A Woman’s Place has $1M of $7M left to raise for safehouse project

Fewer women (and men) coming to the new, larger safehouse at A Woman’s Place will have to be turned away once it opens in December.

The nonprofit expanded the shelter, the only one serving Weld County, from eight to 16 beds thanks to a $7 million capital campaign that includes funding for a community outreach center. 

“Now, we are $1 million away from our goal and have raised $6 million so far,” said Diane Heldt, executive director of A Woman’s Place in Greeley. “We are in the home stretch and so excited to open the new building in December.”

$5 million of the capital campaign is for the 11,600-square-foot safehouse, which will include enhanced security, a conference room, two children’s playrooms, a welcome area for intake paperwork, and communal living spaces of a kitchen and laundry facilities. The other $2 million is for a 6,000-square-foot outreach building that will offer 24-7 crisis advocacy, counseling, non-residential services and community prevention education. The two buildings will serve all of Weld County.

“Every dollar, every donation, brings us closer to moving into the new shelter and helping more people with safety, healing and hope,” Heldt said. “We’re reaching out to the community and letting them know about the need and … where we are at and what more we need to do.”

The safehouse is fully funded, while $1 million still needs to be raised for the community outreach center — the goal is to raise the money by the end of the year when both facilities are scheduled to open. The funding is coming from foundations, individual and corporate donations, and support from four Weld County towns and cities, those of Eaton, Evans, Dacono and Frederick. A lead gift of $1.25 million was donated by The Weld Trust in Greeley to begin the funding process.

“We hope to have it wrapped up by the end of the year,” Heldt said.

Funds also are being raised for a separate endowment fund that will support operations of the nonprofit’s services. Those funds are from donations, businesses, foundations and local governments.

Once opened, the safehouse will be at an undisclosed address in Greeley, and the outreach center will be at a public address, also in Greeley, announced at the time of its opening. Construction on both facilities began in March, and the campaign launched in 2023.

“The safehouse address will remain confidential, but the community outreach building will be a public address,” Heldt said. “The new outreach building will allow us to work with volunteers and donors in new ways.”

The new safehouse will be in a different location from the current facility, which opened in 1981 as a four-bed safehouse, expanding to eight beds in 2003.

“This project … is a long time in the coming, and it has been so great to see it come to actualization (as well as) all of the hard work and dedication so many people have put into this,” said Ginny Hogan, board member for A Woman’s Place. “It means that we know our community still supports us. It means that we can serve more clients. It means that we get to provide a safe place for people and their children.” 

A Woman’s Place was founded in 1978 by a group of concerned citizens in Weld County who had become aware of domestic violence in the community. A year earlier, they formed a battered women’s task force with three aims, to build a shelter, to open a crisis intervention line and to educate the community about domestic violence. Initial funding for the crisis line came from the City of Greeley, the local United Way and private donations.

Now, A Woman’s Place handles 1,100 crisis calls and 250 to 300 people stay in the shelter each year, receiving free and confidential services. The services are for adults 18 and older and their children under age 18. 

The nonprofit’s public outreach serves 5,000 people a year who attend the nonprofit’s safety training presentations on domestic violence, teen dating violence and healthy relationships, with the focus on breaking the cycle of violence in the community. In 2024, the nonprofit gave 194 community-education presentations at libraries, schools and community groups.

The nonprofit also distributes more than 5,000 flyers and awareness supplies each year, including stickers, stress balls, lip balms and safety whistles to share its crisis phone number.

“There are two critical reasons why we needed to build a new shelter — to increase the number of people we can serve and to increase accessibility,” Heldt said, adding that the entire safehouse and all 16 rooms are ADA accessible. “Right now, we only have one bedroom with accessibility.”

A Woman’s Place, which doesn’t have a waiting list due to safety reasons, aims to reduce the number of people that have to be turned away from receiving shelter due to space limitations at the original shelter. Since 2019, the nonprofit has had to turn away 40% of those seeking shelter, or more than 1,200 people, due to a lack of space, but the new space will be able to help twice as many clients. 

“Each year, we turned away 300 to 400 people because the shelter was not big enough,” Heldt said. “Weld County tripled in size since the 1970s, and the need for more support is great.”

At the same time, the number of clients served by the shelter significantly increased over the years. In 2006, A Woman’s Place served 105 people. Recently, violent-crime statistics have increased, too, resulting in an increase in requests for assistance, Heldt said.

In 2024, the number of calls to the crisis line rose by 29% — that year, there were 1,152 calls and 6,816 people served, with 281 receiving shelter. 

A Woman’s Place provides trauma-informed advocacy to address the needs of individual clients, supporting and empowering them through various resources to help them become safe, secure and healed, and achieve self-sufficiency. The nonprofit collaborates with hospitals, law-enforcement agencies, human service agencies, housing providers and others to increase access to information and support, helping members of the community identify and prevent domestic violence and find shelter if they become a victim of it.

“You just can’t fathom all of the different people who have worked on this project and put in time and effort and love and care,” said Katie Shilts, board chairwoman for A Woman’s Place. “We will be able to help many more people with this new space and new building. Talk about hope! And incredible possibility for the people who walk through these doors!”

Kelly Agnew, board vice-chairwoman for A Woman’s Place, agrees that the safehouse gives community members new hope.

“This project means a lot of hope for the community,” Agnew said. “It means that people who need support will have a place to go, and they will be safe and cared for. They will be able to make a plan for their next steps and their future.” 

The services at the new shelter will include case management, safety planning, housing assistance, employment support, legal advocacy and counseling. The crisis line, safehouse and crisis planning services are part of the nonprofit’s crisis support services, while the rest fall under its supportive services.

“Because we’re the only domestic-violence shelter in Weld County, our services are a lifeline for the community,” Heldt said. “We’re part of the lifeline for survivors after they’ve experienced abuse.”

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