Safe Haven Shelter for Battered Women in Duluth, Minnesota provides services to women and children whose lives have been affected by physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. Some women who use our services are in physical danger. Others are living with controlling partners in relationships that are emotionally abusive.
We provide an array of services including 24-hour emergency shelter, individual advocacy, legal advocacy, information and referrals, support groups, and community education.
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.
Why We Need a New Website
A major challenge we face while serving battered women is outreach and communication. This can be defined as educating the public on domestic violence, engaging the community for support and partnership opportunities, and most importantly providing valuable information to women in need of shelter and safety, and interacting with them in an efficient and helpful manner.
In our current website, we attempt to provide a multitude of information targeted to different audiences such as battered women, donors, volunteers, local schools and academic institutions, business organizations, and various other members of the community. However, the content lacks critical information, and the layout is confusing and ineffective in leading us towards our goals. A new website will significantly enhance our ability to interact, inform, engage, and create lasting relationships with our clients and partners. Below are a few of the proposed changes we'd like to implement:
1.) Revise the overall layout and navigation for smoother browsing
2.) Create a new section for the Family Justice Center (more details provided below)
3.) Create a new section for Follow-up Advocacy (to include on-line chat, scheduling, and a dashboard to track goals)
4.) Create a new section for Community Involvement (for upcoming events, evaluations, donations, feedback, interfacing with social media)
5.) Create a softer, warmer look and feel
6.) Expand content to include details of our support groups, and instruction on how to create an effective safety plan
7.) Add audio and video testimonies from survivors of domestic violence
The Lake Superior Regional Family Justice Center is a part of the Safe Haven Shelter program, and is an "off the street" service for the women in the twin ports community. It is at this location where our legal advocacy services are offered, as well as office space for various community partners and wellness services staff by local volunteer professionals in the area. Our current website contain very little information on this new program, thus we are unable to effectively promote such important benefits and services. We envision the new Family Justice Center section to have the following:
1.) A list of our services and how they can assist women in need
2.) On-line scheduling system for women to book appointments, and for community partners and professional volunteers to access
3.) Forms available on-line to obtain the necessary information to immediately assist the women and children without waiting for them to walk into the Center
These changes to our website will allow us to communicate in an effective and comprehensive manner as to how our organization supports, assists, and advocates for battered women. This will not only lead to expanding the number of women and children served, thereby changing lives by helping to transform victims to survivors, it will also improve our capacity to inform and educate the community on domestic violence and its effects, and will enhance our capability to leverage and harness community resources.
How Our New Site Will Help Make the World Greener
An improved website will allow us to significantly cut down paper products utilized to run our organization. We rely on numerous flavors of brochures, flyers, and mailings to communicate with our clients and partners. Some of this information is duplicated on our website, and on the other hand, some content is missing entirely from the website thereby creating this need for additional pamphlets (i.e. Family Justice Center). We’d also like to publish a newsletter more consistently, but funding concerns surrounding the cost of mailing such items prevent us from doing so.
The added functionality in regards to the Follow-up Advocacy program will result in an improved method of communication with our clients. This will reduce the number of 1-1 meetings required thereby diminishing transportation costs and associated harmful emissions, and additionally, it will further decrease our need for paper.
When the judges choose which non-profits will be selected to participate in this year's Challenge they will take into account testimonials from beneficiaries, donors, volunteers, board members and other
I think what Safe Haven Shelter does for changing the lives around of women and children in our community is phenomnial. An outstanding website would really help to promote the Shelter and The Regional Family Justice Center! We have too much abuse in our community. This website could be launched on various sources and in news articles. I am hoping you can help them!
Peggy Anderon, doner, volunteer, board member of Safe Haven Shelter
Please know how invaluable the services of Safehaven and The Family Justice Center are to our commuity. Nevertheless, we can and must do more for those women and children who remain unaware of the resources we offer that they might see the light of day in their need for safety, shelter and advocacy. Through an expanded and improved website would Safehaven and The Family Justice Center be able to serve our community in a more effective way.
Dayle Peterson, volunteer, The Family Justice Center
Anonymous
Safe Haven Shelter for Battered Women is instrumental in helping women and children in our community who are victims of domestic abuse. The Shelter website is a place where victims can get information on how to deal with their abusive situation and make plans to better their lives. The more information we can present to the community, the more women we can help. Please help us present our mission in the best way possible to those in need.
Sharon Buchanan, board member
Safe Haven Shelter for Battered Women and their children is just that a "Safe Haven". As a volunteer reading to the children at the shelter I have seen their transformation first hand. When they first arrive they are quiet, body language is withdrawn, they look sad. Within days you hear them laughing, playing, being happy children as they should be! Safe Haven iShelter is a necessity for providing a Safe Place to start a new life. With your help , choosing Safe Haven Shelter to build a new website, they can continue to help transform lives.
Mamie Hughes, donor, Altrusa voluntee
Safe Haven Shelter for Battered Women is the best non profit serving families with which I have ever been involved. As a Board member over the past nearly 6 years I have seen the organization, always known for doing excellent work and out reach, begin to invite the public in to see what is being done on behalf of women and children who have suffered domestic abuse - and this community has responded with enthusiasm and added funds. These resources have enabled the organization to build a downtown on the street Family Justice Center, where any woman who perceives she might be in an abusive situation may come and talk with advocates, law enforcement, a counselor, or health personnel. Help is offered with kindness, respect, and a great sophistication in how abusive situations come about and are maintained. And yet women are given the gift of deciding for themselves what they think should be their best next move - freedom their abusive partners rarely grant. This is how women begin to be empowered in their own lives. As a child of the fifties, my mother did not feel she had that freedom.
Marilyn Bamford, Board member, volunteer, donor
Safe Haven Shelter for Battered Women has been around since 1978 and has helped so many, many women who have been victims of domestic violence. It is so wonderful that in Duluth,MN, such a shelter would have been started way before shelters were started in the United States. We continue to help so many women and children and the Family Justice Center is also a great place for women to come and get help. If we have a new website, it will help more and more women and children to become freer.
Virginia May, Board Member, volunteer, donor
The Safe Haven Shelter is an amazing place run by an extremely talented staff who does an incredible job both within the building and out in the community raising awareness. Like most non-profits Safe Haven has limited funds-- however, what they have done in terms of educating and activating a huge tribe of supportive community members and donors is nothing short of amazing considering there limited resources. They are giving incredible, specially designed tours to community members frequently to help people understand both the magnitude of the problem and the huge needs of the women who cross the threshold at Safe Haven. Annually they do a wildly successful luncheon which has attracted many business and community leaders to step up for this amazing program with their financial backing and time. However, I believe an amazing website would help Safe Haven spread their message even farther and more effectively to the city of DUluth, the Nation and The World. People from all over the country have ome to Duluth as it is a model and pioneer in many of its programs and ideas- it would be fabulous to see it encourage other women and other communities more effectively ONLINE. This would have a huge impact, Thank you, Sarah Seidelmann MD
Anonymous
Safe Haven is truly an amazing organization. The management, staff, board and volunteers have a passion for helping the women and children we serve. These people consistently provide not only their time, but their financial resources as well, to ensure that the victims we serve have as much comfort as possible. Therefore, our resources as a Shelter, are extremely limited when it comes to marketing. Having a website overhaul through this challenge would be AMAZING! It would allow us the opportunity to reallocate those dollars to the women and children in Duluth and the surrounding region that are in greater need than we can imagine. Please choose Safe Haven!
Lisa Heyesen, board chair, volunteer, donor
This organization changes and saves lives. Your website design will help them be even more user-friendly of an organization and reach more women and children.
Jen Bertsch, donor
Safe Haven Shelter and The Family Justice Center not only do tremendous work changing lives in our community, but they have trail-blazed such innovative works that shelters around the nation and world look to them for guidance and inspiration. A website would be instrumental for helping those in need internationally.
Andrea Peterson, volunteer
Safe Haven Shelter is a community asset that assists women and children in need. Choosing Safe Haven as a recipient will make it easier for those in a difficult situation to find the help and assistance. The Nerdery Overnight Challenge can provide a resource that supports helping others face their challenges.
