LOCAL

Nonprofit buys home to help more victims of domestic violence

Madeleine List
mlist@capecodonline.com
The Cape Cod Center for Women has purchased a home that will be used as a shelter for more victims of domestic violence. Diane Pratt, executive director of the center, says the new shelter will have 10 rooms, replacing its current four-bedroom shelter. Steve Haines/Cape Cod Times

The Cape Cod Center for Women closed a deal on a house Friday that will replace its four-bedroom domestic violence shelter.

The new, 10-bedroom shelter on the Upper Cape will be able to house more survivors of domestic violence and their families, and the center plans to reserve a few rooms solely for Cape and Islands residents, said Diane Pratt, executive director of the Cape Cod Center for Women, a domestic violence shelter in Barnstable County.

Because of a lack of beds, the center has had to turn away between 45 and 60 families per month who come seeking shelter, she said. A larger shelter will cut down on that number, she said.

“Any addition to services is always a bonus,” said Carmen Espinoza, domestic violence advocate for the Falmouth Police Department.

Espinoza reaches out to victims of domestic violence after a police response and helps them connect with services. When she calls, there’s rarely space available at the local shelter, or any shelter in the state for that matter, she said.

The total cost for the new house is about $1.2 million, which includes the cost of furnishing, renovations and hiring two to three extra staff members, Pratt said. The demand for services is always high and finding the funding is an endeavor, she said.

The center receives about 27 percent of its funding, about $150 per day, from the state Department of Children and Families, Pratt said. It costs $455 per day to house one mother and two children at the shelter, she said.

“Already we’re in the hole $305 per day,” Pratt said.

To reach the center's $1 million annual budget, she has to raise $700,000-$750,000 through grants, fundraisers and donations, she said.

Having the support of an agency like the nonprofit Cape Cod Center for Women may have saved the life of Giulietta Lee’s mother, who was killed by her husband in 1991, Lee said.

When Lee was 2 years old, her father, Edmund Federici, brutally murdered her mother, Bernadette Sciacca, in front of her, stabbing her and bludgeoning her in the head numerous times, Lee said. Federici was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Lee, now a 26-year-old cosmetologist, was raised by her aunt and uncle who told her about the abusive marriage her mother endured before her death.

Lee’s aunt — Sciacca’s sister — told Lee that Federici was a sweet-talker and treated Sciacca well at first. But as their relationship wore on, the verbal abuse began, Lee said. Then he started to seclude Sciacca from her family and friends, refused to let her leave the house and forced her to quit her job, Lee said.

When the physical abuse started, it escalated quickly, Lee said. Her mother would get black eyes and would sometimes end up at the hospital, she said.

“But she would not press charges. She would not do anything. She was so scared,” said Lee, who now speaks at annual events hosted by the Cape Cod Center for Women. “She was just beat down. She was a prisoner in her own home.”

If she’d had the support of a professional agency, or the promise of a safe space at a shelter, she might have left her husband in time, Lee said.

“I feel like definitely if there was a shelter she had contact with, maybe it would’ve been prevented,” she said.

Leaving an abuser can be extremely difficult for a victim of domestic abuse, Espinoza said. Many victims depend on the financial support of their abuser, or they don’t want to pull their children out of their homes or schools, she said.

“It can take up to eight or 10 times before a victim will be able to get out and stay out,” she said. “Sometimes they’ll leave and go back.”

It’s also the time when a survivor is in the most danger of retaliation from their abuser, Pratt said.

“When they’re getting ready to make the break is when they’re at the most risk for lethality,” she said.

A shelter can offer these survivors not only the protection they need to keep them safe, but also the mental health and support services they need to get back on their feet, she said.

“The first few days are critical,” she said. “They’re scared, they’re traumatized.”

When no shelter space is available, Espinoza advises victims to stay with family or friends, but some don’t have anyone to call, she said. Other victims choose to stay at a hotel, but that can be expensive and dangerous as hotels aren’t prepared to deal with a potentially violent abuser tracking down one of their guests, she said.

As a last resort, some survivors turn to homeless shelters, but “many times they go back to their batterer because it’s what they know,” Pratt said.

Now that the Cape Cod Center for Women has a larger shelter, Espinoza said when she calls looking for a bed for a victim, maybe she’ll hear, "'Yes, we have a bed' instead of a 'No, we’re full.'"

— Follow Madeline List on Twitter: @madeleine_list.

Cape Cod Center for Women

Phone: 774-763-2222

Emergency line: 508-564-SAFE (7233)

Online: www.capecodshelter.org

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