You will note that a zoning issue has come up. Apparently, a homeless shelter was situated in a residential area of McLaughlin, and residents petitioned to have it shut down because the men were becoming a nuisance in the neighborhood. McLaughlin added a section to its zoning ordinance to prohibit charities from setting up shelters without prior approval.
However, since it wasn't aimed at a women's shelter, we're optimistic that they'll approve the shelter's petition. In any case, they're not going in there without some help from the South Dakota Coalition Against Domestic Violence. I will update everyone after the Jan 7th hearing. In the meantime, lets all sit tight and see what happens because of the article below.
Standing Rock women's shelter has money, needs city support
By Kevin Woster, Journal staff Tuesday, January 01, 2008
MCLAUGHLIN - As she sorted donated clothing in the cramped, temporary office space of the Pretty Bird Woman House, Yvette Cameron explained the trauma that first brought her here.
"I was raped," the 31-year-old mother of four said softly, without looking up from a shirt she was folding. "The people here helped, a lot."
With so few words, Cameron said so much about the Pretty Bird Woman House domestic-violence shelter and education programs, its three-person staff and their value to the threatened and abused women and their children here on the Standing Rock Reservation. Cameron, now a volunteer at the shelter, said the staff supported and advised her during the court proceedings that eventually sent her rapist to prison.
The staff also helped her find a counselor, and assists her in other ways as she learns to live with her victimization and provide a home for her family, Cameron said.
"I still need medication, and a lot of counseling," she said.
Then the story goes into the background on the shelter, which has now been thoroughly documented here. Then it turns to the zoning issue....
Now center Director Georgia Little Shield has her eye on a new home
for the shelter, a vacant house about a block from city hall and the police station.
And Little Shield and the shelter have the money to buy the house, thanks to a two-month surge of donations through the Internet that has generated about $80,000.
"This would give us more room, in a safer environment, being only a block from the police department," Little Shield said. "There's really a great need for this."
One potential problem is a city county ordinance that requires review and approval before the shelter can be established in a residential area.
It's a new ordinance prompted by public concerns about problems with a homeless shelter in town that is unrelated to the Pretty Bird Woman House, city finance officer Della Hauck said.
"People signed a petition to bring it to the council, which added that to the zoning ordinance," Hauck said. "There were complaints at the other shelter about drinking and fighting."
The McLaughlin City Council is scheduled to consider the shelter's request during a meeting Jan. 7. Hauck said she couldn't speak for the council on that issue. Mayor Ron Dundei didn't return a Journal telephone call left at his home during the weekend.
After discussing how they're in free, but cold, offices now, it moves to the internet fundraiser:
The shelter's housing plight is the latest in a year of difficult times. It also is an example of the power of the Internet in raising awareness and money.
As the shelter program struggled last summer because of a lack of available federal grants, supporters from other states used the Internet to raise $27,000 and keep the shelter in operation. That gave Little Shield time to secure a three-year grant.
Elizabeth Campisi, a graduate anthropology student from Long Island, N.Y., got involved in those efforts through the Internet.
And when she found out from Little Shield in October that the shelter had lost its home, Campisi decided to try another Internet fund-raiser for a new home for the shelter.
She set up a web log, or blog, and began promoting the fund-drive for Pretty Bird Woman House on other blogs, particularly the popular Daily Kos. Daily Kos stories soon inspired other blogs to help, Campisi said by e-mail.
"Then the thing went viral," she said. "That means lots of bloggers picked up on the story."
Another blogger, Andy Ternay of Garland, Texas, wrote the first big-hit story on the Daily Kos blog about the plight of Pretty Bird Woman House fund-raising effort, and continued with updates.
Ternay said by e-mail that personal experience motivated him to join the campaign.
"I got involved because in the 1990's I worked for Women In Crisis, a domestic violence shelter in Colorado," Ternay said. "I got to see firsthand how much of a difference shelters make and that really motivated me."
His motivation was infectious. Dozens then hundreds of people chipped in. By Saturday, Campisi and Little Shield estimated that $80,000 had been raised.
That's enough to buy the house for about $50,000 and also purchase a security system, fence, other necessities and do some repairs in the house.
"This is one of those great stories about how a few people can have a big impact on the world," Campisi said. "It's really an amazing story."
But it isn't quite finished. Little Shield is hopeful but worried about the city council meeting on Jan. 7.
Although the Standing Rock Tribe has another building available that could work, it's several miles out in the country - a situation that provides both travel challenges in winter and potential safety problems.
"It's really important for us to be in town," Little Shield said. "I'm just a little bit worried. But I think when we get there and they see that our shelter won't have problems like the other one, I think they'll allow it."
Yvette Cameron hopes so, and expressed - again with few words - what so many feel. "That would be good," she said. "We need this place."
Reading Yvette Cameron's story made me SO glad that we ALL did this. The fundraiser in May helped keep the shelter open so they could help her, and they even went to court with her to face down the Mayor of a neighboring town, who said the rapist would be welcomed back as an upstanding citizen. When I heard that part of the story I thought, "what year is this? - how is it that in some parts of the country, Indian women still matter so little that their rapists aren't considered criminals?"
As far as I'm concerned, everyone who has read this story and donated is helping change both of those situations. We're helping the shelter staff assist victimized women, and by becoming aware of these types of problems, we're helping create an environment where people who victimize Indians can't keep getting away with it. In other words, we're helping bring this country fully into the 21st Century!
You can read the whole the story and leave a comment here
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