BENTON – Gina Leeper, campaign chair for the Merryman House, along with Mary Foley, Executive Director and Crystal Reid, Board Chairman, presented to the Fiscal Court Tuesday, information and awareness on services the Merryman House Domestic Crisis Center has provided to our community for over 40 years.
The Merryman House serves the eight-county Purchase region of Western Kentucky and are more than just an emergency shelter, offering a 24-bed shelter located in Paducah for all eight counties to utilize and have four out-reach offices in Marshall County located in the courthouse, Calloway County, Graves County and McCracken County.
They provide a 24-hour crisis line, legal advocacy, work with law enforcement, economic justice, housing stabilization, case management, youth services, mental health services and much more.
The Merryman House, who serve approximately 750 people each year, has been given the opportunity to purchase 26 acres of property in Paducah which will allow them to have a 36-bed shelter, an administrative building with a commercial kitchen, an outreach building plus four non-profits to be housed there. A comprehensive care service out of Prestonburg will bring an in-patient residential substance abuse treatment facility to be housed there as well. According to Foley, 93% of people in substance abuse treatment have an interpersonal violent history.
A community mental health center will also be housed at the new facility with out-patient care. This will be a state model on how to respond to these issue that affect residents of our community.
The Merryman House will close on this property on September 26th and are in the middle of a 3.7 million dollar capital campaign for the project. The property is the former location of the McCracken County Board of Education.
There are 24 staff members that cover the eight counties with nine of those full-time and all services are free of charge.
Founded in 1978, the Merryman House works around the clock, answering phones and opening their doors to those that need shelter in the face of trauma and danger. They are “committed to Saving, Building and Changing the lives of those affected by domestic violence.”
For more information on the Merryman House visit http://merrymanhouse.org/