Sunday Focus With Christine Manika

2024 Drive Out Domestic Violence Campaign

This episode will feature Hope Haven and the Children's Home Shelter for Family Safety

Hope Haven is one of the many non-profit organizations around the Sioux Empire. Brooke Kooima from Hope Haven sits in on the program to talk about the organization and how COVID-19 has affected them. For more information about Hope Haven and how to get involved, visit https://www.hopehaven.org/.

Children's Home Shelter for Family Safety: The Children's Home Shelter for Family Safety has been busy lately. For one, they opened their new facility in Sioux Falls. It's great they are expanding its resources, but also bittersweet. This expansion only means that more people in the Sioux Empire need to use the Children's Home Shelter for Family Safety to escape domestic violence. It's so important to educate others and this campaign shows others that hope is truly stronger than fear. Staci with the Children's Home Shelter for Family Safety tells us about this continued fight and how the community can get involved. More information can be found at driveoutdv.com.

Duration:: 29m
Broadcast on:: 21 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

This is Sunday Focus, a weekly public affairs program that looks at the topics affecting our society and the people who are making a change in the community each and every day. The people who have vision for the next generation. Sunday Focus presents new challenges for us, keeping you informed with topics of local and regional interest. Now the host of Sunday Focus, Christine Manica. Good morning. Coming up on this edition of Sunday Focus, we will sit down with Brooke Koyma from Hope Haven to give an update about their organization and Stacey Kropinski with the children's home shelter for family safety about the annual drive out domestic violence campaign and what's going on with the organization. That's all coming up on this edition of Sunday Focus. I am joined in the studio from Hope Haven, Marketing Manager Brooke Koyma, I said that right, right? Yes. Yes. There we go. She is going to talk to us about the organization and lots of exciting events coming up. First of all, Brooke, thanks for joining us today. Yeah. Thanks for having me. It's always nice to have someone back in the studio face to face. I've mentioned this before. Let's talk about Hope Haven. What is your organizational all about? Hope Haven is a nonprofit organization that provides services and support for people with disabilities. Our services are comprehensive. We have a really big umbrella. So we do a lot of different things that cover a lot of aspects of a person's life. That's vocational, so connecting people with job opportunities, housing, so that's direct care in homes. We have an international ministries program. So we do a lot of different things and individual choice is really key in all of our services, empowering people to have a productive life of their choosing in their own communities. What about people that benefit from this program? So when people come in to Hope Haven, what is their number one priority that they're looking for from you guys? Yeah. So it really varies based on individual need. Our largest service program at the moment is community living. We have over 60 community living residences in northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota. But like I said, it really varies based on that person's needs. And our international ministries program has their distribution center in Sioux Falls. And that program has delivered over 130,000 wheelchairs in 109 countries. So, and they estimate that there are millions of people around the world who still need a wheelchair and can't access one. So that program has a really great need and a lot of people tap into that and work with us on that program. So I should have mentioned in the beginning that this is part of the Sioux Empire. So you have a location in Iowa. Yes. And then is there also an office located in Sioux Falls? Yeah. So our headquarters are in Rock Valley, Iowa, but our international ministries is headquartered in Sioux Falls. You were talking about the wheelchair ministry. Yep. Just now. How many wheelchairs, just so I can figure that out, how many wheelchairs would you say you distribute a year? It really depends anywhere between 2000 to 5000 wheelchairs probably. Can you talk about some experiences that people have had with Hopehaven? So our organization was founded in 1964. So there's a lot of history there. Yeah. And a lot of people, especially in the Sioux Empire, have been on a trip with us or they have volunteered at one of our wheelchair workshops. And that basically working in a wheelchair workshop entails refurbishing wheelchairs that are donated. So if someone has a wheelchair that they no longer use, they'll donate it to our organization and we, our volunteers will refurbish it to like new and then it'll be donated to someone in need. So locally people help us refurbish those wheelchairs. And then there's also opportunities for people to go on trips with us to places like Vietnam and Guatemala and Romania and be a part of that process where they're personally giving a wheelchair to somebody in need. So those are some really great experiences. There's so many stories, but when you're there in that country and you're, you're seeing the person get that life-changing gift of a wheelchair, it's, it's really incredible. It's probably really rewarding for you on your end just to see it all unfold. Definitely. The whole, you see the whole process right there. Things that have changed with COVID-19 too. And there really isn't an area that hasn't been affected in some way, non-profits and organizations like Hope Haven, especially have been hurting during this difficult time. Yeah, real things really were put on pause with that. We had one of our last trips in March and then things really came to a halt on that. Behind the scenes, we're still collecting wheelchairs and our volunteers were safely working when they could on, on refurbishing them. But yeah, we didn't have a lot of trips last year, so we're excited when things start opening back up to, to get back out there and, and get those wheelchairs distributed to people in those countries. So when COVID first became a reality, what were your thoughts personally and as an organization? Yeah, wow. Difficult time for everyone, especially in our nonprofit and what we do locally, we provide direct care. That's super challenging because the, the work that we do that way doesn't stop and people can't work from home. And then our wheelchair ministry, just all of those trips being paused and it, yeah, it's really difficult, but our, I would say our leadership was really innovative and coming up with solutions and all of our employees, it was such a team effort of following all those procedures and being a really united front in order to come through it all. But yeah, what a, what a difficult, strange time because our team really acted and collaborated to come up with those safety procedures in terms of all of our different service programs, whether that be local or international, like pausing some of those trips. And then on our fundraising aspect of things with our events, you know, figuring out, oh, do we cancel this? Do we reschedule it? So that was an interesting thing to navigate all of those challenges. Thankfully, we were able to hold some of our summer events that are out, we're outside. The ones that we postponed, we did have in the summer and the fall, but they just looked different, right? Less people there, mass safety procedures like that. So we were able to pivot with some of those events, but yeah, it was just a challenging thing to restructure those events. But so a few of them were canceled, a few of them were restructured and postponed. If you are just listening, Brooke from Hopehaven, she is joining me in the studio. How crucial are these events and fundraisers for an organization like Hopehaven? Fundraising events are huge for us. We have, you know, about a dozen events throughout the year. So events are a huge part of our fundraising efforts. So, and not only is it a great way for us to raise funds, but it's just a great way to get the community involved and aware of what we do. Connects people with volunteering opportunities. So there's just a number of ways that events are really critical to our fundraising efforts. Absolutely. And just like events like the auction and other programs you put on at Hopehaven, you need help. So what are volunteer opportunities that are offered at Hopehaven? Yeah, there's a number of different ways that people can volunteer and get involved with Hopehaven. We have a list of all of those on our website, hopehaven.org/volunteer. And it, you know, it depends on the location that you're at, but in Sioux Falls specifically, we have opportunities to help at our Sioux Falls headquarters, our international ministries. So you can get involved by helping refurbish those wheelchairs. You can also help us load up for shipments, organize. There's administrative tasks. So there's a lot of information on our website about how you can help out that way and sign up. For more information, you've set the website already a couple of times, more information about Hopehaven. Remind everyone the website. Yeah, check out hopehaven.org for more information on all of our events. Alright, awesome. Brooke Koima with Hopehaven, thanks so much for joining us today. Yeah, thanks for having me. You're listening to Sunday Focus. Once again, here's Christine Manneka. The children's home shelter for family safety has been pretty busy lately. For one, they opened their new facility in Sioux Falls and soon there will be a new development for the Children's Home Society on the western side of South Dakota. It's great to expand resources, but it's also bittersweet. This expansion only means that more people in the Sioux Empire need the Children's Home Shelter for family safety to escape domestic violence. That's why the Drive Out Domestic Violence campaign is so important this time of year. It's all about starting a conversation for the month of July. It's so important to educate others and this campaign shows that Hope is truly stronger than fear. Stacey Kropinski with the Children's Home Shelter for Family Safety is here to tell us more about this continued fight and any ways that the community can involve. Good morning Stacey. Good morning. How are you? I'm doing well. Thank you. That's awesome. We're so excited to have you again here in the studio to talk about the new Children's Home Shelter for family safety and the annual Drive Out DB campaign. But first, lots of people have been moving into Sioux Falls lately. I don't know if you've realized that. So for anyone who isn't familiar with the Children's Home Shelter for family safety, tell us a little bit more about it. I would love to. So to start off, a lot of people probably know our organization just maybe don't quite realize it yet. We are formerly Children's Inn. So if you're familiar with what Children's Inn was, we are the same organization now just under a new name and in a new home. So now we are Children's Home Shelter for family safety. We serve victims of domestic violence and child abuse and neglect. We offer a lot of different services for individuals who are in some difficult situations, maybe trying to get out of those situations, maybe just trying to find some help and support. Those are all things that we can help with at Shelter for family safety by offering those services. And most important to note probably is that our services are free to those who need it most. So we don't want to charge anyone when all they simply want to do is be safe. That's not something we should charge for. So we do offer the services for free to those who need it the most. With the difficult conversation like domestic violence, you have to put a little light in the story in some way. So this name changing process, I made fun of it saying it's a master's degree pretty much. Are you still getting used to the new name? You know, it flows a little bit better now. People are still not quite sure. Well, you know, as we're out in the community kind of talking, we mentioned the name and they're like, Oh, what do you do? But when we remind them of Children's Inn, a lot of people understand kind of knew what that organization was. So again, we are the exact same organization. We just changed our name when we moved to our new larger facility. It's been about a year and a half ago now that we made that move. Yeah. And speaking about that new facility, when we are talking numbers, how has the numbers changed since the new facility officially opened? Well, we have definitely seen an increase in numbers, which wasn't a total surprise. I would have to say after the first year, though, the volume of that increase was a little bit of a surprise. So in the first full year in that new facility, our shelter intakes increased by 28%, which is pretty significant. But we have the capacity to serve that kind of number now. So we have a greater ability to serve more individuals for those that help in services when they need it the most. So we are seeing an increase. I would say across the board, really, in all of our services, we're definitely seeing an uptick in numbers. Yeah, absolutely. Anything that you'd like to share about the new location for the children's home shelter for family safety since it opened? Yeah. You know, it's an amazing facility. I would say it's, you know, it's not extravagant. It's just everything we needed it to be. So the additional space, the ability to provide just a much better service to the clients that we are serving, I just never want anyone to feel like they can't come there because they don't know what it's like, please come and check it out. And we just want to be able to help. We would never want anyone to be fearful of coming because they don't know for sure what it's like. You know, we've tried to make it as homey as possible as you can in a facility like that. And we're just really committed to providing safety and services to individuals when they need it the most. Absolutely. And whether you want to call it a dream, I hope it is now a reality. And that must be a relief for you guys too. It really is. I think some days are still pinch me moments, you know, where we're, we just, before we left the former facility, it was pretty cramped for space all the way across the board. So to have the space to serve this increase in numbers, to serve individuals, like I said, in just a much better and more efficient way, not only is it good for the individuals that we're serving, but it's, it's better for our team too to not be so cramped for space and to have the opportunities just in a much more dignified way to provide these services. And remind me if I'm incorrect here, but there is a wall that's in the new facility and it's full of River Rock, if I'm saying that. Right. Yeah, there is. So throughout the building design, they found some ways to incorporate nature into the design. So it's really kind of neat. We have nice big open windows that led in a lot of natural light. And then the rock wall, as you mentioned, was a, was a really neat feature we incorporated. So as you come up to the front of the building, you'll see a big rock wall. And that's where all that river rock came from, locally sourced, I should say, a lot of it came out of Turner County. But you'll also notice there's kind of a white river of rock running through it that kind of flows up to the door. So it's just kind of an inviting way to bring people up to the door. And that rock came from West River. So it was just kind of a neat way to incorporate that into the design as well. Yeah. And speaking about our friends, Al West, I believe it was this time last year that you announced a expansion project out there. Can you share more information about this? Absolutely. So Children's Home Shelter for Family Safety is a program of Children's Home Society of South Dakota. There are other programs are a campus here in Sioux Falls. And then there's a campus out West as well in the Black Hills area. So currently they're in a pretty remote area, I guess you could say, in near Rockerville. And so it's just kind of really out in the countryside out there, which it's a beautiful area. But it does present some challenges when winter comes. And so they are moving that campus into Rapid City and they'll be expanding the campus. So we're really excited to see that start taking place and really excited to see what we're going to be able to expand services to when we have greater space and capacity to do so out there. So it's a really exciting venture and of course it will serve kids who are needing just longer term care with emotional difficulties or behaviors and their families as well. Obviously with the difficult weather that can happen out West, what were the other needs that you saw to bring this expansion to life? Have you seen growth out West as well with people coming in? Yeah, I think the ability to serve a greater number of kids because there is a need for it, but also really trying to focus on serving more of the whole family. And so I know there's some ideas being bounced around on ways to kind of add on to that service. In the Sioux Falls campus, they're able to also offer day school as a program. And so that's something they're looking to incorporate out West as well. So lots of exciting things that they're looking at doing and can't wait to see how that all takes shape. So when can we see the expansion come to life, a rough estimated guess? You know, I think they've already kind of started initially on a few things. I know there's a few people offing out of the new space because they purchased the, I hope this is correct, the National American University campus. And that's what they're going to be remodeling and moving into. So there are just a few staff already occupying the space. And so we'll just kind of look for that to start taking shape and growing and just really excited, like I said, to see how else we're going to be able to serve families and even better. Exactly. Access for everybody. If you are just listening, being joined in the studio with Stacey Kropinski of the children's home shelter for family safety, formerly children's in. And it's all about what's going on with their organization and the drive out domestic violence campaign. We do a lot of partnerships with you guys once again, proud to be a partner with Results Town Square Media for the children's home shelter, family safety, drive out domestic violence campaign known as drive out DV. And before we get into the campaign itself, how does domestic violence impact us here in the Sioux Empire? So you know, domestic violence is really, it's way more prevalent than I think people realize. It's kind of one of those subjects that's hard to talk about. We've gotten much better about it over the years. You know, I think back to the 1970s when children's in first started. We didn't even realize then that domestic violence was a problem until we opened our doors and had adults coming with their kids. Then we kind of took a step back and re-evaluated a little bit and started to include that service became one of the first 10 domestic violence shelters in the nation. Since then we've worked really hard to reduce some of the stigma when it comes to domestic violence, to encourage people to talk about it, to become aware of the red flags and how to help someone who's in a situation of domestic violence. And I think we've come a long way in that process. Obviously, we still have a ways to go and we're going to continue to work at that. So one of the ways, as you said, is through our drive out domestic violence campaign fueled by our friends over at Verneti MotorCars. We're really trying to keep that topic front and center for people to help people, you know, talk about it, learn more about it, you know, I encourage you to go to our Facebook page and just learn something new when it comes to domestic violence. It seems pretty simple. I think in people's minds they think, oh, if that ever happens to me, I'd be out of there in a heartbeat. But it's really not that easy. It's hard to get out of a situation of domestic violence and not only is it prevalent, but it really can impact anyone is what we find. So our services are available to anyone who is impacted by domestic violence. And again, we just encourage people to become a little more aware or just learn something new with this campaign. And it's all about starting that conversation and learning something so Stacey, what's something that people may not know about domestic violence? Well, as I said, domestic violence really can impact anyone. It can impact women. It impacts men. And obviously there's an impact on children as well. Any age, you know, we serve individuals from honestly newborn to the oldest individual we served was 93. Wow. So, you know, as far as an age demographic, that's pretty broad, but that's how domestic violence kind of works. It can impact anyone. And so that's what we want to kind of reduce the stigma for is to help people understand it can really impact anyone. Now, about the drive out domestic violence campaign itself, what's it all about? And there's some new changes involved with this year's campaign, too. Yeah. You know, we're really excited learning something new. It's not always fun. But, you know, let's be honest, you know, it's like going to school sometimes. It's not just men's. Yeah, exactly. So we wanted to make it kind of fun, go out to our Facebook page. We've got posts every day that are brought to you by some great sponsors that are part of the campaign, including Results Town Square Media. But we've got some great partners bringing those messages. Go learn something. Like I said, just go read those messages, learn a little bit more. Or if not for yourself, maybe for someone you know, maybe it won't be you that's impacted by domestic violence, but more than likely someone you know will be. So learn something, take that information, know how to find help for that individual. If again, not for you, then for someone else, know how to contact our facility or get in touch with us. But you can also help in another fun new way this year, which we're really excited about. We have a partnership with Lewis Drug. You can pop into any Lewis drug in Sioux Falls or Harrisburg. We've got a list of needs for our donation drive. You can do some shopping right there at Lewis. And then drop it in the donation bin, most of the stores have it right up front. And then we'll collect those items and get them back to shelter. We've got a list of items on the bins that are you know, just some basic needs. We're looking to meet a lot of basic needs for the guests that we're serving. What that allows them to do is really focus on other things, you know, they're not having to worry about, I didn't get to wash my hair with shampoo today. And I just, I don't, you know, I'm not feeling really great about myself and now I have to go for a job interview because I'm trying to get out of this situation. So we're just trying to remove some of those easier barriers for the guests that we're serving. And so that's a really fun and easy way to be able to help is just go shopping for us. And speaking about Lewis, I know that Results Town Square Media was out there recently about the start of the campaign. And that just shows that we support you guys and how did that event go by the way? You know, it was really good. We had a fun day. People were in great spirits coming into the store. It was kind of fun because Lewis kicked off a sale recently. They're big summer sale and that goes through most of July, I think. So not only can you do some shopping to help us, but it's at a reduced price. So Lewis has got some great sales going on for those items and many others. But yeah, just pop on in, do some shopping. You can also find that list of needs on our website at driveoutdv.com. So you can find that there, you can shop elsewhere if you want to, but we've tried to make it really easy at any of those Lewis Drug locations. Yeah. In businesses, organizations, individuals, can they still get involved? Absolutely. So those bins will be out through all of July. So go do your shop and drop them in the bins and really the need for these items at shelter, it's year round. So we've just hit the time of year where we need to restock some of the shelves because we've depleted some of the resources, but those needs continue throughout the year. So if you miss the opportunity in July, we definitely will have the need year round and can still look for the community's help with those items. Can you recall since this campaign started, how many donations or phone calls you have received? Yeah. So we made around last week to all the locations, checked out the donation boxes and took items out and brought them back to shelter. We collected over 100 items for the first round, yeah, and we'll be going out again to collect those items and bring them back. Again, they're just kind of basic necessity items, but we really have a need for them at shelter. So thanks to everybody who's already dropped items in the bin. And if you're thinking about doing that, we are incredibly grateful for your help. And of course, Results Town Square Media, Dakota News Now, our other great partners, Lewis Drug Stores, Verneti Motocars, and we've got some other great sponsors with the campaign that are making this all happen. We just appreciate all their help as well as the help from all the community members that are purchasing those items and helping us out. So what happens after July when the campaign is over and done? Obviously, the mission continues, but what else happens for you guys? You know, we start to move into the holiday season. Surprisingly, I know it's just July. Christmas and July, right? That's kind of what this is for us, so we'll start looking ahead to the holiday season. We're going to have a lot of guests with us through the holiday season. Really the big thing for us is the service continues, the work continues. Even though you might not hear about us on the radio or the television, we're still hard at it on the front lines, providing the services, making sure individuals have a safe place to go and have a dignified experience in that process. It's a really hard time, you know, often something traumatic has happened. It's not like someone packed up for a family vacation. We're kind of a last resort, honestly. It's not like people want to come to shelter, but we definitely want to be that option when they need that assistance. Absolutely. If you were just joining us, being joined by Stacey Kropinski, she is from the Children's Home Shelter for Family Safety, talking about the organization and the animal drive out domestic violence campaign, Stacey, you know me by now, I like to give people perspectives and just kind of an image of where their funds and donations are going towards. So just share a story with us, if you can, about someone or a family that has been affected by domestic violence and what they're up to now. Yeah, you know, I would say very recently I was out in the community and we had a display table out and a gentleman came up to our table and we were kind of chit-chatting and he said, you know, what is this place? And I said, well, you know, we used to be called Children's Inn and he said, oh, I stayed there when I was little. He said, my sisters and I had to be removed from our parents because they were not making good choices. And he said, we came and stayed with you guys and he said, I will never forget it. I will never forget what I experienced there, how safe it made me feel. And he just said, I'll always remember that. And so that just was really neat to hear from this young man, to know that we positively impacted he and his sisters in their situation and that he will never forget the experience he had with us. You know, when all we were doing was providing safety, we were treating them with dignity and respect, we were ensuring they were getting to be kids, but that really stuck with him. And we often hear stories like that when individuals, you know, when we're out in the community, people will share their experience with us that they had stayed with us at one point or needed our services and just that they were so grateful we were there. After hearing so many stories and witnessing to being a part of someone's new journey, whether it's families and individuals who want to get out of a domestic violence situation, is feeling ever get old for you, that's satisfying, that rewarding feeling, I would say it never gets old. You know, in this line of work, it's really hard. It's hard to hear the stories of what people are going through in their homes. It's traumatic. It's difficult to be on the receiving end of that, you know, and to hear those stories just as it is to go through those situations. So when we can hear those success stories, when we can know that we impacted a life anywhere along the line, that's the reward. That's what we can take with us into the next day and think, okay, I'm going to impact another person today and another person today because we truly just want to help people get out of these difficult situations. And if it's one person today, it's one person today. Awesome. Stacy Cravinsky with the Children's Home Shelter for Family Safety. Or we wrap it up, Stacy, anything else you'd like to add? You know, I just want to thank our community for always responding to the needs that we have to our great partners, Results Town Square Media being one. We just have some great friends that come on board with this campaign and other things that we venture into. And that's really what makes this happen. You know, we can be on the front lines doing the hard work, but we can't do it alone. You know, we can't come up with all these items or the funding to do our work because we offer these services for free. This funding has to come from somewhere. So we have a great community out there who's willing to stand by us in this work. It's kind of that concept of it really takes a village and it really takes all of us. And sometimes that's the role that someone can play. They have the funds or the ability to help us with the items or the monetary gifts. Those are all very helpful. We're incredibly grateful. And we just hope people will join us for this fun campaign in July, but also throughout the year. Absolutely. Again, Stacey Krubinski, children's home shelter for family safety. What is that website or phone number that people can call to learn more? So driveoutdv.com is the website. You'll find that wish list. You can make a gift there and find out how you can learn more about domestic violence. Or if you are someone in need of assistance, please give us a call at 605-338-4880. Always good to see you, Stacey. Thank you so much. Thank you. Sunday Focus is a public affairs program of a results radio, Town Square Media Sioux Falls.