Templum House Aids Homeless Women

By Sally Heil

Templum House is a crisis shelter for battered and homeless women and their children located in Cleveland. Begun by Bernadette Boyce, a social worker, in October of 1978, it operated through March of 1980 when it was forced to close due to lack of funds. The shelter reopened in July, 1980. The present co-directors are Sister Loretta Rafter and Sister Madeline Shemo. Their staff consists of four full-time employees, one part-time employee and six volunteers. Templum House is currently operated by a private non-profit tax exempt organization.

Although a high percentage (70 to 80 percent) of the women served by Templum House come from situations of domestic violence, this particular shelter is a unique community resource in that it accepts women and their children who are homeless for any reason, including those who are stranded, evicted, or discharged from mental or general hospitals. They accept women and their children from every racial,

engagements for the purpose of raising consciousness, raising funds, and educating the public to the seriousness of the problem of battered and homeless women.

The directors of Templum House hope to be able to expand their facility to meet the needs of the increasing number of women calling for assistance. Future plans include a more extensive childcare program to deal with specific problems of the residents' children, such as living with the instability and violence to which they have been exposed. They are presently considering a childcare program in conjunction with serving local residents.

When a woman is referred to Templum House, the first step of the in-take process is for her to call the shelter hot-line and talk to one of the staff members. The woman is asked certain questions at this time to ascertain her present situation and needs:

1) Why do you need shelter?

2) Where have you been staying?

3) What is the situation/has there been any

Battering means physical abuse-slaps, punches, kicks, usually accompanied by harsh verbal and psychological abuse. It may also include sexual abuse. Women rarely initiate the violence and rarely fight back. The following statistics have been put together, by the FBI: -

One of every two women in this country experiences battering at least once in her lifetime. One of every four women' experiences incest.

One of every eight women experiences rape.

97 percent of all violence between men and women occurs against women.

25 percent of the murders in this country are against women by their husbands.

PEV

The Cycle Theory of Violence, developed by Dr. Lenore Walker in her book "The Battered Woman" describes three stages in a cycle of battering. In the "Tension Stage," the woman is acutely aware of the man's edginess. She denies her own anger and tries to control the situation by smoothing over little issues and protecting him from things that may set him off. He is extremely jealous and may accuse her of infidelity, using these accusations to justify his anger. He may threaten her family and friends. She feels responsible for his violence and tries to control it. Tension rises.

In the "Explosion Stage," the man no longer understands his anger. He becomes violent. The explosion may last from a few hours to 45 hours. The "Love Stage" follows, welcomed by both. He is sorry and tries to make up. He is charming and manipulative. He believes he can control himself in the future and promises never to hurt her again. She wants to believe him. He plays dependent-he will fall apart without her-and she ends up feeling responsible for him as well as for her own victimization.

The myth that women in battering situations have the freedom to leave not only puts the burden of solving the problem on the victim, but in most cases is in total conflict with their situation. Economic dependency, low self-esteem, children, and male threats of following and hurting others who interfere make leaving a frightening and difficult task. And when society does not acknowledge the violence as unjust, or blames the victim for not controlling the aggressor's rage, she herself tends to minimize the pain and accept her fate.

cultural, religious and economic background.

After the reopening in July, 1980, with a renovated facility, new staff and a revitalized program, Templum House provided shelter for 143 women and children within the first four months, and received an additional 498 requests for shelter, involving 498 women and 482 children of these women. It is projected that Templum House will serve as shelter for approximately 500 women and children within, the next twelve months. It is also projected that 2,500 additional calls will be received on its hotline, 631-2275, for which shelter cannot be provided by Templum House with its present capacity for.fourteen women and children.

Funding for Templum House has come from individual church and corporate donations, as well as grants from foundations: From the county, Templum 'House receives approximately $15,000 annually from the marriage license tax. Their proposed budget from October 1980 to October 1981 is $71,509, excluding donated consultant services and donated rent and utilities for the present facility. To Demeet the deficit, proposals have been submitted to ~ private foundations as well as to community organizations. Templum has also made application for any federal, state or county monies that become available. The staff is also busy with speaking

-Susan Henry, Commonwoman, March/April 1981

physical violence?

4) Have the children been hurt?

5) Do you have any relative or friend you could possibly stay with?

If a woman is not a victim of domestic violence, she is also asked if she has a relative or friend she can stay with.

The woman is then told that Templum House is a temporary crisis shelter and that the average length of residence is 7 to 9'days. The staff member briefly describes the shelter and the rules and regulations concerning residence responsibilities. At this time, an appointment is set up at a public location for a meeting between a staff member and the woman seeking shelter. Sister Madeline Shemo explained the reasons for this meeting: the shelter does not accept women on drugs, alcohol, or those who may be psychotic. If the woman is not granted Tesidence for one of these reasons, or because there isn't any space available, they refer her to other shelters or organizations designed to meet her specific needs.

women determine what agencies should be contacted for their particular needs. There is a staff member on the premises 24 hours a day, and the women are encouraged to seek a consultation with the staff member at any time. Staff members also do nonresident counseling and follow-up counseling if requested. Every evening there is a peer group session where the women residents can share their experiences, and hopefully gain support and encouragement from each other. The staff members have decided to offer a weekly group session for former residents of Templum House which will give added support to those women now on their own but still in a process of transition.

Unfortunately, a week's stay at a crisis shelter such as Templum House does not provide enough time for a woman to sort through her psycho-social problems, considering the devastating life situation she has just left. It seems somewhat unrealistic to expect a woman coming into a crisis shelter to be able to work through short-term goals, long-term goals, and immediate implementation of such goals in such a short period of time.

It takes between three to four weeks for a woman to adjust to the fact that she is not going home. Once she has mourned her past, she usually begins concrete steps toward reaching her short-term goals. According to Lenore Walker's studies-in The Battered Woman, about 50 percent of the women who stay longer than one week in a safe house will not return to live with their batterers. The shelter I visited, Templum House, can at this time do little more than meet the emergency needs of the women who seek their help, although women in need of a longer stay' (3 to 5 weeks) can remain there. The shelter receives five times more calls for assistance than it can meet.

The feminist movement has done much to bring the oppression of women into public focus. Wife beating, which is easily dismissed by our maledominated society as being an unfortunate circumstance inherent in the female condition, is now being identified as an intolerable act of violence against women which is supported by societal disregard. The oppression and subjugation of women has been so integrated into the psychological perspectives of women, that self-protection, self-worth, and self-reliance represent the antithesis of what females are taught to value or develop as female characteristics. Because women have been encouraged to develop and value characteristics associated with submissiveness, many women who are physically and/or emotionally abused tend to believe that they have caused their own victimization.

The purpose of shelters such as Templum House is not only to provide immediate refuge, but also to help the woman who has been a victim of abuse to realize that she is not impotent, that she has alternatives, and she has the capacity for acting upon these alternatives. As women become a stronger collective (socially and politically) actively working toward equality for women in all life situations, perhaps they will have the ability to implement change and establish necessary programs that focus on more than the crisis situation. Battered women are but a reflection of existing inherent social injustice to women, and the feminist movement is a necessary response to these kinds of social conditions. It's a sad commentary on our society that there is a need to protect women from men, and it is unfortunate that so few provisions exist to accommodate women who

are abused by men. The necessary humanitarian

The women who are accepted live in a communal response to the oppression of women has not atmosphere. There is a schedule posted for historically come from men; therefore, social household chores, and a sign-in and sign-out sheet. changes in this area must be initiated and maintained There are rules to be followed and the women are to by women who have raised their awareness of the actively help themselves (finding housing, securing limitations of sex-role differentiations" and the funds, etc.). Staff members are available to help-societal injustice to women inherent therein......... 1821_lingA\2insW odZ jedWAS_9889