Someplace Safe honored women of the ELCA Northwestern Minnesota Synod

by Frank Imhoff, ELCA News Service

Someplace Safe, Fergus Falls, Minn., awarded the women's
organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
Northwestern Minnesota Synod the Someplace Safe Community Award
on May 1. The award recognized the ELCA Northwestern Minnesota
Synodical Women's Organization for its support of the Someplace
Safe mission: "To create a safer world for everyone, we work to
eliminate violence and oppression through advocacy, education and
services." Elaine Scheer, president, ELCA Northwestern Minnesota
Synodical Women's Organization, said Someplace Safe provides
violence prevention programming in schools, creates partnerships
with criminal justice agencies to promote system change, and
educates the professional and general public about the effects of
violence on our communities.

Before she became executive director of Someplace Safe, Jeanne
Jacobs said, the ELCA Northwestern Minnesota Synodical Women's
Organization drafted a resolution of support for Someplace Safe.
"Although the resolution was never passed, the simple action of
drafting it drew enough attention that 43 Women of the ELCA units
from across the region donated over $6,000 to Someplace Safe
programs since September 2007," she said. Jacobs said the
"staggering" number of people who became aware of Someplace Safe
services made the organization worthy of the award. "So often it
is word of mouth that brings a woman and her children to our
doors," she said. "'Awareness and Education' is part of our
mission and Women of the ELCA certainly has contributed a great
deal to that."

Since it was incorporated in 1979, Someplace Safe has expanded
from its initial purpose of providing 24-hour emergency shelter
for women and their children to providing emergency shelter for
victims of sexual assault and general crimes, and locations for
supervised visits and exchanges for children and their families
across eight counties in west-central Minnesota.