ABOUT CHRISTINE WATSON:
Christine Watson is the Executive Director at SafeHouse Center. She has been working with survivors of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault for more than 18 years. She started her human services work in England upon her graduation with a master’s degree in English Literature but since 2004 has lived and worked in Washtenaw County, Michigan. Christine joined SafeHouse Center in 2006 serving first as a Legal Advocate before taking over as the supervisor for the Response Team and Legal Advocacy program.
In 2022, Christine stepped into the role as Executive Director where she continues to be a support to all staff and the survivors served by SafeHouse Center. As the Executive Director, Christine also acts as a liaison with our community and engages on a local and statewide level to promote awareness, education and policy change for the direct benefit of survivors. Christine also serves as a trainer for the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES) and is FETI certified. Born and raised in Denmark, Christine is bilingual and is passionate about uplifting and strengthening all voices.
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Decky Alexander: This is 89.1 WEMU, and welcome to our weekly conversation on equity and opportunity in our county and in our community. I'm your host, Decky Alexander, and I'm honored, still and always, to welcome you to this week's edition of Washtenaw United. SafeHouse Center in Washtenaw County, even for those who have not had direct utilization of its services, is a household and community-held name. Its mission is to empower survivors of sexual and intimate partner violence by providing advocacy, support services, such as 24-hour outlying, emergency shelter, legal advocacy, and they help survivors access safety, healing, and justice. And yet, as much as SafeHouse navigates all the complexities around sexual and intimate-partner violence, it cannot survive as a solo act and needs Washtenaw County as a system to solve housing, accountability, and cultural stigma together. Christine Watson, Executive Director, returns to Washtenaw United to share with us how we as a county and community can be more united in supporting SafeHouse, its mission, and all the people they serve. Welcome back, Christine, to Washtenaw United! Thanks for coming in 3D! I really appreciate it! It's my first in-person interview! And so now, I can pay attention to nonverbals, and I'm really excited about it!
Christine Watson: I appreciate being here, Decky! Thank you so much! And thank you for continuing this great conversation in our community, not just with me, but with everybody! We are very grateful!
Decky Alexander: And I know you've been here before and you've shared a lot about SafeHouse, but I'm not so sure if you shared your own story. So, to work in any nonprofit is a supreme act of love and selflessness, but to work and lead an organization dedicated to navigating people through some of the most traumatic moments of their life requires a really specific kind of resolve and character. So, Christine, what about your being and your background has allowed you and led you to this work and to SafeHouse?
Christine Watson: I appreciate that characterization. Thank you so much! I guess the first thing I would say it is actually a team effort. I sit here today because of the men, women, you name it, people whose shoulders I stand upon, and that could be people within my own family but, certainly, also the people that I've come into contact within Washtenaw County, as well as SafeHouse Center. It's a team effort, and every single day, I show up together with that team to do the that we can for survivors. But I have made it a career to work in social services. I'm very proud of that. I have always wanted to give back to the community, and this is one way that I can do it. But I do sit very gratefully in that team because that's what carries me through every day and also the people that I have had the great opportunity to provide services to. I carry their stories with me. I carry their gratitude. Sometimes, there's not so much gratitude, but I carry them with me every day, and that is what makes me get up every day to just keep doing more and keep doing better.
Decky Alexander: That's beautiful! Thank you! So, I know the people we know are no longer outside of us. That's often sort of an adage. And so, you carry them with you, and they kind of are your sort of motivation and inspiration as you move forward. So, getting a little to the sort of like where SafeHouse is, and if you step back, Christine, you look at our community. Right now, what do you see is the gap between what survivors need and what our broader county system actually provides?
Christine Watson: I think, unfortunately, it comes back to what we typically always talk about: resources. You know, running an agency such as SafeHouse, takes resources--logistical resources, emotional resources, physical resources. It takes people. It takes a wonderful community that is welcoming of us that understands the need for us, who stand with us and stand with survivors. And then, it takes money. It takes money, so that we can pay for the people who make sure that our doors are open. We have the money to also give back to the community members who come to us who are in need, and we try to do the best that we can with the resources that we have available to us. But I think that's where we continue to see the gap. We are celebrating our 50th year this year, which is incredible, but you can also look at it through the lens of it's kind of sad that we're still needed 50 years on. But then, it's also good that we are still here 50 years on. And that comes back to, again, that community support that we have continued to receive in all very many different ways. I couldn't sit here without that support.
Decky Alexander: You're listening to Washtenaw United on 89.1 WEMU. I'm Decky Alexander. And today, we are having a conversation with Christine Watson, Executive Director of SafeHouse Center on the community's role and responsibility in ensuring that those that leave the safety of SafeHouse can live here. So, speaking a little bit of the safety of SafeHouse, we just had mayoral elections, and we've heard a lot about affordable housing in Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County generally. And I think you pointed to the sort of resources and housing for those leaving SafeHouse is one of, if not the biggest operational barrier. So, what would it take? You talk about resources and your partners. What would it take for community partners, such as landlords or local government or helpers, to step up?
Christine Watson: I think that's continued investment into our community because I think you just said something very important. What is shelter? How do we define shelter? And what is the purpose of a shelter? The way that we look at it, it's supposed to be a temporary reprieve for somebody to find safety. But there has to be a next step following that. And for some people, shelter is not the best option. It's not necessarily what's going to keep them safe or keep them functioning in their own world. People have jobs. People have school. People have children. Uprooting everybody and putting them into a shelter life is not always the best solution. So, how can we also talk about keeping people safe in their own homes? How can we talk about, going back to housing, keeping housing affordable to the people who live in our community and who work in our community? And I think that's where the community can still step in and help us. We have great connections with landlords. We have connections with our local government. We work very closely with all of the housing service providers in the community. Again, it takes a team of people to make sure that people are taken care of, but the resources have to exist. So, if we're not building housing that is geared towards affordable, not necessarily even low-income, because how are we defining low-income today, we need to look at that. But it's, again, how do we prioritize housing for people in our community who live here, who work who go to school here, and then unfortunately also the people who are assaulted here and who may need to pivot slightly as they seek refuge or seek safety?
Decky Alexander: I wanted to ask you a question about women who are incarcerated, and Women's Huron Valley Corrections Facility is in our county and is the only women's prison in the state of Michigan. And I know that many women who were incarcerated are there as a result of responding to violence that they were the recipient of. And I often think, Christine, what could we as a community do, so that women would have to resort to violence to stop violence?
Christine Watson: At SafeHouse Center, we run a program at the facility. We run a support group for survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. And I think it's because we recognize that things happen, and people might find themselves in situations for whatever reason, but that shouldn't exclude them from receiving the emotional and the physical support that they might need to process the trauma that they have experienced. But I think also, to answer your question, I think, as a community, we need to stop and listen. We need to, again, look at where are the resources for people, preventatively, that can help them maybe not find themselves in a situation, such as incarceration or whatever it is, homelessness or in medical facilities. So, I think it is a big responsibility. I am proud that we sit in a community where we can exercise additional care and support for people who are incarcerated. I know there are many programs in this community within Washtenaw County that does. And I think, again, that goes back to--I know this is the theme--it's a team effort. But the community--we have to listen, and we have invest to make sure that people receive the adequate care and the proper support that they need, and that is what's going to, hopefully, reduce additional barriers and challenges down the road.
Decky Alexander: So, I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the interactions you might have happened in SafeHouse. Is there a particular interaction between an advocate and a resident, or even a moment in a support group that really captures the heartbeat of what SafeHouse does and maybe illuminates really what listening looks like?
Christine Watson: I've sat in a lot of different spaces, and the one thing that I think always speaks to me is, yes, being able to sit in silence and let somebody else tell you, A) What it is that they need, B) What is that has happened to them, and C) Where do they want to go with that? I am not the expert on everybody's situation. They are. So, how do I provide a space where they can be allowed just to be? And they also get to dictate what it is that they want to talk to me about because they know they can come to us without judgment and find safety, find healing, and find an opportunity just to sit in a space where somebody's going to listen to them and then offer them whatever it is that they're looking for. Is it suggestions? Is it a helpful tip on how to move forward? Is it a resource? But ultimately, it is also just somebody who's going to say, "I believe you. I know what happened to you was not OK. And let's just start right there." I still have people who check in with me 20 years later saying, "This is where I'm at." And that is so gratifying to see that there was light at the end of that tunnel. I am not the creator of that. They are. But they took me along for the ride, and I really appreciate that.
Decky Alexander: That was really inspiring! And thank you for taking me along this particular ride! It was an honor to hear about the scope and the breadth and the depth of SafeHouse. And I hope you'll come back and see us again!
Christine Watson: Always!
Decky Alexander: Thank you so much!
Christine Watson: Thank you!
Decky Alexander: This was Christine Watson, Executive Director of SafeHouse, a safe place where everyone deserves to live in safety, dignity, and respect. To learn more about the SafeHouse Center, Swing by our website at WEMU.org. Washtenaw United is produced in partnership with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan, and you can hear it here every Monday. I'm Decky Alexander, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU Ypsilanti.
WEMU has partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to explore the people, organizations, and institutions creating opportunity and equity in our area. And, as part of this ongoing series, you’ll also hear from the people benefiting and growing from the investments being made in the areas of our community where there are gaps in available services. It is a community voice. It is 'Washtenaw United.'
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