MOUNT VERNON — For 25 years, Knox County women and children in crisis because of violence in their homes have found refuge at New Directions Domestic Abuse Shelter of Knox County. Tuesday evening, the shelter commemorated a quarter of a century of service with an anniversary open house.
Founded in 1983, New Directions provides support and shelter for the survivors of sexual, emotional and physical assault, sheltering survivors and those at risk in a house in Mount Vernon, the address for which remains confidential. The DELTA Project, a project of New Directions, works, through educational programs and public awareness events, toward preventing the violence that causes women to take refuge in the shelter.
Judi Moseley, DELTA’s coordinator; Bonnie Cline, women’s advocate/educator; Deb Eibin, child advocate/educator; and other staff and volunteers gave tours of the house. They took visitors through the children’s play rooms, past the laundry equipment and into the bedrooms, kitchen and offices, explaining their work as they went.
“This is prevention central,” said Cline about the DELTA office. From September to December 2007, she said, DELTA served more than 1,000 schoolchildren with programs on bullying and violence prevention, respect, literacy, anger management and more. DELTA does evaluations of results and staff can see proof its programs are making a difference.
“We have statistical information that shows the children are taking away information,” said Cline. “It’s heartening to see the numbers.”
Every school system in the county, with the exception of Danville, participates in DELTA programs.
“We hope in the next year we can say we’re in every school in the county,” said Moseley. “And I really think that one of these shelters really needs to be in every county in the state.”
Staff and volunteers are on call, via cell phone, seven days a week and around the clock. They understand that they, too, could be at risk of getting in the way of domestic violence.
“We see cars cruising around the block sometimes,” said Cline. “But we have a state-of-the-art security system, and the police are a minute away.”
The shelter is leased from the county commissioners for $1 per year, said Cline, although the house needed thousands of dollars in restoration in 1985, when New Directions moved in.
A domestic violence shelter was the brainchild of Jean Fullemann, who 25 years ago was the director of Interchurch Social Services. Fullemann and Patty Brill, one of the original board members, reminisced with current director Mary Hendrickson, who has held that position since 1982.
“I had the idea,” said Fullemann, “because in my work at Interchurch, I kept meeting women who needed this service and we didn’t have a shelter. I got a big task force together and we investigated all the possibilities. The goal was to get started the 1st of January 1983, and we made it.”
The first shelter was in a small efficiency apartment behind her ISS office, Fullemann said, and she never knew when she came to work in the mornings if a staff member might be sleeping on the sofa in her office, guarding the women and children sleeping in the apartment.
“They sort of overflowed into my office sometimes,” she said. “It was a nice apartment, and it had a back stairway that was very secret. But we didn’t have a dime, to start with. Individuals and churches donated.”
About today’s shelter, Fullemann said, “I’m tremendously inspired with the faith of the women who kept this going, particularly Mary [Hendrickson]. She was here from the very beginning, all hours of the day and night. They all deserve a lot of credit for their stamina and loyalty.”
“Our goal,” said Cline, “is to create a community where [violence] won’t happen and we can go out of business. But I’m afraid that will be generations from now.”
“I’m afraid so,” Fullemann agreed.
For more information, to donate or volunteer or for assistance in a domestic violence crisis, call 397-HELP (4357). Male victims of domestic violence are welcome to call, and will be referred to the men’s shelter in Marion. Knox County does not have a men’s shelter at this time.
