About Safe Haven Shelter

woman

Safe Haven Shelter serves a seven-county area in northern Minnesota, including St. Louis, Koochiching, Aitkin, Lake, Carlton, Itasca and Cook counties. We provide services and education for more than 1,500 women and children annually. We also accept referrals from other regions and states.

Summary of Services

Twenty-four hour crisis shelter for battered women and their children.
Twenty-four hour crisis phone line, 218-728-6481 (Voice/TDD); toll free number: 877-880-3094.
Assistance in filing protective orders.
Court advocacy.
Professional training and community education.
Free education and support groups.

Summary of Programs

Safe Haven Shelter for Battered Women has four program components that provide a comprehensive response to domestic abuse in the Duluth area:

Shelter Program - Women and Children's Advocacy

The primary purpose of the shelter facility is to provide shelter, food and safety in a supportive environment to women and their children who have been abused. During a woman's stay at the shelter, the options available to her are reviewed, and she is supported in making her own decisions, whatever they may be. Additionally, women receive advocacy assistance from staff in her encounters with the legal, medical, social services or other local agencies she may utilize. The shelter can house up to 39 women and children at a time. Crisis calls are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The majority of the women coming to the shelter have children who they bring with them. Shelter staff provide both systems and individual advocacy for children, as well as parenting assistance for the mothers. Staff provide advocacy services to assist children in obtaining counseling services and protection. They meet with children and police or social services during suspected abuse investigations. Additionally, staff assist mothers in enrolling their children in school while staying at the shelter and arranging transportation.

Legal Advocacy Program

The Legal Advocacy Program provides services to women not staying overnight at the shelter, including:

Twenty-hour on-call advocacy follow-up to all arrests
Transportation and support advocacy for all court hearings
Assistance in gathering and documenting evidence in criminal cases (photos of injuries)
A communication network linking women with probation officers, prosecuting attorneys and abuser's counselors.
Through the Legal Advocacy Program, Safe Haven Shelter has worked to move beyond the concept of only providing emergency safe housing and advocacy, to an approach that challenges each of the community's institutions to both protect victims of battering and to change the cultural facilitators of battering.
You can reach the legal advocacy program at (218) 623-1000.

Education Program

When Safe Haven Shelter (then known as the Women's Coalition) first opened its doors, it understood the importance of community education. While safe housing and effective intervention by police and courts is the first step any community must make to protect battered women, it is a limited strategy for long-term solutions to battering. Therefore, we have continued its comprehensive community-wide educational program on the issues of domestic violence. This program includes neighborhood and in-house educational groups for battered women, presentations to the general public and to professionals, development of prevention curriculum for junior and senior high school students, and a speaker's bureau in the local high schools and colleges.

Volunteers

Safe Haven Shelter recruits and trains volunteers to work in all program areas. Utilizing volunteers enhances the services that Safe Haven Shelter provides, and educates volunteers, collegiate interns and work-study students on the issues of domestic violence.

Herstory

Safe Haven Shelter has played a very prominent role in the Battered Women's Movement over the last 28 years. Started in 1978, Safe Haven Shelter, formerly known as the Women's Coalition, has grown into a 39 bed facility that houses a hotline and legal advocacy program as well as community education and volunteer programs. To learn more about our rich history read "Acknowledging 25 Years," by Cathryn Curley, an article that first appeared in the May 2003 issue of Voices, the Safe Haven Shelter newsletter.

Our Mission

We provide safety for women who are battered and their children, and work to end violence against women.

Our Philosophy

The Safe Haven Shelter for Battered Women believes that violence against women is rooted deep within our culture. It originates from within the same social fabric of institutional oppression, which spawns racism, ageism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, religious bigotry and discrimination against people who have disabilities.

The Safe Haven Shelter for Battered Women seeks to strike a balance between offering services to diverse victims while working toward the erosion of the cultural facilitators of battering. We are committed to providing shelter, safety and advocacy for the individual victims of battering. At the same time, we understand the necessity of action to move toward the elimination of social oppression and battering of women.

Because violence against women is so deeply rooted in our culture, we recognize the need for a multi-faceted approach to the issue, including development of an effective response to the criminal justice, medical, religious, and social systems. We believe it is necessary to raise community awareness through publicizing the issue and through education in our schools and community organizations.

Finally, we recognize that every person carries the cultural seed out of which oppression rises. We believe that each of us, as individuals, must take responsibility to look within ourselves to identify our own attachment to beliefs and values which justify another’s oppression. We believe that change must start there, within ourselves.