Safenet gets settled in new building

Yahoo

3 days ago

Safenet Services, the local domestic violence nonprofit displaced by flooding last month, began moving into its temporary new home Tuesday.
Executive Director Jody Moore got the keys Tuesday to 417 W. First St., formerly the Higgins law office, and showed her leadership team around Wednesday morning.
Rogers County owns the building and expects to move the planning commission there as part of its courthouse remodel project. The commissioners leased the Higgins building to Safenet at their June 16 meeting for $1,000 a month.
Moore said Safenet expects to spend about six months in the temporary building. She said the nonprofit hopes to have its First Street outpost in operation next week.
"We'll offer all the things that we offered at our admin offices," Moore said. "We'll offer counseling services, groups, supervised visitation and our batterers' intervention program, case management ... the hope is that we can find some alternative placement for our shelter guests."
Meanwhile, the agency is working through contractors and insurance to restore its Dupont Street offices. On June 6, sewage backed up and flooded about 90% of the building. Safenet staff and shelter guests had to evacuate.
Moore said the shelter guests are all safe under the care of partner agencies. She said the goal is to find a place in Claremore to temporarily house some of Safenet's short-term, highest-risk cases.
"How I explained it to my shelter staff is we have to be out of a crisis before we can start taking on the major crisis of finding housing for somebody," Moore said.
Safenet maintains another office in Pryor at 118 N. Adair St., Moore said. People who want to reach Safenet in-person can visit with the organization's court advocates and other staff at its office on the second floor of the Rogers County Courthouse, 200 S. Lynn Riggs Blvd.
People can also dial the crisis line at 918-341-9400 or reach Safenet's web chat system at www.safenetservices.org/livechat/.
Moore said Safenet expects to spend six figures or more moving into the Higgins office, working with insurance, fixing the Dupont Street offices and paying the rent on the new place.
"The damages are super-extensive," Moore said. "It could be a million dollars, you know, but we don't know that. ... Right now, we don't have a solid answer to what it's going to cost, or who's paying for it."
The nonprofit also continues to reckon with receiving less federal funding than in years past. Last year, Moore said, the agency lost about 40% of the money it receives from the federal Victims of Crime Act, which taps court costs paid by people and companies convicted of federal crimes.
Safenet's fear of losing that money spurred Moore and five others tied to the agency to raise funds last August by summiting Colorado's Mt. Elbert. At just above 14,400 feet — as approximated by a sticker on Moore's water bottle — it is the tallest of the 50 or so fourteeners in the Centennial State.
She said that last year, the hikers raised about $24,000. People could sponsor individual hikers and may do so again this year at givebutter.com/2025SafenetSummit.
"100% of people's donations go straight back to Safenet because everybody who is going, they're responsible for their own transportation, their own lodging, their own food, things like that," Moore said. "All of the donations go directly back to us."
Moore said she will leave Rogers County Aug. 1 for Leadville, the base camp town. She said the elevation and resulting lack of oxygen punished her last year, and she wants to prepare better this year by spending a few days above 10,000 feet in the country's highest incorporated city.
The hikers will begin their 4,500-foot climb Aug. 6. That same day, Safenet staff will gather at 8 a.m. at the Claremore Mountain Bike Trail, 15012 E. 470 Road, to symbolically trek alongside them.
"If they can't do the climb, they still have an opportunity to come and support us and cheer us on," Moore said.