More Than a Safe Place...

---

Dear Supporter of the Alliance,

Welcome to our second online newsletter; Summer 2014! We are still in the process of working out the kinks and bugs but the information is important and we hope you find it worth your time.  Any feedback you would like to offer on how we can improve this will be greatly appreciated. Thank you to all of you for your ongoing support!

- the Alliance staff

From the Director - Community-Based Advocacy

If you’ve been following our newsletters from the start, you will remember the survivor who said that “going into Grants Pass for help might as well have been the moon.” Fourteen years and over 6000 survivors later, it’s still true. Community-based advocacy services save lives in rural areas. Once upon a time, services in Josephine and Jackson counties were limited …

Read more.

From the Director - Microenterprise

Our microenterprise online store is about to launch. The name of the store is Brown Bear Remembers, which comes from Katherine Tilton's poem, the Laughing Bear. The logo is in final design and we’re ready to start our first line of t-shirts, also based on the Laughing Bear. We also have blank greeting cards from Rita Loyd. Eventually we will …

Read more.

---

Getting Ready to Move

As you know, we’ve been in the Illinois Valley Family Coalition since last October while the Post Office was rebuilt. Well, looks like a move back to our facility will happen in late September or early October. There will be a difference though—as part of the deal the Belfor contractors are going to rebuild walls where we want them. They are donating a significant amount of the work and we really appreciate their support. So when you visit our advocacy center will look like an advocacy center instead of a bank.  Of course, we will still be happy to accept your ‘deposits.’

I often call Home Valley Bank’s offer of their former bank as the gift that keeps on giving.  Well, it’s still giving and we’re still grateful.

---

The Walk

I walk “The Walk” so she never has to. When we opened our doors for services in 2002, we knew there were compelling reasons to have services based in Cave Junction. These community-based services have saved lives and provided crisis and long-term support to over 6,000 survivors. Over the course of the twelve years we’ve worked hard to educate our …

Read more.

---

One Survivor's Story

I had been hesitant for four years to tell anyone I was in an abusive relationship. He verbally, mentally, emotionally and financially abused me. The moment he threatened to take my kid away from me was the moment I knew I had to take action.  I never knew there were services in town that helped with situations like mine. I had felt trapped and when I had heard about it through a friend who had used the Alliance before, I decided to go down there to see what they could do for me.

The Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance helped me get back on my feet to being me again. They were there to just listen, helped refer me to places to get custody and make sure my child was safe with me. They helped me create a safety plan so that my child and I would have a way to get out if we needed to. The advocate helped me learn about resources for financial support like TANF, food stamps and local places who help with different kinds of assistance I may need.

When you have no one to turn to and people are judging you, it makes it very hard to go somewhere and ask for help. If the Alliance had not been local I would not have gotten the help I needed.  I would have never gone to Grants Pass for help.

-Anonymous

                                        

---
---

Bolded items accepted immediately. Non-bolded items will have to wait until we’re back in our facility (estimated by mid-September). Donations allow us to give survivors what they need; these are usually things our funders don’t allow, but do so much for survivors. • We could use a laptop for showing PowerPoint presentations at trainings. The one we are currently using …

Read more.

Who is IVSHA?

The Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance is a group of dedicated women who work to end the violence perpetrated against them and other women throughout the world. I would like to tell you about one of these women who is doing this work as a volunteer. She receives little compensation for the difficult work that she is doing, but she …

Read more.

---

Volunteer Spotlight – Betsy Joiner

Betsy Joiner moved to the Illinois Valley from Santa Rosa California in 2002. She has always recognized how devastating domestic violence is and has always firmly believed that working to end domestic violence was an important and worthwhile cause. In 2011, she was at the DMV in Cave Junction and saw a sign in the window of the Safe House …

Read more.

---

Save The Date!

The Safe House Alliance offers groups and classes for different needs. Here are some of the groups we offer:

Unconditional Self Love - What is unconditional self love? Why is it important? And how to nurture it in your own life. Call 541-592-2515 for information. Monday mornings at 10:00am in the Cedar Room at the Family Coalition.

Helping Children Exposed to Batterers - HCEB is a series of educational classes intended for parents or caregivers of children who have witnessed or otherwise have been exposed to domestic violence. It shares how to understand what domestic violence is, how it effects your child and how you can help your child heal while learning appropriate ways to discipline your child without violence. Call 541-592-2515 to register.

The Artist's Way -  A spiritual path to higher creativity and course in discovering and recovering your creative self. Call 541-592-2515 to register or for more information. Weekly class currently meets in the Cedar Room at the Family Coalition on Wednesdays at 1:00pm.

 

---

Dear Advocate:

Dear Advocate

I have lived in the Illinois Valley for ten years with my husband who would abuse me every chance he got. He always told me that there was nobody here for me and I believed him. I thought that the only safe place for me to go was Grants Pass but I didn’t have a car, money or friends that could take me, I had lost those years before.

Then I found one of your cards and made my way in to see you. Your staff was so kind and understanding. They had resources that I never knew existed.

They helped me get a restraining order, understand my divorce paper work, get a domestic violence grant that helped me move into a safe place and all the support and information I could ever need.

It was not easy, many times I thought I could not make it but now my children and I are safe in our own home, happy and doing better that I ever thought we could.

However I still attend your support group where I feel accepted and my self-confidence is being built-up and strengthened.  Thank you so much.

Safe at Last

---

Our Vision & Mission

Imagine a world where women are free from fear, with a voice as an individual, as a group and as a community;

Imagine a world where women speak free from fear, live free from fear and participate in their community free from fear;

Imagine a world where we embrace differences with compassion, understanding and encouragement.

The mission of the Illinois Valley Safe  House Alliance is to serve survivors of domestic and sexual violence while they meet their immediate and long term goals of safety and self sufficiency.

~ The Illinois Valley Safe House ~ more than a safe place.

Our Awesome Staff:

Chris Mallette- Executive Director

Grace Auzenne- Programs Coordinator

Marcy Sowa- Volunteer Coordinator

Susie Ellwood- Administrative Coordinator

Pamela Stafford- Advocate

Ashley Larson- Advocate

Cathy Fulton- AmeriCorps/Vista Volunteer

Our Dedicated Board of Directors

Gray Conway- President

Sally Lyons- Secretary

Vikki George- Member

Patsy Dashner- Potential Member

Karen Chase- Potential Member

---

Contact us:

Illinois Valley Safe House Alliance

535 East River Street

PO Box 2490

Cave Junction, Oregon 97523

alliance@ivsha.org

541.592.2515 for advocacy services

541.592.5332 for general information

541.592.2585 fax