United Way of Bemidji Area hosted their first quarterly meeting of 2019 and have decided to give their support to a local non-profit.

Women United hosted their first breakfast series of 2019 and announced their support for a local non-profit organization.

The Northwoods Battered Women’s Shelter has been in its current facility since 1979. Denae Alamano, the executive director of United Way in Bemidji Area, said that they are aware of the women’s shelter’s needs for an expansion and for a new facility.

“We really are just trying to help them raise seed money for their capital campaign for matching grant funds or hiring a planner and really help them launch into a great campaign,” said Alamano.

During the meeting Andrea Kingbird, the executive director of Northwoods Battered Women’s Shelter, showed a Powerpoint of the current living conditions of the facility.

“It’s very communal living and it’s only four bedrooms,” Kingbird said. “What we’d like to see is something that’s going to be more accommodating, more comfortable, more healing for people that are coming to our shelter.” She also said that the house only holds 12 beds and that they have two cots that are used for temporarily short-term stays.

The mission for Northwoods Battered Women’s Shelter is to provide crisis shelter to those who seek help. Currently, they are in phase 1 of their campaign. Kingbird said this step includes coming up with a design concept for what their facility would look like.

The budget for phase 1 is $30,000, and so far they have raised 30% of the money needed to hire an architectural firm to act as a consultant, so they know what to expect and how to budget when they build the new facility. The Northwoods Battered Women’s Shelter will focus on their capital campaign for the next three to four years, and their goal, Kingbird said, is to have the new facility opened by 2022.

Women United is a global group through United Way where women can come together and volunteer on issues that matter to them and try and make a difference in their community. Next year Women United will seek another service project to support.

“We are extremely appreciative of this support. I don’t know how we would actually make this come possible without community support because we can’t do this alone as a small agency,” Kingbird said.

By — Malaak Khattab

News Reporter