Highlighting Shelters Series: Slyvia’s Place in Allegan, MI

Shelter: Slyvia’s Place in Allegan, MI

I mentioned in my blog: Highlighting Shelters Series: Reasons, that I chose websites that had quick exits. Most of the pages I have looked at exit you to a search engine, and usually to Google but this one had a great exit to Weather.com. I loved how unique that was and how innocent it is. Google could be a bad exit because your abuser may not like you to search but it seems unlikely that your abuser would not let you check the weather. I thought this was really ingenious.

Other things I appreciated about this site:

  1. They have a page devoted to how to leave your abuser. It literally tells someone how to prepare to leave and all the things that are necessary to get out. It literally gets a victim out of the house. They have tips to prepare that include telling someone. It is incredible how helpful and knowledgeable this site is. Imagine how helpful and knowledgeable their shelter is. 🙂
  2. On every page, towards the bottom is a success story. They are showing each person that visits that they have success stories and that people have been helped through them. They tell the story of how the person got out and the help they received to stay out. How awesome is that? They are not bragging about what they can do but instead are showing you that they have done it before and they can do it again. Yes!!!
  3. They have a mission to provide safe haven for those who are seeking shelter and to help keep them safe. They are concerned about Domestic Violence escalating to death and are willing to help to make sure that doesn’t happen. An awesome mission and a great effort to make sure it doesn’t happen.

I was really impressed with this site and this group so be sure to check them out: Sylvia’s Place.


Highlighting Shelters Series: Reasons

Reasons for why I chose certain shelters and websites to highlight: relevance, easy escape pages, and explanations of how to guard your computer and hide activity. 

Why is it important for a Website to look relevant when it is dealing with abuse victims and survivors? Well, let’s think about this, if a website looks outdated then it looks like it’s not kept up. If a shelter does not take time to keep up their website how relevant will they be when I call them? How relevant will they be when I need to trust them? If a business wants to attract people then it has a relevant and up-to-date website, the same should be said for shelters. The websites I have chosen are easily accessible and care about the world around them and are relevant in an ever changing world. 

Easy access and easy escape is important because victims need an easy way out just in case. If their abuser comes in the room they need a quick way to leave a page. This is also why it is important to explain how to guard your computer and hide your activity. These pages obviously want their visitors to be victims and to be people that need their help. If their pages are not made for victims then what kind of work their shelter actually do?  

These are some websites and shelters that I haven’t chose because their websites are outdated and not regularly updated. I do not have any affiliation with these shelters or websites (those that I have chosen to highlight and those I have chose not to), I am simply exploring each site and letting you know what I find of value there. But you should of course visit these pages yourself and if the shelters are in your area you should take the time to visit them and to make informed decisions about them.