SHAWANO, WI – Safe Haven of Shawano had a busy 2019.
“2019 proved to be a very busy year for our shelter residents with the highest shelter census since 2008, said Executive Director Stacy Cicero. “That is quite a bit higher than our previous numbers.”
The shelter was never empty in 2019, and had between 1 and 9 families at all times.
In 2019, the shelter provided housing for 86 women, 2 men and 98 children with the average length of stay being 24 days.
Safe Haven also assisted 1,009 individuals, completed 24 restraining orders, 1,552 safety plans and provided services to 529 victims. They had 2,902 crisis calls.
“Our crisis calls were up in 2019 by almost 1000 calls from the year before.
She says it can be for a immediate event or an ongoing event that would lead to a crisis call.
Cicero says the increase in activity means something important.
“It can mean we are getting our message out in the community, but I don’t believe that domestic violence is on the raise.”
Cicero says that is reflected in the number of calls that law enforcement respond to.
Part of the teams job is to get out in the community. In 2019 they presented to 68 classrooms with 1.362 children participating, gave 8 community presentations for 136 people and provided 46 community awareness activities.
“We are doing a good job with community awareness.”
She says Safe Haven uses advertising and community events like health fairs to share what they have to offer.
She says staff members do some of the outreach, but volunteers are always appreciated to help with that. In 2019, 119 volunteers logged 1,042 hours of service.
“Of course there is word of mouth and anytime a law enforcement officer responds to a domestic violence call, they are given our information as a resource.”
Cicero says one other important fact showed the need for the recent addition to their facility.
“We increased our shelter bedrooms with our shelter campaign and had we not have done that, that we would have been at or over capacity 90 percent of the year.”
The Shelter was occupied by 4 to 9 families 89% of the time with 8 being the optimal capacity.
Cicero says all of their successes would not have been possible without the help of the community.
