A haven for abuse victims

She had to escape her abusive husband, but Jennifer Reynolds had little time to get everything done.

“I had only four hours to pick up my children and to get down to the courthouse,” Reynolds recalled. “It takes about an hour and a half to maybe two hours to fill out the request for the protection order.”

As she completed the paperwork, Reynolds kept nervously looking at her watch. She remembers thinking, “‘Oh, my God, I only have this much time left.'”

Fortunately for her, her mother was there to watch her two small children, and an advocate from the YWCA helped her fill out the forms and accompanied her to the courthouse, where she was granted the protection order.

“It was just perfect timing, thank God,” said Reynolds, who months before had started talking with people about fleeing the emotional and psychological abuse.

People trying to escape abusive relationships soon will have a little less to worry about when the Family Justice Center of the Midlands opens in the Grain Exchange Building at 19th and Harney Streets. The center, which has its ribbon-cutting March 30, will put law enforcement agencies and social service providers together on one floor.

The Domestic Violence Coordinating Council of Greater Omaha started planning for the center in 2006 after the council's executive director, Karen Hadley, visited one such center in San Diego.

“I started to see how people were really excited about it and how much more efficient and effective (the centers) are in terms of addressing the needs of victims up front, immediately, in one place,” Hadley said.

Organizers hoped to open the center by late 2009, but it took time to find the right location. The center had to be on a Metro Area Transit bus line; 20 minutes at most from the Douglas County Courthouse; near medical/emergency room services; east of 90th Street; and a safe and secure facility with 3,000 to 5,000 square feet of space and ample parking.

“We looked at so many different spaces,” Hadley said. “Over the last couple of years, I'd say probably somewhere between 30 and 40.”

The Grain Exchange Building, which is across the street from the courthouse, fit those requirements. Sealing the deal: The Omaha Police Department's domestic violence unit and the Douglas County victim assistance unit already were in the building.

Others at the center, besides the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, are the YWCA Omaha; Legal Aid of Nebraska; chaplains; representatives from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, the Nebraska Attorney General's Office and the Nebraska State Probation Office. Several other organizations are set to serve as off-site partners.

The coordinating council is funded through donations, foundation money, federal grants and city and county money. The annual budget had been about $600,000, but will increase to $700,000, allowing for additional staff and expanding into the downtown space. Many organizations helping with the center are donating their services, and Verizon Wireless provided $15,000 for the center, Hadley said.

In addition to connecting victims with the right people and services in one location, Hadley said, the goal of the center is to help people feel safe and comfortable. “It won't feel, necessarily, like an office building,” she said. There will be security features and offices, of course, but also a kitchen and a room for children.

Reynolds and other domestic abuse survivors on an advisory council were consulted on the center's features. One of their suggestions was to have volunteers available to watch children who come into the center with their parents.

Eight years after she filled out the protection-order application and went into hiding for three months, Reynolds is remarried and works for the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council.

“For me, that was the scariest day of my life,” she said. “With having everything right under one roof — if I would have had that — maybe it wouldn't have been so scary.”

Contact the writer:

444-1109, bob.glissmann@owh.com

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