Non-residential women who have taken advantage of the shelter's programs will be paired up with one of the mentors -- 10 women who have recently completed special training for the program.

The mentors, who volunteer their services, will help the women and their families find the assistance they need to live outside of an abusive relationship. In addition, the mentors will also teach the women better social and decision-making skills to help them live a life without violence.

Although there are 10 women enlisted as mentors, Pehlman said the Safe House hopes to increase that number. Social work and criminal justice majors from Southeast Missouri State University will be encouraged to apply to the mentoring program, Pehlman said.

In September, Pehlman will take on some of the increased educational efforts of the Safe House when she begins teaching a 10-week program at Cape Girardeau Central High School on teen-age domestic violence awareness and violence intervention.

"With all the violence that has been in the schools nationwide recently, we wanted to educate students more about violence," Pehlman said.

Funded by a grant, the program will deal with issues such a peer pressure, domestic violence, family life, date rape and date violence. Pehlman will teach the class each Monday as a part of the health education classes.

Beginning today, the Safe House will have a new domestic violence counselor. Emily McCluernon will take on the newly created position. In the past, the Safe House had to go to outside agencies for the work that McCluernon will do.

McCluernon will be responsible for running the peer support group and provide individual counseling and assessment.