Facility gives shelter to moms, children in need
By Sara Thorson, Tribune
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=32690
What Donna Bruland learned from the Community Alliance Against Family Abuse will help her daughters and granddaughter make better decisions in their relationships.
The nonprofit domestic violence service organization in Apache Junction gave Bruland a place to stay in its Safe Home after her ex-boyfriend had her evicted last October. Support groups and a personal advocate taught her about healthy relationships.
"It’s opened my eyes more to the good in people, and I’ve learned to stay away from the bad," she said. "I try to enforce that and instill that in my girls, too."
Bruland has three daughters, ages 18, 16 and 8, and a 9-month-old granddaughter. They are some of the East Valley’s children whose needs were
identified as top priority in a survey of families conducted in 2003.
The survey results inspired the Tribune’s Our Children Matter campaign. Taxdeductible donations sent in by readers during last year’s holiday season were put into a fund administered by Mesa United Way and later distributed as grants to groups that help East Valley children.
Local corporations matched the first $10,000 in donations. The campaign raised $20,245 in its first year.
Tribune readers can donate to Our Children Matter again this season. For the rest of 2004, a series of articles will show readers the organizations and children they have helped and others still in need.
As the only safe home provider in northern Pinal County, the Community Alliance Against Family Abuse has great need. Its Safe Home has room for just eight women and their children, said executive director Christy Johnson. A new Safe Home is under construction; it will open in October 2005 with rooms for 60 women and their kids.
Johnson said the group needs donors willing to sponsor a room in the new Safe Home. Donations would help pay for construction, and contributors would be honored with a plaque near the door of the room they helped fund.
Cozy rooms with bunkbeds and shared bathrooms were what Donna Bruland found when she and her daughters became some of the first residents of the alliance’s first Safe Home. She said it was a tough transition for her teenage daughters, but they had no place else to go.
Bruland had been homeless after her eviction until she found the Community Alliance Against Family Abuse through a domestic violence awareness carnival in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Beyond shelter, the organization provided clothing for the girls because many of their things were in storage. Bruland’s oldest daughter, who was pregnant at that time, received rides to the doctor for prenatal care.
Bruland herself participated in the alliance’s support groups and worked with her advocate, Linda Jaramillo, the group’s service coordinator.
"They’ve made me feel like I’m not the only one in this situation," Bruland said.
The Community Alliance Against Family Abuse has a 30-day process for women in the Safe Home. Residents set goals with their advocate, and their progress is evaluated at the end of the 30 days. Women can stay in the Safe Home longer if needed.
Bruland and her family moved out about a month after moving into the alliance’s Safe Home. But the organization hasn’t stopped caring for the family. The group helped Bruland stay in a hotel when the air-conditioning in her apartment failed earlier this year and helped her get training in child care.
"Donna and her family have made such amazing strides," Johnson said. "You can see it in the children and their relationships."
Bruland said she knows now that whenever she has a question about healthy family relationships, the Community Alliance Against Family Abuse is there.
"If I don’t call them, they make sure to call me," she said.
Learn more
For more information on the Community Alliance Against Family Abuse, call its 24-hour hotline at (480) 982-0196, toll-free at (877) 982-0196 or visit its Web site at www.caafaaz.org.