AMESBURY — After 15 years of operation, Turning Point's all-women's Safe Recovery Shelter is in need of a makeover.
The Amesbury shelter recently launched a "Sprucing Up" campaign to bring in new furniture, paint the walls and to give the shelter a much needed overall face-lift.
"The shelter is in an old nursing home," President and CEO Geri Dorr said. "We have very little funds available for furnishing, and when we originally took over, we had a one-time investment of furniture, so everything is 14 years old and tired."
Today the shelter is full of couches with busted cushions, faded window treatments and unmatched chairs and tables. Dorr says a nice environment is what the women staying at Safe Recovery desperately need.
"They need to have something nice to come home to because often they are coming with just the clothes on their back," Dorr said.
Turning Point is responsible for 177 clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which makes a nice shelter environment crucial to success, Dorr said.
In just three weeks, organizers have already raised $19,000 of their $100,000 goal. Earlier this week, two couches, coffee tables and lamps were donated for the shelter's family room.
"The kids came home from school and said 'what did we do so good to get this?'" Dorr said. "That was out of the mouth of an 8-year-old. They deserve it; they work so hard to keep their rooms clean."
In addition to renovating the bedrooms, family rooms and kitchen, Dorr hopes there is enough money left over to buy Teddy bears for children who find themselves in the shelter with nothing from their previous home.
"It takes about two years to break the cycle; oftentimes it is a generational situation," Dorr said. "They can't go back, they have to make all new friends and break old ties. Everything is a teachable moment and for bonding between moms and children."
Today the 10-bedroom shelter is 95 percent full throughout the year with women fleeing abusive situations, and oftentimes dependent on drugs or alcohol. The first of its kind 15 years ago, today it is still used as an example for other shelters across the state and nation.
"This is one division of what Turning Point does," Dorr said. "We have residential programs for the retarded and 10 scattered apartments for women who graduate from the shelter as they get over the trauma of addiction and continue their education."
Within the next two weeks, Dorr hopes to have furniture ordered from the Interior Resource Network factory, which specializes in industrial strength furniture guaranteed to last more than 10 years. She hopes to have the renovations done by the middle of August.
Already the shelter has received generous donations from Chase and Lundt Insurance and Newburyport Five Cents Savings Bank.
To donate to the shelter, checks can be sent to P.O. Box 548, Newburyport, MA 01950
