OKC YWCA To Build New Shelter

The YWCA announced this week they have raised the $15 million necessary to build a new shelter.

Wednesday, October 23rd 2013, 6:38 pm



The YWCA announced this week they have raised the $15 million necessary to build a new shelter.

Oklahoma ranks third in the nation in the number of women killed by men and an overwhelming majority the women knew the men who killed them. One woman who News 9 spoke to at the current YWCA shelter believes she could have been one of those statistics.

"What if he hurts me and something happens to me? What about my kids? I said this ‘No this is enough'," she recalls. News 9 is not releasing the identity of the woman to keep her safe.

After almost 20 years of abuse she turned to the YWCA for help.

"We had to leave in a hurry. Most of my kids did not have shoes on. One of them did not even have clothes on."

She found everything she needed at the YWCA shelter. But right now, the current shelter has 52 beds and is almost always full. The new one will more than double that and sleep 120.

YWCA CEO Jan Peery says she believes the new shelter will save lives. She points to the 94 women who were killed in Oklahoma last year, the result of domestic violence. 

"Ninety-eight percent of those victims never access services and we know if we can get them to those services that we're keeping them safe," says Peery. "That shelter becomes a critical component of that safety."

For the woman we interviewed, the YWCA shelter not only saved her life but changed it as well. 

"I am a totally different person now and I wish everyone had that same opportunity that wants to get out."

A groundbreaking for the new shelter is tentatively scheduled for the fall. Once the new shelter is open, the current one will become an extended stay shelter.

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