The Beaman Home’s Executive Director Tracie Hodson has notified the Kosciusko County Community Foundation that the matching grant offered to the Beaman Home in May has been met. The Community Foundation’s $50,000 challenge grant matched cash donations to Beaman Home’s Capital Campaign for a new Emergency Shelter and Outreach Center received from May 16 to July 31, 2013.

“We are extremely grateful to the Kosciusko County Community Foundation for their continuing support of our programs and services,” said Hodson. “Their challenge grant provided tremendous leadership in our effort to build a new facility to better serve our community’s domestic violence victims and their children. We’re especially thankful for the more than 60 local community members and businesses who stepped up and helped us meet this challenge.”

The campaign for a new Beaman Home is seeking $1.8 million to renovate and add a two-story addition to property purchased by the Beaman Home Board last August. Located on Parker Street in Warsaw, the new facility will replace the current three bedroom, 13-bed emergency shelter with a 10 bedroom, 40-bed shelter. It will also allow for an adjacent outreach center with multiple living rooms, appropriate meeting and training facilities, a teaching kitchen, adequate staff space and a children’s activity area.

The Beaman Home has simply outgrown its current shelter, an 1,800 square-foot single-family dwelling donated to them 28 years ago. “That home has operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week since July 1, 1985, when we opened the doors to a domestic violence victim waiting on the porch. And the unfortunate truth is that it has not been empty since and is often completely full,” explained campaign co-chairman, Sue Creighton. “Adding to the stress of these women and their children is the fact that we often have to squeeze more than one family in each of our existing three small bedrooms.”

In addition to eliminating resident and staff overcrowding, the new facility will allow Beaman Home’s trained staff and volunteers to more effectively provide confidential services and educational opportunities to victims of family violence in a safe, comfortable facility with space specifically designed for these purposes.

“We believe it’s important for the community to recognize that Beaman Home has never before asked for capital funding. We’re extremely grateful to our generous community members for their operational assistance and in-kind donations over the past 28 years,” added Hodson. “We are very proud that we have already received almost $1.2 million toward our $1.8 million goal. It’s because of the benevolence of our community, people and organizations like the Kosciusko County Community Foundation, that we are able to hope to break ground by mid-2014.”

Campaigning for the new Beaman Home Emergency Shelter and Outreach Center will resume in November following the 2013 United Way Campaign. A special open house for donors and the public will take place on the evening of Tuesday, Nov. 5, at the site of the new facility.

Those interested in making a gift, or organizing a fundraising event/activity to help Beaman Home build a new emergency shelter and outreach center, should contact Hodson by calling 574-372-3503 or by emailing [email protected].