Antoinette Thompson was dumbfounded when she walked into a finished bedroom at the new Summit County shelter for domestic violence in East Akron.
The room was furnished with one bed, two bunk beds, a dresser and desk.
She was pleasantly surprised to see an adjoining bedroom with a bathroom. It, too, contained one bed, two bunk beds, a desk and dresser.
The suite is a major change from the crowded shelter where Thompson sought to escape a violent boyfriend several years ago.
“Oh, my God, this is called the Freedom Room,” Thompson said emphatically. “How perfect.”
It may not be home, but for the many victims of domestic violence, the shelter is perfectly suited for seeking refuge from abusive partners.
The new Summit County Battered Women’s Shelter at the Hope & Healing Survivor Resource Center, scheduled to be finished by the end of July, will be located in a remodeled former nursing home on East Market Street.
The project replaces two smaller shelters and increases available shelter beds in the community from 68 to 160. The agency has raised $2.2 million so far as fundraising continues to cover the $2.5 million cost of the project.
“This is beautiful. Women will have their own rooms to share with their families, keeping them closer together,” Thompson said during a recent tour of the new facility. “This is amazing. When I was in the shelter, I didn’t want to be around a whole lot of people. I wanted to be by myself.
“I needed to cry, to vent, or whatever I needed to do, but I just didn’t have the privacy. When a person goes through one of the most stressful times in their life, being in a strange place with a bunch of strangers can add to that stress.”
Survivor’s story
Thompson, 48, said she previously went to a shelter because she was in and out of abusive relationships and lacked self-esteem.
“I didn’t know my biological father, and never even saw a picture of him, he was absent in my life and I felt abandoned and rejected,” she said. “During my childhood I saw my mother in abusive relationships and thought that’s how a man was supposed to treat a woman. If he didn’t hit you he didn’t love you.”
The shelter staff taught her “about fixing me on the inside,” she said.
“So many people need this place,” she said. “Women are hurting.”
When the new shelter opens at the former Middlebury Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center (originally Hower’s Department Store), everything will be under one campus roof, offering women, men, children and seniors private rooms and bathrooms, home-cooked meals and a sense of security.
Multiroom suites will allow a mother and her teenage sons to stay together — something that’s not possible in the current shelters.
Battered Women’s Shelter Executive Director Terri Heckman said there also will be areas where abused men and the elderly can stay. The agency usually gets one or two men every couple of months and has to put them in a hotel.
She said the oldest abused woman seeking shelter so far this year was 73 years old.
“We don’t want people feeling worse coming here or feeling like they’re sleeping next to a stranger with three kids. I want people to open the door to that fresh new room and say I could stay here if I had to,” Heckman said. “When people aren’t feeling good about their life, either physically, emotionally and mentally, I want to give them the environment to heal. That’s what this building will help do.”
Other amenities
Another new addition to the facility will be a dog kennel for pets, whose safety often is threatened by abusers.
“People love their pets and they’re part of their healing” Heckman said.
She said the shelter doesn’t have to be the Taj Mahal. However, it does have to be clean and inviting for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds.
The current shelters are 50 years old and in need of repair, Heckman said. One will be sold and the other will be torn down. A third shelter in Medina County that’s run by the agency will remain open.
Former shelter client Valerie Sales was also impressed with the finished bedroom. She said the rooms will definitely be more upscale.
She went to one of the agency’s shelters four times, with her stays lasting less than one night on one visit to nearly a year during her last stay about two years ago.
In that current shelter, “there were nine beds in an attic and you could literally reach out and touch the person in the bed next to you,” Sales said. “People come and go out of the shelter, and people have different attitudes and different agendas. And that can really take you off your focus if you don’t in some way withdraw into yourself. It’s not a groupie thing. You can’t just come in and think just because we’re all in a battered relationship we can all click, so that can create problems.”
Sales said she is still thankful for the old shelters because they provided a place for her to go when she finally did get out of an abusive relationship.
“I was sick and tired of being sick and tired,” said Sales, 55, of Fairlawn.
She said she was always attracted to men who could take care of her financially.
“I had the fancy house, the money and access to three cars in the driveway as long as I cooked, cleaned and satisfied him sexually. But if I wasn’t home by 9:30 p.m. he went out looking for me,” she said.
She said she had to forfeit all her rights to be “a kept woman.”
During her last stay at the shelter, Sales said, the agency helped her overcome personal problems and gain independence.
Heckman said the shelter has become more than just the emergency hideaway it was when it opened in the 1970s.
“When they came in the front door, we said, ‘We’ll keep you safe until you leave,’ ” she said. “Now we’re saying, ‘Don’t leave until you’re safe and have gotten the tools that you need.’ These women just want to live in peace and be healthy.”
Marilyn Miller can be reached at 330-996-3098 or mmiller@thebeaconjournal.com.