The scope of the newly merged SAFE Alliance is vast. Which might explain why the merger, between the Austin Children’s Shelter and SafePlace, has been five years in the making.
It operates housing and emergency shelters for adults, young people, children and babies who need refuge from assault, exploitation, abuse and violence. It offers about 30 prevention and crisis programs that, among other things, provide forensic exams, legal services, counseling and training.
SAFE Alliance even runs two day cares and a charter school, which serves between 40 to 50 student-clients a year. And it collaborates with more than 100 partner organizations to provide its services across the region.
Overall, the SAFE Alliance has an annual operating budget of about $20 million, employing 350 staff members and maintaining a volunteer workforce of more than 1,000. It’s one of the largest human-services nonprofits in the city, serving almost 10,000 people, with an immeasurable ripple effect.
It might seem that the merger was inevitable because almost all of the two group’s programs overlap and serve many of the same clients. Yet according to Kelly White, chief executive officer for SAFE, the merged organization is unique in the country.
“A merger like this takes a long time to create, between the legal and funding aspects to the government requirements,” said White. “But what we do here is always through the lens of working toward an effective end to violence and abuse.”
“When you operate from that premise,” added Julia Spann, president of SAFE, “it gets clearer and clearer about what works.”
In forming as a single organization, a number of the barriers to funding are removed and, more importantly, a number of the barriers to providing better service have been removed as well, says White.
For example, a client might enter through one program, like the emergency shelter then-operated by SafePlace, but move into another program that might have been operated by Austin Children’s Shelter.
Before the merger, when a client moved between different agencies, the agencies could not share data with each other about the client because of privacy rules that govern them as nonprofit groups. “That created roadblocks that made service to the client less than seamless,” White said. As a single organization, it avoids many of those types of roadblocks.
Spann says the merger not only make services more streamlined, but also allows the two organizations to advocate for their clients with a stronger voice. And that voice can have real impact on local policies, she said.
For example, SAFE was an integral resource for the city’s decision to put more than $1 million toward the elimination of the Austin Police Department’s backlog of rape kits. That backlog include more than 3,000 rape kits dating back to 1991.
“Our goal is to be able to address these issue more holistically, because abuse and violence are preventable, and there are strategies to end them in this community,” Spann said. “It’s time to start moving toward that level of bold.”
Photo by Sami Jo Berryhill. Employees of SAFE Alliance previously worked for SafePlace and the Austin Children’s Shelter. In the back row, from left, are Stacy Bruce, Wendie Abramson, Daniel Cox Malyszka and Derrick Crowe. In the middle row are Melinda Cantu, Coni Stogner, Maren Strachan, Kitt Krejci and Angela Glode. Seated in front are Kelly White and Julia Spann.
NOTE: This article is published through a partnership with the Austin American-Statesman, which first published this story on Feb. 5, 2017
The post SafePlace, Austin Children’s Shelter merger means serving assault, neglect victims better appeared first on .
