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PHOTO: Safe Voices’ new domestic abuse emergency shelter in Franklin County will be pet friendly, thanks in part to a $20,000 grant from RedRover. (Grace Kendall/Safe Voices photo)
LEWISTON — Safe Voices has received a $20,000 Safe Housing grant from national animal welfare nonprofit RedRover to ensure the agency’s newest domestic abuse emergency shelter will be pet-friendly.
The new shelter, which will begin accepting residents in early 2023, is in Farmington. It is the only domestic abuse shelter in the Farmginton area, and having it equipped to welcome pets makes it much more accessible to survivors, Safe Voices officials said.
“Safe Voices knows the power of animals to help people heal, and it’s so important to us to ensure that survivors entering our shelter are able to do so with the pet they know, love, and will bring them comfort,” said Safe Voices Director of Shelter & Housing Noelle Coyne. “These animals have often been subject to the abuser’s mistreatment, so having a pet friendly shelter is not just good for survivors – it’s also safest for pets – and we’re so grateful to work with RedRover, because they understand all of that.”
Pets and Domestic Violence:
• As many as 71% of pet-owning women entering domestic abuse shelters report their abuser injured, killed, or threatened family pets.
• Up to 48% of domestic abuse victims reported delaying leaving their abusers for fear of what would happen if they had to leave their pets behind.
• Only 15% of domestic abuse shelters nationwide can house pets.
Safe Voices’ Androscoggin County shelter became the first pet-friendly domestic abuse shelter in Maine in 2019, thanks in part to another RedRover grant. With the newest $20,000 grant, Safe Voices’ new location in Franklin County will create four pet-friendly rooms equipped with special pet furnishings, which will have direct access to an outdoor fenced area for playtime and pet relief. The shelter will be able to shelter cats, dogs, fish, small mammals, and “pocket pets” (hamsters, mice, and rats).
Since its inception in 2012, RedRover has awarded more than $3 million in Safe Housing grants across the country.
Safe Voices is a domestic abuse and sex trafficking resource center serving survivors in Androscoggin, Franklin, and Oxford counties. Last year, the agency worked with more than 2,000 unique survivors to help them safety plan, access shelter, work with legal and civil advocates, and work through emergent crises as well as the ongoing, long-term effects of domestic abuse and sex trafficking. The agency has been doing this work in Maine since 1977.
