By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – The Personal Development Center/Orenda Center (PDC) marked their first full calendar year in the former Frederick Ozanam Transitional Shelter, with the closing of 2019.

PDC provides services for victims and survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault. But as a non-residential program, PDC had always been faced with the challenge of ensuring immediate and short-term shelter while legal and long-term housing options could be explored, and the former transitional shelter facility allows for enhanced and expanded programs and services, which includes safe temporary housing for victims.

“We’ve been around for over 42 years as a domestic violence center,” said PDC Director Renee Schulz. “For 40-ish years, we really worked in the capacity of a non-residential agency, so services that we provided were on more of an outreach basis. We did a lot more collaboration with community partners, working together for referrals, and connecting individuals where they were needed for support within the community – kind of co-advocacy – or working together to get individuals where they needed to.

Shelter staff work to provide a safe haven in a temporary setting, until victims are able to locate to a more permanent, safe setting. HCT staff photo.

“When it came to the safe shelter piece, those are things, again, that we worked within the community to provide that service, working with other area shelters or hotels to provide that immediate, short-term safety and then working more quickly with our community partners to get individuals reestablished safely in the community or wherever they wished to go.

“We were fortunate enough to just be able to add that shelter piece on and enhance the way we’ve already currently had been doing services, which has really been a wonderful opportunity for us.”

During 2019, the shelter provided 3,650 nights of shelter to victims and their children.

The shelter is used as a safe haven in a temporary setting, until victims are able to locate to a more permanent, safe setting.

“We look at ourselves as being an emergency short-term facility,” Schulz added. “In the best case scenario it would be within 30 days; but truly it is based on the individuals coming in – what needs they have and the barriers that they need to overcome in order to get transitioned out on their own.”

The shelter opened to the public in Sept. 24, 2018.

Sheltering Hearts event

PDC will host their signature fundraiser on Feb. 13.

“This is our 16^th annual Sheltering Hearts event,” Schulz said. “This is really our signature event for the agency. The money raised supports our services for victims – all our direct services for victims – including our residential services, as well as our non-residential services.”

The event features a family-style dinner, entertainment, and live and silent auctions.

“It’s a wonderful evening,” Schulz added. “It is a great time to get together with friends at the agency, individuals who are just wanting to get together to have a nice night, have great company for a good cause.”

The event will take place on Feb. 13, 5:30-9:30 p.m., at RiverEdge Golf Course, 10191 Mill Creek Dr, Marshfield.

For more information, call 715-384-2971.