Community Building Tip: Shelters
Sep. 18th, 2021 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithFor my current set of tips, I'm using the list "101 Small Ways You Can Improve Your City.
89. Help build a better shelter. Sometimes, the best ways to help build your community is to help others who are feeling apart and alone. The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, along with architect Corrie Rosen, created a series of guidelines, called Building Dignity, to help construct more comforting and effective shelters for victims of domestic violence. The plans include soliciting donations from the community, such as asking interior decorators to "adopt" a room, and asking a local steel artist to create artful window displays that projected both strength, security, and beauty.
Consider also ...
* Ask victims and former victims what they would find helpful, then provide that.
* Include pets. Many people will not leave unless they can take family pets with them, because abusers often threaten or kill animals. Waiting gets people killed. So including pets will save both human and animal lives.
* Provide space for families of different sizes and configurations. A whole family can be victims of abuse, especially if subject to someone's parents or another abusive landlord.
* Include a car, or better yet, a motor pool of several vehicles including an accessible one. People need to travel for appointments, court, work, school, shopping, etc. Often the abuser owns the car so the victim flees with no transportation.
* Make sure your community has shelters for all genders, ages, ability levels, etc. Most only have services for women.
* Develop many small, discreet shelters scattered through the community rather than one big one. Refurbish empty homes or former business shells. Advantages include:
-- Neighbors are less likely to object if the shelter doesn't look like a shelter and has only a few beds. The impact on the neighborhood is much less. Point out that a full building is better than an empty one for neighborhood appearances and real estate values.
-- A house has bedrooms with doors that can be made to lock. This is greatly preferable over dormitories with no defensible space.
-- Smaller buildings are cheaper and easier to buy than larger ones.
-- People tend to feel safer in small groups than large ones, especially strangers.
-- With multiple locations, people don't have to move as far from their former home. This makes it easier to maintain employment, schooling, etc.
89. Help build a better shelter. Sometimes, the best ways to help build your community is to help others who are feeling apart and alone. The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, along with architect Corrie Rosen, created a series of guidelines, called Building Dignity, to help construct more comforting and effective shelters for victims of domestic violence. The plans include soliciting donations from the community, such as asking interior decorators to "adopt" a room, and asking a local steel artist to create artful window displays that projected both strength, security, and beauty.
Consider also ...
* Ask victims and former victims what they would find helpful, then provide that.
* Include pets. Many people will not leave unless they can take family pets with them, because abusers often threaten or kill animals. Waiting gets people killed. So including pets will save both human and animal lives.
* Provide space for families of different sizes and configurations. A whole family can be victims of abuse, especially if subject to someone's parents or another abusive landlord.
* Include a car, or better yet, a motor pool of several vehicles including an accessible one. People need to travel for appointments, court, work, school, shopping, etc. Often the abuser owns the car so the victim flees with no transportation.
* Make sure your community has shelters for all genders, ages, ability levels, etc. Most only have services for women.
* Develop many small, discreet shelters scattered through the community rather than one big one. Refurbish empty homes or former business shells. Advantages include:
-- Neighbors are less likely to object if the shelter doesn't look like a shelter and has only a few beds. The impact on the neighborhood is much less. Point out that a full building is better than an empty one for neighborhood appearances and real estate values.
-- A house has bedrooms with doors that can be made to lock. This is greatly preferable over dormitories with no defensible space.
-- Smaller buildings are cheaper and easier to buy than larger ones.
-- People tend to feel safer in small groups than large ones, especially strangers.
-- With multiple locations, people don't have to move as far from their former home. This makes it easier to maintain employment, schooling, etc.
ADA access
Date: 2021-09-18 05:26 pm (UTC)The shelter required chores, but didn't allow for variable days, things like fibromyalgia, etc. that can make Monday nearly normal and Tuesday barely able to sit up. That kind of ableism can get someone KICKED OUT of a shelter for "failure to abide by the rules."
Bear in mind that a lot of these rules are used to ENFORCE compliance, and no matter how subtle the wording, the attitude is crystal clear.
Re: ADA access
Date: 2021-09-18 09:50 pm (UTC)Because society is structured to support abusers, not victims. Sometimes it is impossible to leave, and when people do manage to escape, they usually wind up in a much worse position, sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently. They get stuck with abusive shelter staff, or couchsurfing, or on the street. At least the abuser's place is usually a familiar house or apartment.
Re: ADA access
Date: 2021-09-18 10:01 pm (UTC)Some of the people I've met who work at shelters are wonderful, but the management puts dollars "where they're needed most"-- and if they don't have an ADA shower, it conveniently gives them an excuse to turn away visibly disabled people. It's a major problem, and unlike the situation with mental illness, it's NOT getting any attention.
Re: ADA access
Date: 2021-09-18 10:11 pm (UTC)Look at T-America and it's different. Rutledge found space for the refugees first by tapping a mostly-empty local business hotel. The next stage was planning to move people out in stages, again using local businesses, the bed-and-breakfast places. Finally, they moved into private houses or apartments whenever they found a place they liked. Some citizens who had extra space also offered it, like Ramon, since the goat farm had way more room than it actually needed; and that's how the halal chicken business eventually started up. They weren't trying to put people in a separate shelter, although some of those do exist -- mostly in larger cities.
Re: ADA access
Date: 2021-09-18 10:19 pm (UTC)Re: ADA access
Date: 2021-09-18 10:37 pm (UTC)Though honestly at this point, between body and baggage, I'm less inclined to go straight from here to any other world.
Re: ADA access
Date: 2021-09-20 05:05 pm (UTC)That's what the charity I volunteer with does, if they don't have ready housing for a new family. (Thogh its usually individual families, not a whole community.) Not too sure on the logistics - I was mostly in an after-arrival support role that didn't usually dip into the whole setup process.