Interview by Julia Morrison | Photo by Matt Odom
How many of us can say we are truly breaking new ground? If you’re Sarah Schanck, that’s true in more ways than one. She’s the director of One Safe Place, the planned family justice center in Macon with Crisis Line and Safe House of Central Georgia. Her role is organizing the development and opening of the center, which is one of the first three in the state of Georgia. This is a gamechanger for bringing victims to a place of safety, stability, and strength: “We are bringing all of the resources and services that serve victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, human trafficking, and elder independent adult abuse all under one roof, with centralized intake and navigation to eliminate barriers. This makes it easier for those who’ve experienced trauma and victimization in our community to get the help that they need,” she said. This daunting and critical effort is also bringing the old Virgil Powers school building back to life, a historic structure on Hawthorne Street where the outlines of the old blackboard are still visible. Between the construction and fundraising efforts, Schanck spoke to MM during a hard hat tour.
For someone who is not in the know or maybe doesn’t understand what it’s like to receive victim services, why does it help to get everything in one place? What does that do, and why is that different than services we have now?
We have really great services already in Macon, but everything is really decentralized, so it takes a lot of effort on the part of the person seeking help to figure out how to enter that system of care. They need to know how to get help, where to go first, where to go next. It can take a lot of time if transportation or childcare are issues.
That’s a major barrier, too, and we’re asking where to move on it, and making sure we’re downtown in a connected place. We’re asking our community members who have already experienced a lot of trauma to navigate all these complex systems in that traumatic state, which can be really, really rough. Even that barrier for people getting help can get get someone frustrated, or so overwhelmed that they go back to whatever the unsafe situation is.
Bringing it all under one roof means you just have to walk through one door, and you’ve got support in navigating that complex system. Most of the services that you need or want are all in one spot. It could be a place that you continue to come back to, whether you’re in crisis or whatever it takes for what that sustainable future looks like for you. We are supporting our community members when they’re feeling vulnerable.
What is a hero to you?
To me, a hero would be somebody who sees a need, and if they have a power or the ability to make a difference on that need, who takes the action to do that. I think if you have that ability and you have that drive, then it’s easy to say, “Yes, I’ll help my community. I’ll help the people around me.” I think heroes can be anybody who does that in small or large ways.
Why is what you’re doing with one Safe Place particularly important for women? Of course, I know people of all gender identities benefit from these services. But why is this facility an important goal for women and children?
Like you said, people from all gender identities experience intimate partner violence. However, the majority of victims are women and families, which also often have women as the head of household. It’s really important that we’re developing these supports because I really believe if you have strong individuals, strong families, then that creates strong neighborhoods and strong communities. In the instance of violence and victimization, a lot of times it really comes down to supporting women and making sure that they’re safe and they’re equipped to handle the day-to-day in a way that lets them have the highest potential for their own wellbeing – and therefore, the wellbeing of their family and community.
Are there any women who have influenced your work in Central Georgia?
If you walk into any of our meetings, while you don’t see all women, you see mostly women. It’s powerful to have that energy in the room. The one that immediately comes to mind would be the woman who offered me my first job that kept me in Macon when I graduated from Mercer. And that’s Kathryn Dennis, the president of the Community Foundation of Central Georgia. She saw something in me when I was 21 years old, and that’s why I stayed in Macon, to work at the Community Foundation. That really charted a path for me to love this community.
In this work, I really think Dee Sims, who is the past executive director of Crisis Line and Safe House, was really the catalyst to get this project going. She’s who hired me, and I’ve never seen somebody so passionate about this work as Dee.
I remember my mom growing up, and we always knew about her work and we were always aware of her work. My mom was very much a power suit, power heels kind of woman. I remember trying on her pumps and hearing them click clack on the floor and wanting to do that when I grow up. Now being a mother, having two kids – Audrey is 12 and Connor is 8 – they’re everything to me and they’ve always known what I do for work. They’ve always been involved in my work.
When I worked at Wesleyan, Connor was in a baby carrier strapped on my chest at orientation. During the photo shoot for this article, Audrey’s in the background holding my glasses and my hard hat and making funny faces. They’ve always been aware of what I do because I think my work doesn’t end at my personal life and my personal life doesn’t end at work. It’s a blend. I want them to be proud of what I work hard for in our community. I want them to be inspired to work hard in their world. I hope I can show them that by having them involved in everything that’s so great about Macon.
We love to ask you about overcoming challenges and resilience. Is there a moment for you in your career that you’ve gotten through a major bump in the road?
Back when the recession hit in about 2009, I worked for a nonprofit where I was primarily a fundraiser. Being a fundraiser in the recession was not a great place to be, so we knew that there was probably going to be some downsizing. There’s just a lot of stress about what that looked like, trying to raise money in rural communities that were really hard hit. I took a chance at a one year consulting contract at an industry I wasn’t in. It was moving from nonprofits to higher education. In retrospect it probably was not the best idea, but seemed like an opportunity to try something new. It was scary and I had a lot to learn, but it ended up being just a fantastic move and it was a challenge to make an industry shift in that sort of economy. I was in higher ed for a decade before I came back into smaller nonprofits. I really sharpened my skillset that when I came back into nonprofits four years ago. I was much better equipped to take on a massive initiative like this.
How can our readers support One Safe Place?
We’re in the midst of a capital campaign to renovate this incredible historic building. It’s a hundred years old. It was one of the original Bibb County public schools. We just have such a cool opportunity not just to open this type of center, but to really revitalize this building and this southern part of downtown. Being part of our capital campaign, you can make small gifts, we’ve got naming opportunities, but then we also have our Giving Circle, which is a hundred dollars recurring monthly gift for a year. To do that is to be part of the collective action of making this a reality and serving our neighbors in this community.