Document text
Safe Place center finds new home Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Veronica Carrier, 21, and her 6-week-old son, Jonathan, drop into the Safe Place Thursday for some clothing. The center that provides essentials to low-income moms is moving again - to the back of the county Health Department. By JONEL ALECCIA The Safe Place is moving again. For the ninth time in a dozen years, the Medford drop-in center for low-income moms and kids is being shifted to a new site, prompting a plea from organizers for a stable home. "Every time you move it, you lose people," said Robin Turgesen, a Jackson County public health nurse who has championed the project. The latest move will come May 9 for the center that provides essential supplies - food, clothing diapers - and links to social services to an estimated 5,000 women and children each year. The lease on the current site at 832 E. Main St., Suite 8, expires soon, and county officials plan to relocate the center to a small office within the Health Department at 1000 E. Main St., Medford. "It's going to be in the back corner of the building where the nurses are and where the prenatal clinic is," said Hank Collins, county health and human services director. That plan has been met with dismay by Turgesen and director Tina Livingston, who say it defeats the point of creating a welcoming, comfortable center where women can not only get supplies, but also access support. "It's not just about giving out diapers," Turgesen said. "It's the difference between a waiting room and a community center." Started in 1990, the Safe Place provides no-questions-asked essential services to women who might have trouble getting any other aid. Pregnant drug addicts, women with outstanding criminal histories and others leery of government agencies feel free to come to the Safe Place, where Livingston and other volunteers have nurtured thousands of relationships. "We catch the gaps of women who aren't being seen on home visits or in other ways," said Livingston, who has run the program for six years. The program also serves women such as Veronica Carrier, 21, who came in Thursday with her 6-week-old son, Jonathan. "I need clothes for myself because all I've got is maternity clothes," said Carrier, who has two other children ages 1 and 2. In addition, the Safe Place provides one of few places where women convicted of crimes can perform community service hours without leaving their children. Those clients might be put off by the institutional feel of a county office, said Turgesen. Besides, she added, the new space will be a fraction of the size of the current site, limiting the availability of everything from free food boxes to children's clothes. "We will have no room," she said. Collins acknowledged that finding a stable site for the Safe Place has been difficult. The center moved to its current location in 2000, after the county tore down a 10th Street site to make room for the new juvenile center parking lot. Before that, it had moved seven times. Funding constraints are forcing the new move, according to Collins, who said he can't afford to continue to pay $40,000 of the agency's $70,000 annual budget. "I'm not going to lay off public health nurses to subsidize it," he said. It makes sense for the Safe Place to be located near the public health nurses and the prenatal clinic, where many pregnant woman already come, Collins said. He said he didn't believe most women would feel uncomfortable coming into the Health Department, but that his staff would need to work hard to assuage the concerns of those who did. "I'm hearing from some staff that it's not a safe environment, that women don't want to come in here," he said. "I think we do need to make sure that we accept diversity and that we make our services as diverse and safe for anyone who needs them as we can." Bringing the Safe Place into the Health Department will help integrate the services, a hallmark of Jackson County social service efforts, Collins said. Turgesen agreed that the goal of all involved is to get services to those who need them most. The ideal solution, she said, would be the donation of a site, perhaps a house or small shop in west Medford, where the Safe Place is needed most. Barring that, organizers figure they'll just have to make do. "Don't worry, we'll still have a couch," Turgesen told one young mom. "You can still come in and talk." Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.