Naples Daily News Guest Editorial – Shelter to build in Immokalee
Naples Daily News
October 16, 2016
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For 27 years, the Shelter for Abused Women & Children has protected and empowered survivors of abuse. Thanks to unwavering community support and strong alliances with school, law enforcement, judicial and elected officials, we have grown from a renovated four-plex in 1989 to a 60-bed, state-of-the-art campus with seven transitional housing cottages.
Our prevention, protection and outreach programs are transforming thousands of lives each year, offering hope and healing to Collier’s most vulnerable citizens.
But this is not enough.
Today, the shelter announces plans for a second emergency shelter to address a serious and growing need for services in rural eastern Collier County. Thanks to a $3 million lead gift, the approximately 13,000-square-foot emergency shelter will be located in Immokalee. The 30-plus bed facility will include a wing for survivors of domestic violence and another to meet the long-term therapeutic needs of victims of human trafficking.
Why Immokalee and why now?
Established in 1997, the services provided by the Immokalee Outreach Office have grown exponentially over the years. In 2000, the shelter was recognized as a national model for its work serving immigrant and migrant battered women. The addition of an Immokalee emergency shelter will allow survivors to be safe as well as close to their family support systems, employment and their children’s schools.
Currently, many survivors return to unsafe circumstances rather than travel to Naples for emergency shelter.
The need to serve victims of human trafficking has also increased in Collier County. Nationally, Florida ranks as one of the top four destinations for trafficking victims. While we live in a community that one might not associate with human trafficking, it is important to note that the shelter has served 38 victims of human trafficking in just the last two years. Most of these were victims of sex trafficking.
Increased awareness of human trafficking has led the Collier County Sheriff’s Office to dedicate a full-time detective specifically for human trafficking. On March 6, 2015, the Sheriff’s Office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested 15 traffickers and rescued six women, some of whom were forced to perform 25 to 45 sex acts a day.
“There is no other agency in Collier County better prepared to address the short- and long-term needs of domestic violence and human-trafficking victims than the shelter,” Sheriff Kevin Rambosk said.
On Tuesday, Oct. 11, Collier commissioners and sheriff’s officials recognized this in a memorandum of understanding, naming the shelter as the county’s foremost service provider to meet the needs of domestic violence and human-trafficking victims.
To measure the need for an emergency facility in Immokalee, the shelter launched an extensive needs assessment. The study utilized data from law enforcement and judiciary sources, information from focus groups, surveys and interviews with Immokalee residents, as well as the input of 32 community organizations.
Updated in 2015, the assessment provides concrete assurance of the need for an emergency shelter in Immokalee. Like the Naples community in 1989, the residents of Immokalee have come together, recognizing the issue of domestic violence and human trafficking and the need for culturally specific services within their community. But they need county wide support to make this facility a reality.
As the shelter moves forward, we anticipate the continued, compassionate support that has created a safe haven for survivors in coastal Collier County.
It is my firm belief that every human being deserves to live a life free from violence and abuse. This is the reality we seek every day at the shelter as we work to prevent, protect and prevail over domestic violence and human trafficking. It is a reality we seek for all residents in Collier County, for if people cannot feel safe in their own home, then they cannot be expected to feel safe anywhere.
Please join us in this critical initiative.
For more information on how you can get involved, go online to naplesshelter.org/ immokalee or call 239-775-3862.
Oberhaus is executive director of the Shelter for Abused Women & Children.
LINDA OBERHAUS
NAPLES
