Silver Linings women’s shelter now has two new bedrooms and a much-needed second bathroom thanks to donations from the community and a grant from the Brown County Community Foundation.
The shelter can hold two family-sized groups. The three original bedrooms can house six residents.
The new space will be able to house two more residents in one bedroom and the shelter manager in the other. Her bedroom will be used as an office space as well.
“It allows us to space people out a little better and accommodate residents with work schedules,” Director Foley said of the new bedrooms.
Silver Linings, which opened in January 2014, is the only shelter in Brown County. The county has no shelter for men; only women and children are allowed at Silver Linings.
Shelter staff help women find housing and affordable health care, gain stable employment and job skills, and provide treatment for domestic violence and substance use problems.
The total cost for the expansion project was around $38,500. Silver Linings received a $25,000 impact grant from the Brown County Community Foundation and then $12,000 in private donations. The shelter had to come up with about $1,500 to cover the rest.
“We’ve used everything. We got our money all together; we’ve used everything we have extra,” Foley said.
Habitat for Humanity volunteers did the construction work, which involved enclosing the carport to make the bedrooms, a laundry room and a new bathroom. All of the windows were be replaced to aid in energy efficiency, and a new porch was built on the front with a handicap-accessible ramp attached.
Thanks to the renovations, there will no longer be a bedroom in the shelter’s basement. That will now be used for blanket, linen and food storage, and as a play space for children.
In an emergency, Foley said cots also could be put down there. “Our goal is to just not put anybody in the basement unless it’s really overflow,” she said. It could also be used as a warming station in the winter. “If somebody needed to be warm for the night we can keep them warm. It’s not going to be the kind of housing that is any kind of long-term housing,” Foley said.
The shelter will be dedicated on Sunday, Sept. 9 in an invitation-only ceremony, since its location is kept a secret for security reasons.
The new bedroom will be filled on a “case by case” basis; it could fit a mother with two children, Foley added.
Foley said residents are usually stressed when they move in, but then begin to relax as they start to feel safe.
She said the staff is thinking about putting a clinical board in place to help serve the women’s needs. Someone from the local drug recovery community could serve on that board, she added.
In May, {span}Foley estimated that 90 percent of the residents in the home battle addictions, and about 50 percent of them are dealing with opioid addictions. She said that doesn’t mean they are all currently using; they may be coming there after completing treatment.
Some residents are placed at the shelter by the Department of Child Services when they cannot live in the same home as their children. Supervised visits between mothers and children also happen at the shelter. Sometimes, women are sentenced by Brown Circuit Court to stay at Silver Linings on house arrest. Other women may show up at the shelter after they leave the jail with no place to go.
Foley, the shelter manager Jane Parker and a network of volunteers help them transition into a “normal” life.
“If we have four people on the board, that is all we need. It will help us, I think, just to guide treatment and provide some diversity in that clinical picture,” Foley said.
She said the shelter is going to begin limiting stays to between three and six months. Residents usually stay three to four months on average.
“We have so many people applying (to live here),” Foley said. “We would like to keep (the stay) kind of focused. If you give them too long, they begin to kind of think, ‘This is home.’ We want a home-like atmosphere — believe me, that’s what we encourage — but at the same time, they have to be able to transition. That is part of our job.”
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The Silver Linings women’s shelter needs donations to continue assisting women in the community.
Donations can be sent to the Silver Linings office at 272 Tuck Away Ridge Drive, Nashville, IN 47448.
The women’s shelter also operates the Dragonfly Gallery, in the Brown County Craft Gallery on East Washington Street. The sale of consignment items, including jewelry, arts and crafts and home decor items, will benefit the shelter.
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