Missoula News

Children in Crisis

Watson Children’s Shelter Gets Needed Money

By Amy Linn, 6-09-09

Fran Albrecht, executive director of the Watson Children's Center in Missoula. Photo by Greta Rybus.

There’s good news this week for the Watson Children’s Shelter, a 16-bed emergency shelter in Missoula for abused and neglected children in Western Montana.
Montana Congressman Denny Rehberg announced today that he’s secured $500,000 for the shelter, which has suffered dwindling donations amid a crisis of need. (For more on the Watson’s Children Shelter and the rising tide of abuse and neglect cases in the state and nation, click here.) According to a press release from Rehberg’s office, the funds were included by the House Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee for Fiscal Year 2010.

In addition, KPAX’s Angela Marshall reports that the Missoula City Council and Mayor John Engen on Monday awarded the shelter $215,000 in grant money for construction of a critically-needed, second 16-bed children’s facility on Buckhouse Lane in Missoula. The funds “are included in the Community Development Block Grant and are restricted to the construction of the new facility,” KPAX says.

Here’s what the Rehberg announcement says:

“The Watson’s Children Shelter is Western Montana’s only emergency children’s shelter, serving nearly 100 children per year who escape from abuse, neglect, abandonment, family crisis, and other traumatic situations. The substantial population growth in Western Montana coupled with the subsequent increase in methamphetamine abuse, poverty, and related issues has significantly increased the need for children-oriented emergency shelter services. These funds will help in the construction of a second facility, beginning in the fall of 2009, to double capacity and provide shelter service for an estimated 150 children annually.”

The second facility, which has been in the planning stages for years, will help provide a safe haven for a growing number of needy children, says Watson Children’s Shelter Director Fran Albrecht. Requests for beds have recently doubled, from an average of two each week to about four each week, Albrecht says.

To learn more, or to hear from children at the Watson Children’s Shelter in their own words, go to Oneisntenough.
To make a donation, click here.

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