Shelter Manager Carrie Calkins arrived at 430 this morning instead of the usual 6:00 a.m. so she could get a client to work on time. It is just another day at the Nest.
A resident wakes up and carries her feverish two-year-old to Advocate Mona Earnest in the staff office. Together, they take the child’s temperature. As they are trying to medicate the child for fever, the child becomes physically ill on her mother and the advocate.
Three residents gather in the kitchen to make breakfast. On the menu for the day; sausage, pancakes and bananas. Four children play in the children’s playroom, scattering blocks and dolls across the floor. In the library area, a fourth resident meticulously combs the classified ads, searching for employment.
Advocate Corina Montoya takes a client to court where she will face her abuser for the first time since leaving him three weeks ago. On the drive to Carrizozo, the client is crying. Montoya comforts her and reviews what to expect in the courtroom, putting her mind at ease.
Back at the Nest, Trauma Counselor Nancy La Pointe meets with clients upstairs in the counseling office. Advocate Miriam Moreno arrives at work, composes a grocery list and is off to Wal-Mart to pick up the week’s grocery, medication and toiletry needs.
In the conference room, HEAL Executive Director Coleen Widell meets with Shelter Supervisor Terri Thompson and Advocate Britta Magnusson to review client empowerment plans. The plans help residents and staff identify and monitor the goals of each woman while they are in shelter.
Shelter Supervisor Reyna Flores is on a crisis call with a victim in Oklahoma who needs to get as far away from her abuser as possible. The abuser has been able to track her to several shelters in three different states. Flores assures the woman the Nest has a significant security and surveillance program to protect her and her children. Yes, there is space for her and the Baptist Church agrees to provide the money for the unknown women’s bus trip to Ruidoso. Flores places the bus stop pick-up on the next day’s hectic transportation schedule.
A client with a dog checks in. Recognizing the emotional support the dog provides the resident, advocates work quickly to secure provisions for the dog and set up a kennel in the courtyard.
Earnest takes the child from earlier in the morning and her mother to the emergency room because the child’s illness is worsening. She returns to the Nest once to pick up a client for an NA meeting in town and a second time for a client who needs to go to the BIA Hospital in Mescalero. Then, she’s back at the hospital comforting the women with the sick child.
Office Manager Sue Francis receives donations for Sweet Charity from community residents. Today, a local Church has sent blankets and slippers, a single woman drops off a giant box of pull up diapers and a women who saw our Facebook posting today drops off a case of conditioner.
Montoya departs for Sweet Charity, where she leads the Women Helping Women community support group for domestic violence survivors on Wednesday afternoons.
Flores works with a mother who will be moving out of the Nest in a week and into her own apartment – for the first time in her life. There is a refreshing sense of excitement in the air. Together they complete an application for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The two had just come from Sweet Charity where they were able to obtain a vacuum, a set of dishes, a loveseat and a blender for her new home.
At 3PM, older children start filing off the school bus and through the gates at the Nest. Mothers make the children snacks of milk and freshly baked oatmeal cookies dropped off by a local Church. The children settle at the massive dining room table and begin their homework.
Massage Therapist Jessica Sherman arrives to provide clients free massages. Today, there are eight women and children signed up, and she will stay as long as it takes to get them all in.
Moreno, who has unpacked the groceries, gathers the elementary school children in the art area to make windsocks. The specialized children’s program at the Nest uses art therapy to reach children traumatized as witnesses to domestic violence.
A frightened woman who does not speak English shows up in the Nest lobby and says she “just needs to talk.” Montoya brings the woman into the conference room to visit. The woman will not check in, but she leaves with more knowledgeable of her options and with a safety plan in mind for the time she believes it is safe enough to leave the abuser.
A new client is making dinner for the first time and hesitant to get started. Advocate Kathryn Walker takes the client to the food pantry to select a menu and then walks the client through the instructions to prepare a meal for 38.
The staff, clients and their children gather for a family meal of spaghetti, meatballs and salad. The conversation flows easily back and forth between residents of every background. In unison, they will clean up. Some of the mothers seize upon the warm weather and take their children out to the fenced courtyard to let off some energy before their bath, story and bedtime.
That evening, Ruidoso Downs Police Officer Carolee Sandoval arrives to teach Zumba to the residents. Soon, laughter will drown out the beat of Sandoval’s thumping music. Both the mothers and children enjoy exercising to the upbeat Zumba at the Nest. It is a welcomed respite.
By 11 p.m., most of the clients are asleep. All but one is in their bedrooms. That client sits on the living room sofa with Thompson, crying on her shoulder. As Thompson has assured every client before her, she says, “You got this, you can do this.”
For information about the Nest and all of the free and confidential services, call 378-6378 or visit their website at www.helpendabuseforlife.org.