MIDLAND Even with the temperatures falling to the 40s along with a drizzle, a decent-sized crowd braved the conditions for the Safe Place of the Permian Basin’s groundbreaking ceremony for its new facility Wednesday morning in Midland.
Located at 4629 Andrews Highway, the anticipated opening of the new Safe Place of the Permian Basin facility is scheduled for late summer 2023.
The new site will cover 9.84 acres with the facility square footage being 40,000 square feet.
The project has been going on for about 10 years and Executive Director of Safe Place of the Permian Basin, Carole Wayland was very happy to finally see the groundbreaking and construction get started.
“It’s such a landmark day, not only for Safe Place but for the whole community so we’re celebrating and ecstatic to be moving forward,” Wayland said. “This day has been a long time coming.”
In its 43rd year of operation, Safe Place of the Permian Basin provides help and shelter to victims of domestic violence in the Permian Basin.
In 1980, the agency was designated as a nonprofit organization in order to raise funds for a small shelter.
In 1987, a larger facility was built, which is the current shelter and counseling offices.
Now, Safe Place provides comprehensive recovery services for victims of family violence living in 15 counties (16,000 square miles) within the Permian Basin.
Services include a 24 hour emergency shelter, hotline, counseling with licensed professional counselors, legal and personal advocacy, children’s programming, information and referral, support groups, transportation and community awareness and education.
All of those services are offered to victims of family violence at no charge to the client.
However, over the years, the current Safe Place facility has become woefully inadequate to serve domestic violence victims and their children, officials said.
The current shelter provides only 15 rooms with shared restroom facilities, all of which pose accessibility issues.
During the ceremony, Midland Mayor Patrick Payton read the proclamation, declaring Nov. 3, as Safe Place Groundbreaking Day.
President of Safe Place of the Permian Basin, Anthony Folger talked about the organization’s mission.
“The mission of Safe Place is to break the cycle of violence by empowering individuals to make safe and healthy choices, raise awareness, advocacy, counsel and shelter by promoting hope, healing and dignity,” Folger said. “This new facility will double our capacity in the Permian Basin by creating a safer and better place for all of us to live.”
Board Campaign Chair of Safe Place of the Permian Basin Chad Cooksey spoke during the ceremony.
“I want to extend my gratitude to the many individuals and corporations and families who gave to Safe Place for making this day possible,” Cooksey said.
Volunteer Campaign Chair Cliffy Beal also spoke before the groundbreaking.
“I was honored to be on the board for six years and see the incredible work they do to improve lives and make midland a safe place,” Beal said. “Personally, I have three courageous friends who have escaped domestic violence and they all said they couldn’t do it on their own. Safe Place is that help. … They’re given the critical counseling, instruction and help they need to form healthy relationships, secure jobs and make their own homes a safe place. What a dream. The Safe Place program allows these women to see their god-given value and strength because they are strong women.”
Towards the end of the ceremony, Wayland shared a story about a person who stayed in the Safe Place Shelter years ago.
“We heard from a lady who stayed in our original shelter and that was an old ranch house that the only security there was a latch on the door but she was there as a young person with her daughter,” Wayland said. “She had lots of struggles and lots of challenges that she had to overcome. But she wrote to us that she had overcome all of that and was now an advocate of domestic violence in Maryland and that we planted the seeds of hope that gave her the strength to be able to surpass that and I think that’s what we’re doing today. We’re planting seeds at this new location, hoping to turn this over to the next generation and the next legacy of people that will fight this fight and rid our city and state of domestic violence and make it available to everyone and continue to support everyone and support and nurture and bring hope.”
