New family shelter to open on Pettigrew Street
Nov. 15—HENDERSON — Volunteers from the Chapel Hill-based nonprofit A Lotta Love came to town on Tuesday to work on Gang Free, Inc.'s new shelter in the Cooper House on Pettigrew Street, located across the street from the old Dispatch building.
Those volunteers were working fast — that speed is a part of ALL's operation.
"We call them d-days," said ALL founder Charlotta "Lotta" Sjoelin. "Everything is planned ahead. We go in with 12 people and boom! Done."
Sjoelin has lived in the United States for 18-odd years, having come from her home country of Sweden for work. She started A Lotta Love in 2015 after an interior designer friend of hers told her about a local woman's shelter's need for pillows.
"That's how it started," she said. "I filled up my car with pillows and drove down to the shelter."
Before that, she had never been inside a shelter and was aghast at the state of the interior. It looked like a "prison," she said. She went back the next day and spruced up one of the rooms. Staying in it at the time was a young professional woman in a suit, not someone she expected to see.
A Lotta Love's mission is to transform shelters into "safe, dignified and inspiring, emotionally inspiring spaces." Homeless families tend to be traumatized families. How can they pick themselves up while staying in a shelter that looks like a prison cell, she asked.
Sjoelin was one of several authors on a study of two shelters that was published in "Psychological Services," a peer-reviewed academic journal, earlier this year. Researchers saw a marked increase in feelings of preparedness, hopefulness and safety after a redesign of their rooms.
The nonprofit is as much focused on mental health as it is on shelter design. The shelter on Pettigrew Street has four rooms for families — one for young children, one for teens and two multipurpose rooms — each with wide open windows letting in ample natural light and walls painted soft, bright greens. There was a newness about the place, even in its half-completed state. None of the furnishings are hand-me-downs, Sjoelin said.
"Everything we do is new," she said. "Because, for once, they deserve a new pillow, right?"
Sjoelin and ALL's board wants to expand nationwide. A $55,000 grant from the Cannon Foundation with a $5,000 match from ALL paid for the project. The shelter will open with an open house on Dec. 10.
The Church of the Holy Innocents offered the Cooper House, which was the rectory, the pastor's quarters, at one point, to Gang Free for just $1 for five years.
"We've always felt strongly that this is always used for outreach," said Senior Warden Tracy Madigan. The house was a full-fledged, federally funded woman's shelter for some 15 years, though lost that funding eight years ago.
Gang Free approached with the idea to turn it into a family shelter. Its opening on Dec. 10 will mark the arrival of Henderson's first family shelter. Lifeline Incorporated serves women and children, Chosen Generation serves boys, and the Men's Shelter serves men.
"I'm just amazed," said Melissa Elliott, founder of Gang Free. "I wanted a better space for families. Lotta is the one who's amazing! They're putting a lot of love into it."
One of those volunteers, Michael Bolton, came out to help despite being homeless himself. "My situation might be different from others," said Bolton.
Everybody at a shelter had different paths, he said. He was once a successful paint business owner in Lake Gaston, but ended up homeless due to an ongoing health issue. Shelters tend to not take dogs, and his, Memphis, is precious to him. He feels a sense of gratitude for what he has and what he's had.
"It's the least I can do," he said.
