Children’s Home Shelter for Family Safety marks one year of serving community in new building

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - One year ago a new trauma-informed building opened its doors along East 10th Street in Sioux Falls.

The Children’s Home Shelter for Family Safety offers a safe haven for those looking to escape the cycle of domestic violence.

This space replaced the former, much smaller Children’s Inn facility. The new building meant an opportunity to serve more people, offer more resources, and make even more of a difference to those enduring and surviving domestic violence.

“Just knowing we could serve everybody that came to our door. In our old facility, we were at the point where we were discussing, ‘Are we going to have to turn people away? Because we can just not accommodate anyone else,” said Amy Carter, Program Director for the Children’s Home Shelter for Family Safety.

In the last year, there has been a 28 percent increase in intakes or the number of people seeking the services provided by the shelter.

Linn Nelson was once one of those intakes. “I left a toxic relationship and reached out to various resources in Sioux Falls for support and I found Children’s Shelter for Family Safety,” said Nelson.

What she found within the facility was not only support but a new purpose.

She’s now a Crisis Advocate, working at the same place that helped her navigate her crisis.

“When you walk through something really challenging and get to the other side of it, I think people are inclined to want to shine a light for other people to show what’s possible, to renew their hope,” said Nelson.

Staff say Linn is just one of many examples of how the Shelter for Family Safety has transformed the lives of those who need the services offered.

“Oftentimes when people come to us, they are hopeless, they have given up that they can ever have a life that’s safe, or be free from the abuse, or give their children a better life. And just little things that we can provide for them help them realize that they can have those things. And we want to help them get those things,” said Carter.

Additional funds are needed to serve the clients at the shelter.

We have more information on how you can help the “Gift for Good Campaign” here: https://chssd.org/support/gift-for-good/your-gift-for-good.

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