Fourteen years after it moved into its current facility, SAFE Shelter, Savannah’s only shelter for abused women and children, is expanding.
Lominack Kolman Smith Architects and Pioneer Construction have partnered with SAFE Shelter to build a 1,500-square-foot teen area, its first addition since it was built in 2000.
The shelter’s executive director, Cheryl Branch, said she brought the idea to board members well before the project was feasible, but her dream became reality after a successful “fund a need” at the organization’s charity event and an anonymous donation.
“Building a shelter is like building a house,” said Branch. “You need to wait awhile and see what you need before you add on.”
After a visit to the shelter in Vidalia, she realized the need for such area.
The back porch of the facility was converted to a children’s room, said Branch, but when the shelter accepts children up to the age of 18 with their mothers, she realized teenagers needed a special area.
Architect Anne Smith said the addition will address the shelter’s need in helping teenage children.
“The goal is to give teens a safe place to learn, socialize and be themselves,” said Smith. “I think the room lends itself to that.”
Smith and Linda Jaeger, president of Pioneer Construction, partnered to build the shelter in 2000.
“This project is important to us because it’s not just any project,” said Jaeger, “but a project that will directly help somebody … the first project we did with such meaning, and I think that was able to raise awareness for the community about the shelter.”
It’s a coincidence they’re working on the building together, again.
Jaeger and Smith independently responded to a request for proposal for the construction of the shelter in 2000.
“Since then, Linda and I have done multiple projects together,” said Smith, “but it just started off that we worked together to do (the shelter).”
Now they’re returning to add to the original shelter, which Smith says reflects on the impact it’s having on the community.
“It’s good to see they’re doing well and need more room,” she said. “A lot of the programs have changed but the facility remains the same.”
Breaking the cycle
Branch has worked with SAFE shelter for 18 years and says she has learned about family violence through immersion in her work with women and children.
Thus she realizes the importance of the shelter, specifically for the children.
“We put a lot of emphasis on youth and children,” said Branch, “because it’s the best shot you have to break the cycle of violence.”
She said the shelter’s expansion is important because it raises awareness about the problem of domestic violence in the community.
“Domestic violence doesn’t come up in conversation,” said Branch. “It’s not comfortable...and it’s in every ZIP code.”
Domestic violence is not limited to just women and children.
Branch said the shelter has a couple of dozen of men who use the shelter’s outreach program.
Men also work at the shelter, in efforts to provide positive, male role models to the children.
The purpose of the new area is to provide older children with resources needed to overcome the negativity and trauma of domestic violence.
The planned addition is expected to include a computer room and serve as the base for the shelter’s summer camps, said Branch, while hosting weekly programs during the school year.
“I’d like to think that these young people will take something bad, like being in a shelter,” said Branch, “but take what they have learned in the shelter and not be as likely to repeat such patterns.”
An anonymous benefactor has pledged $120,000 for completion of the facility, said Branch, on terms that the shelter’s board will have a sustainability campaign for the upkeep of the building.
The campaign is planned to kickoff during October, Domestic Violence Month, with a groundbreaking for the addition on Oct. 15.
“There is nothing more rewarding than designing the facility,” said Smith, “and seeing it fulfill its purpose.”