'Light at the end of the tunnel': New Children's Inn shelter to address record number of clients
Children's Home Society is opening a new shelter in eastern Sioux Falls to help alleviate an over-capacity caseload at their current shelter on the northwest side.
Staff at the new location at 113 North St. Paul Avenue opened doors to media Wednesday night to get an inside look at the 48,000-square-foot facility.
Set up to officially open Nov. 15, the Children's Home Shelter for Family Safety will house 96 beds in 38 bedrooms and be able to accommodate male victims of domestic violence. The facility cost $12 million to build and was designed to be "trauma-informed," said Karl Jegeris, chief operating officer of the nonprofit.
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"The trauma-informed design concept is trying to bring the outside in," said Jegeris. "Anything that we can do to bring in nature, like the large windows, the lighting and the artwork, is very healing and gives people an opportunity to have that space to recover from trauma."
Current shelter would have been over double capacity
If not for the new building, Jegeris said the situation would be a crisis with a more than doubled capacity at the current shelter, Children's Inn.
"Right now, we have this light at the end of the tunnel," said Amy Carter, Children's Inn director. "But if we didn't, and didn't keep doing what we're doing, then our community suffers, because we're turning people away or people are staying in those unsafe situations."
The new design of the building allows for more natural light, space and privacy, Carter said. At the current shelter in northwestern Sioux Falls, the main area has no privacy and tends to get overcrowded.
"If somebody's sitting there crying, bruised or suffering for the first time coming in our door, there's sometime 10 to 15 people around [at the current shelter]," Carter said. "Now they can be in private and not have to see anybody if that's what they want."
Both Carter and Jegeris said they are excited about the hope the new shelter will bring to clients at Children's Home.
Strangulations rising with overall violence in Sioux Falls, says domestic violence investigator
Last year, total intake number was about 1,100. Of those, 600 were women, and the rest were children either from a group home or with their mom in a shelter, Carter said.
This year, the shelter has had a 17% increase in intake.
"It's not just the number of calls and the population," said Eliot Crayne, deputy sheriff at the Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office. "We're looking at the increase in violence."
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Crayne works primarily as a domestic violence investigator and says there's been an increase in overall violence in Sioux Falls, especially in the reported strangulations.
He often works with members in the Children's Home Society, through the South Dakota Network for Family Violence, and is hopeful the new building will provide more support to domestic violence survivors.
"Sometimes, victims need the support of somebody to just talk through, resources and possibly counseling," Crayne said. "I'm very excited for the opening of the new building and I can't wait to see it."
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Children's Inn to open trauma-informed shelter in eastern Sioux Falls
