After half a dozen years of mostly fruitless effort, Faye Purdy is finally starting to see some progress in her effort to open a shelter for victims of domestic violence in Davis County.
Purdy, Kaysville, is chairwoman of the Davis Citizens Coalition Against Violence organized several years ago to confront the issue of domestic violence among Davis families."I was a junior high school teacher for 22 years and, along with several other teachers, began to see that we had a lot of students who were victims of violence or abuse. It was sexual abuse, physical violence, sometimes even incest, but we could see there was a problem," said Purdy.
"We tried to report it, through the school nurse, but found there wasn't much in the way of resources," she said.
There is no domestic violence shelter in the county to house battered women - or men, which is sometimes the case. Victims can go to the YCC shelter in Ogden or the YWCA shelter in Salt Lake City, if they have room. These alternatives, Purdy says, are not viable.
"Most of the victims have nothing. They have no car, no money, no transportation, no way to escape their situation. They're dependent," she said.
Interest in domestic violence has sharpened in recent years, and Purdy is finding allies in what used to be a solitary battle. With allies comes more influence and funding.
"We spent six years looking for a building we could use as a shelter or even an office. We asked the cities individually, we asked the Council of Governments, we asked the county for help.
"We got some donations from the smaller cities, even as they were cutting back their budgets because they recognized the problem. The bigger cities refused to confront it," Purdy said.
About a year ago, things began to change.
"More people came on board, got interested in the issue. We received a $144,000 CDBG grant and $250,000 from the Legislature to help in finding a site and drawing up a proposal for a facility. And we're coming back again this fall to ask for another CDBG grant," Purdy said.
The group is holding a golf tournament in September and concert in October as fund-raisers.
Her group is looking for a 4- to 5-acre site that will house a shelter, children's justice center, offices, counseling facility and shelter for runaway ju-ve-niles.
"We would like to locate here, the justice complex in west Farmington, because it would be convenient, but they don't want us out there," Purdy said. "But we'll see."
As for Purdy, she plans to back off the project once it is up and running and a full-time director is on board.
"It's been a long struggle, with a lot of frustrations. Once it's up and going, I plan to retire - fully retire this time," she said.