When the Rose Andom Center opened its doors to the public in late June, it marked the end of more than a decade of work to make the state’s first family justice center a reality.The center, located at 1330 Fox Street, will provide survivors of domestic violence a way to access services ranging from social services to help provide temporary housing and counseling to filing charges against their abuser as well as obtaining a protection order. Having those services under one roof is a substantial change from how most cities in the state and country have traditionally operated.

“The Rose Andom Center isn’t about recreating the wheel. It’s about facilitating easier access to those resources. It’s about making it easier for that person who’s already going through a lot of trauma and being overwhelmed in what’s happening in their lives. It shouldn’t be overwhelming to find resources to help,” said Margaret Abrams, the center’s executive director. “It really is a very simple idea. It’s a very simple idea to try and address a complex issue. Denver and the metro area are very fortunate to have great resources in place to address domestic violence issues.”

All under one roof

Abrams, who also is the program director for the Domestic Violence Early Intervention Team at the District Attorney’s office, said simply giving a survivor of domestic violence a sheet with 30 phone numbers for different groups that provide services can create a barrier to accessing those resources. And too often, survivors of domestic violence have to tell their stories to law enforcement and case workers in the clinical environment of a police station conference room or over a phone.The center changes that dynamic by creating a customer model where once that person walks in the door, the wide variety of services are brought to them in a setting that not only welcomes them, but provides them with a place to gain some peace and safety.

“The Rose Andom Center itself is really the framework for which those other agencies and resources can connect. It’s a singular place for victims to come and tap into as many resources as they might need,” Abrams said. “Whether it’s counseling or safety planning or wanting to talk to a representative from the district attorney’s office and city attorney’s office and police department. They’re here for those folks who want to utilize those resources. We also know there a lot of domestic violence victims who don’t want to report to the police. They can now access those resources without having to file a police report.”

In the area designated for survivors and their families, there’s a large playroom for younger children, a computer lab for older kids to do homework, quiet rooms that can afford someone a moment of peace after perhaps days of dealing with the aftermath of a violent attack. And a massive kitchen and lounge area where the center plans to host things such as potluck dinners for support groups and cooking and life skills classes.

Abrams said having access to a kitchen was something they heard constantly from survivors who were interviewed during the inception and design of the center.

“The big thing we heard a lot was they wanted to come to a place that felt like home,” she said. “There’s so much isolation when it comes to cases of domestic violence. The abuser isolates the victim from friends and family.”

Collaboration is key

The office areas of the center are meant to be inviting as well, for the clients and for the various staff from different organizations that will call the center home. Maggie Morrissey, the chair for the center’s board and wife of current District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, said the goal for organizing the center’s office space into neighborhoods of open cubicles and creating one shared break room was to encourage collaboration between every group stationed in the center.

“We really want to encourage that collaboration because that is how we will be able to get the best results,” Morrissey said. “The whole goal is to create collaboration to best serve the people who need help.”

Nancy Olson, executive director for Project Safeguard, which advocates for domestic violence survivors, said collaboration between groups like her’s and city services would be critical for the success of the center. That was one of the reasons why Project Safeguard decided to not only provide services at the center, but also move its main office into office space at the center.

“The Rose Andom Center and projects like that succeed or fail on the collaboration itself and building those relationships and working together,” Olson said. “The vision of the center really is that these services the individual entities provide will be better because of the closer collaboration with the other community partners. We’ll be able to learn from each other and find more creative ways for our services to mesh and build a stronger support system around survivors of domestic violence. We don’t know how it will look because it is something we will create together.”

The idea to create a central location that housed numerous services for survivors of domestic violence emerged from Denver’s Domestic Violence Triage Review Team. That group, formed in 2006 and included Abrams and groups such as Project Safeguard, met everyday and reviewed the day’s previous domestic violence calls made to Denver Police Department.

There was a buy-in to the idea of a one-stop shop for survivors from other law enforcement and nonprofits working in the field of domestic violence, along with politicians like Mayor Michael Hancock, then still on city council. The center is named for the first major donor, Rose Andom, who donated $1 million at the start of the project. The Denver Broncos have also ponied up substantial funding.

Hancock, whose sister was killed in a domestic violence incident, and Andom, who is a survivor of domestic violence, were vocal champions for the center, Morrissey said.

Yet despite the support, the center experienced several delays in being able to open its doors, mainly due to fundraising. The doors were originally scheduled to open in late 2014 and then again in the fall of 2015. But the center ran into unfortunate timing when it decided to break ground right at the start of a construction boom in the city in 2014.

While the team of contractors and subcontractors that worked on the center helped to keep the project from feeling the effects of increased costs, Abrams said it still cost more than intially estimated and the building, which originally was a Denver Public Schools building, faced issues like asbestos abatement that extended the construction time months.

“It always takes longer than you think it will,” Abrams said. “But also when we started this project, we only thought about doing one floor. But as we worked on the project, we’ve had those angel donors come in and we’ve been able to renovate two floors.”

The center is still short about an additional $750,000 in funding for its capital campaign along with finding ongoing funding for medical services on site that would be provided by Denver Health Medical Center, which will hopefully be grant funded. But Abrams and Morrissey said since the city will provide ongoing maintenance for the center and almost all the services will be proved by outside groups, the center is set to run on a tight budget.

“This is the result of wonderful group of diverse donors from across the area. We have a great partnership here,” Abrams said. “This is something Denver can be proud of.”